Front seats automatically slide back when the doors were opened for easier entry. The interior of the Centurion was trimmed in luxurious red leather and fiberglass with appointments in brushed bright metal. Twin air scoops near the sides and directly in front of the windshield provided fresh air for the interior of the passenger compartment. The front end of the Centurion was of a revolutionary new design with the long hood sloping toward the front and the grille and headlights recessed well behind the bumper, which is an integral part of the body shell.
#56 BUICK CENTURION CONCEPT DRIVER#
Also, the Centurion featured a television camera in the rear to report traffic to the driver via a television screen in the dashboard, replacing the rear view mirror. It featured "wing-type" back fenders, which previewed the styling of the 1959 Chevrolets and Buicks. It will go on display at the General Motors Motorama in San Francisco, March 24.įrom: Buick Motor Division, Flint MichiganĪs you can see from the press release above, the Centurion was a two-door four-passenger coupe constructed of fiberglass with a red upper body, a brushed metallic finish on the lower portion and an all glass top. It is mounted on a 118 inch wheelbase and is powered by a 325 horsepower V-8 engine.Ī television camera in the trunk, with a screen on the instrument panel, provides the driver with a wide view to the rear, eliminating the traditional rearview mirror. Made of fiberglass, the Centurion incorporates many innovations in styling and engineering. But it should get a bit more credit for prophesying the rear-view camera almost 50 years before it became widely available.For general release in connection with General Motors Motorama.īuick's new "dream" car for 1956 is the Centurion, a racy four-passenger, two-door coupe with an all-glass top. The 1956 Buick Centurion has plenty of reasons to brag about as far as design goes. In 2002, Nissan started offering rear-view cameras globally in the Primera and the Infiniti Q45.
Toyota offered one in the Soarer from 1991 to 1997, but it was restricted to the Japanese market. It remained an experiment yet again, and it took almost 20 more years until a production car with a rear-view camera became available.
The backup camera made a comeback only 16 years later when Volvo introduced the Experimental Safety Car in 1972.
#56 BUICK CENTURION CONCEPT TV#
That was most likely because connecting the camera to the TV would have resulted in a messy cabling system that would have taken a lot of space behind the dash, under the center console, and even in the trunk. Word has it, there was no proof at the time that the rear-view camera was actually functional, but the idea was nevertheless ahead of its time. The then-groundbreaking system was created by auto designer Chuck Jordan. It comprised a television camera mounted atop the V-shaped trunk and a small TV in an oval-shaped section in the center of the really sleek dashboard. The system was very similar to the backup camera layout we know today, but the technology was obviously crude compared to what we now find in modern cars. The Centurion debuted the world's first rear-view camera. But there's one innovative feature that was forgotten as years passed by. The wing-type fenders and the two-tone paint are only two of the features that trickled into production models from Chevrolet and Buick. The Centurion concept was ahead of its time, and eventually inspired many GM cars launched in the late 1950s. It also boasted the largest, completely transparent bubble roof developed until then. It had buckets seats before they were a feature and incorporate many aviation-inspired cues inside the cabin. Developed for the 1956 General Motors Motorama, the Buick Centurion debuted an impressive number of features back in the day.
0 kommentar(er)
