This is way too cool. A Futurliner on the dragstrip! It may look like an upside-down rowboat going backwards, but really, it's one of the coolest designs to come out of GM ever.
GM's Futurliner was a bus designed by Harley Earl in the early 40s for GM's Parade of Progress. It's 8-feet wide, 33-feet long and has a 20' 8" wheelbase and they only built 12 of them.
But going back to that earlier upside-down rowboat going backwards comment....it's about as fast as that, too. With a 145-horsepower, 302ci 6-cylinder pumping out 145 hp and 262 pound-feet of torque trying to move 30,000 pounds of the future, Futurliner #10 (a 1953 model that's been fully restored) manages a 48 second pass at 28 MPH.
(Autoblog)
bankerdanny says:
07:18 AM, 08/11/11
Hmm, how hard would it be to fit in a nice modern diesel drivetrain from a Dodge pickup? Stash the original drivetrain for when you want to sell it and install something that would allow you to actually drive the thing.
eidolways says:
08:02 AM, 08/11/11
So it "runs" the quarter-mile. That's hilarious. And that's progress, that pretty much any modern truck or bus would've beaten that thing down the strip several times over.
stovebolter says:
12:10 PM, 08/11/11
Amazing! At 48 seconds in the quarter mile, it could be very competitive in the Olympics during the women's 400 m sprint.
theace415 says:
08:22 PM, 08/11/11
0-60 in ummm wait for it.........almost ......haha
stoppre75 says:
09:34 AM, 08/12/11
@stevebolter
Exactly what I was thinking when I saw that time/trap speed!
viss1 says:
09:40 AM, 08/12/11
FWIW Futurliner #11 sold for $4.3M at Barrett-Jackson a few years ago.
dngirard87 says:
12:29 AM, 08/15/11
Song lyric entering my head...
"Zero to 60, sometimes..."
From Audio Adrenaline's "Chevette". Definitely applies here though.