Step Into The Future With the 1939 GM Futurliner

This month ebay Motors is celebrating Collector Car Appreciation Month.  Within this celebration is a featured eBay listing for one of the original 1939 GM  Futurliners.  If you aren’t up to par on your Futurliner history, they were basically tour buses that Harley Earl & his crew produced 12 of way back in the 1930’s.  When the Futurliners combined their superpowers on the open road, they became General Motors’ “Parade of Progress”.  This futuristic parade toured the entire United States along with parts of Canada, Mexico and Cuba. Their goal was to show off some of the newest technologies that were going to make the world a better place.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtHMwK1ZAag


Can’t see the video? Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtHMwK1ZAag

These 12 Futuristic buses toured until the mid 1950’s when they were retired from the parade duties.  Over the next 50 years they all went different directions.  Some landed in museums, some in private collections and some were sadly left rotting into the earth.  In 1995, the Peter Pan Bus Company owner procured himself Futurliner #7, which was restored to its former beauty and then became the company mascot for the next 15 years.

2011 rolls around, and it’s now time for the Futurliner to start the newest chapter in its life.  The starting bid is half a million dollars, which may be short money considering that the claims that another Futurliner fetched 4 million dollars in a previous auction. Get out your checkbooks folks, the future is now, and this futurliner would be a perfect conversation piece for your neighborhood!

eBay Item # 320724467378

Jeremy Nutt

Hi, I'm Jeremy.

5 thoughts to “Step Into The Future With the 1939 GM Futurliner”

  1. i remember watching classics they had an episode of a guy restoring one these futureliner buses

  2. It’s amazing that Futurliners went from rusting in junkyards and cornfields to auctioning for millions. Have to wonder if GM letting history like that get devalued corresponds w/ their decline. There’s a website about the Futurliner’s creator, Harley Earl, (who also came up with the FUTURLINER moniker) and how his legacy got lost. At least Futurliners weren’t destroyed, for Earl’s F-88 II and III masterpieces he designed were literally crushed by the very man who followed in his wake at GM Styling. The one F-88 that did survive sold for millions and it’s crazy that GM would let their history fall by the wayside like that.

    http://www.carofthecentury.com

    1. Completely agreed! It’s amazing reading about how car companies in the 50’s and 60’s cut up and crushed so many amazing prototype cars. The Chrysler Turbine is another perfect example of such a tragedy!

  3. If you are in the Norwalk, OH area August 3-5 there will be a Futureliner on display at The Pontiac Nationals in Summit Motorsports Park.

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