The 1950s saw American automakers especially, keen to move on to a brave new future in the aftermath of the Second World War, produce some fantastical concept cars.
That included Chrysler, which created the 1954 Plymouth Belmont dream car you see here.
With a fiberglass body on a standard Plymouth chassis, the Belmont could have been Chrysler’s rival to the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird – if only it had been approved for production.
Unfortunately it wasn’t, leaving this concept as the only example ever made. And while some of the others of its era were destroyed, this one was saved. In fact Virgil Exner – (Chrysler’s Vice President of Design) rescued it personally and took it home with him.
Now 60 years later, it’s been immaculately restored and is coming up for auction – complete with its original 4.0-liter V8 engine producing all of 157 horsepower and three-speed automatic transmission. (Again, this was 60 years ago.)
It’s one of the thousand-plus vehicles that Barrett-Jackson has consigned for its Scottsdale auction next month, where it’s sure to make one collector – just one – very happy indeed.
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