The global magazine and marketplace for classic car enthusiasts, by enthusiasts.
The global magazine and marketplace for classic car enthusiasts, by enthusiasts.
This lady doesn’t need a man to open the door of her car, but maybe this opened doors to new places and even new planets. We did a little search and found that Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman who went into space in 1963. This Sovjet cosmonaut spent almost three years in space. One of the main goals of sending a woman to space was to research the influence of the space environment on a woman compared to the influence of the same conditions on a man. During the launch Valentina said “The sky! Take off your hat! I’m coming!”
The car shown is a special car and is, what we think, a 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 Prototype. One of the cars in the GM-stable, which explains the GM Futurliners that are behind it.
The XP-20 project, commonly known as F-88, was a pet project of Harley Earl (who also designed the Futurliner). Four cars came out of the project, but only one survived. It was sold or given to E.L. Cord in 1955. It used a Chevrolet Corvette chassis and had a fiberglass body. The engine was a 5.3 Litre Super V8 with a four barrel carburetor.
The Olds was sold at a Barrett Jackson auction in 2005 and the price was no less than 3.3 million Dollars. At the moment, the car is on display at the Gateway Colorado Automobile Museum.
This photo was probably taken when the Oldsmobile and Futurliners were part of the Parade of Progress in 1955 or 1956. This was a parade which showed the vital role of science in American life, which was as Harlow H. Curitce, president at that time of GM put it ‘…a picture of America on the move towards better lives for all of us”.
The shown lady is probably just a girl who was only dreaming about going to the sky, but well... the sky is the limit, so who knows what she did the rest of her life!
Source: Barret Jackson, Gateway Automuseum, Futurliner