The November 1940 issue of Popular Mechanics included a major article — replete with color photos! — about the just-introduced 1941 car models. However, Detroit’s latest wares were overshadowed by a cover story about the “automobiles of tomorrow.”
Designer George Walker wrote about a fantastical future where engines were placed in the rear of the car, a swoopy body was made of plastic, and seating arrangements could be reconfigured for eating or sleeping.
Indie Auto respects copyright — click here to see the Popular Mechanics article
“Entirely practicable, such a car could be built now — and introduced along with the new 1941 motoring creations — except for one thing and that is a part of the psychology of the car buyer, himself.” Walker suggested that although consumers were “greatly intrigued by sweeping innovations and radical departures in motorcar designs,” they also did not accept “great changes rapidly” (1940, p. 120A).
Walker argued that putting the engine in the rear “will take up far less space.” That change, in combination with eliminating running boards, would result in a much roomier “home on wheels.” New seating arrangements would be possible, such as a “fixed driver’s seat and a movable divan and easy chair.” A portable table could also be set up and there would be “plenty of convenient storage places, even little refrigerated cupboards for food and drink” (1940, p. 120A).
Wouldn’t it be fun to drive inside of a glass bubble?
Walker’s car of the future sounds vaguely like the camper vans first offered in the 1960s. However, one big difference is that Walker envisioned a car made of plastic that had a sleek, rounded shape. Synthetic glass would allow “airplane-style windshields” and curved windows would be “well-nigh unbreakable” and “will not fog or freeze or collect condensation” (1940, p. 120A).
Despite the large expanses of glass, the car’s driver could maintain “whatever type of automatic ‘weather’ he desires, winter or summer, simply by setting a handy control dial” that cleans, dehumidifies, cools and circulates “a constant supply of new air” (1940, p. 120A).
Also see ‘1953 Popular Mechanics: Will U.S. cars get any smaller or bigger?’
I give Walker credit for thinking outside the box — and focusing on design ideas that made cars more versatile. However, he didn’t do a very good job of predicting the future. More than 80 years later, the most popular vehicles in the U.S. market still have front engines, steel bodies, relatively boxy shapes, windows that open, and relatively few ways to reconfigure seating positions.
Even so, I would imagine that the exotic car-design ideas described by Walker helped to sell magazines.
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RE:SOURCES
- Walker, George; 1940. “Automobiles of Tomorrow.” Popular Mechanics. November issue: pp. 666-667, 120A.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcarbrochures.org: Ford Econoline (1975)
To me, Walker’s concept sounds like the Stout Scarab.
Good point. I need to fish out my photos of a Scarab and see if they are decent enough to post.
As a baby boomer, I equate those acres of glass with the melted crayons on the dashboard and package shelf that everyones parents had. BTW, it’s not just the article in the link, it is the entire magazine and well worth the read,especially the pages and pages of ads. I can’t decide whether to become a saw sharpener, frog farmer, or learn the secrets of the mystics of Tibet.
Oh, yeah — the Popular Mechanics’ issues from that era are hilarious.