Beautiful, futuristic, and way too ahead of its time, the Cadillac Cyclone concept car is unique and truly one-of-a-kind.

In 1959, General Motors designer whiz Harley Earl, the man behind the Buick Wildcat and the Corvette, designed what would be one of his last cars the Cadillac Cyclone Concept, although he himself retired in 1958 at the mandatory age of 65.

There is only one Cyclone ever built and it remains one of the most future-forward concept cars ever. So ahead of its time, it never entered production. And sixty years later, it remains a concept, although largely forgotten because of Father Time and Uncle Progress.

Most people dont know much about the car and cannot really recognize it unless they are true automobile cognoscenti. But it is still a fascinating car to have been made back then, with some of its concepts that sounded way too far-fetched now being used as everyday tech, though not in the same way as it was in the Cyclone.

Beautiful, futuristic, and way too ahead of its time, the Cadillac Cyclone concept car is unique and truly one-of-a-kind. Heres more about it and how it pushed the boundaries of car design and safety

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Lets start with the look of the car. While it started its life painted white when Bill Mitchell took over from Harley Earl, he finally got it done up in silver and thats how the Cyclone looks today.

It has a flip-top canopy done up in the glass, giving it a bubble-top appearance and it came fully powered. At the touch of a button, it would disappear into the trunk and rest on a specially made airbag to keep it safe and out of sight.In reality, though, the car was only designed to have a powered canopy since it never went into production, the concept cars canopy remained a manual one, and rather cumbersome to boot.

To keep the inside of the car cool and not turn into a greenhouse because of all that glass, the canopy was coated in vaporized silver to deflect the suns rays, and honestly, that kind of a think-tank for 1958-59 is pretty commendable.

The doors were sliding, like the kind we see on vans today, although no modern cars were able to take cues from it. The sliding doors would also open at the push of a button, making ingress and egress pretty easy. Since there was no window in the car and any kind of interaction would require the canopy to go back, there was a rectangle in the door, to allow for communication without the need to open the top, with external speakers as well to let the drivers voice come through easily. This was also an easy way to pay the toll, although, considering the Cyclones dimension, the driver better had some long arms, like those of the law.

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The place where most cars bear a headlight, the Cyclone had these rocket-like black cones. And strangely enough, these were not for show but had an actual purpose, something no one needed back then but is pretty commonplace today, although not as ostentatiously placed or displayed.

The black edges of the front nosecones had a radar-based guidance system that would go in sync with smart roads and even back then, had a proximity warning system that would let the driver known of any obstacles on the road, way before he or she ended up hitting them. Pretty far-fetched back then, although this is one of the most common safety mechanisms todays cars carry. At the time though, people probably laughed at the idea, wondering why the driver needed to be warned of obstacles ahead, considering he had eyes

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The Cadillac Cyclone Concept car, code-named the XP 74, came powered by Caddys 6.4-liter V8 that jetted 325 horses, de-tuned in fact, and made 430 ft-lb torque. It ran on a two-speed rear differential mated to a three-speed Hydra-Matic transmission. To make the actual car, a standard chassis off the Cadillac assembly line that measured 225 inches with a 130-inch wheelbase was shortened to 196.9 inches with a 104-inch wheelbase. This makes it only slightly longer and a bit wider than the 2016 Cadillac CTS.

It debuted at the 1959 Daytona 500 and after that remained a significant part of GMs Motorama. The car also underwent a few changes over with its tailfins gradually being reduced in size to keep it looking closer to Caddys styling at the time.

For a long time since then, it remained on display at the GM Heritage museum though it has often been taken out for parades, car shows, and even been lent to various museums as part of exchange programs.The car is a design marvel for sure, and apparently, one of the many automobiles that drove Ed Welburn to become a car designer, and later even chief of design at GM itself.

Sources: Hemmings, GMAuthority, HistoricVehicle, AutomobileMag

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Arun Singh Pundir has been a longtime media crackerjack and worked most of his life in sales and marketing. In 2018, he officially flipped and switched sides to the editorial. He lives with his wife, two rascally sons, and is a car and motorcycle nut in his free time. Not that he has too much free time. He currently writes for HotCars on anything that has any number or kind of wheels. He considers his Isuzu D-Max V-Cross, Suzuki Ciaz, and Royal Enfield Classic 500, the three current flames of his life. His dream is to drive around the world; even if it takes more than eighty days.

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This Cadillac Cyclone Concept Car Pushed The Boundaries Of Futuristic Styling - HotCars