For inspiration: retro scifi cars from Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild

[tnjrp]

Future was often quite sleek back in the Fifties & Sixties:
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/06/26/artifacts-of-futures-that-might-have-been-the-art-of-the-fisher-body-craftsmans-guild-models/

[Rhoderic]

Some of the less outlandish ones would even be excellent for a "proper" non-retro sci-fi setting. There was an episode of Black Mirror set in a near future part of the concept of which seemed to be that all the upper middle class people are driving vintage cars from the 50s-60s or replicas thereof. It felt to me like a very natural extrapolation of modern-day consumerism and hipsterism. I'm not an automotive engineer, but I could easily imagine that in a future well-to-do society similar to the western world today, "design consumerism" will have made actual cars like some of those Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild models commonplace.

[FramFramson]

That's already the case on a small scale, thanks to replica cars and kitcars.

[The_Beast]

Haven't thought about those competitions for years.

I remember in high school hearing the announcements, and know it was completely out of my experience to attempt, but they were interesting. Basic 'how you cram a human body into a vehicle' but your imagination's the limit there after.

I do remember they made a big thing of how you could make taillights out of toothbrush handles, which were mostly clear colors at the time.

Do realize that the Fisher Body engineers created a lot of the same thing, and a few even made it to cars, INCREDIBLY toned down.

Doug

Edit:

That's already the case on a small scale, thanks to replica cars and kitcars.

If you think about it, on a bigger scale, the same thing is straight from design to customer, with Chrysler's Prowler, Viper, and PT Cruiser.

[Vermis]

In addition, the craftsmanship looks amazing, more so considering the boys who built these did so on kitchen tables and not in Detroit studios.

Aye, that.

[The_Beast]

Remember, this was back when 'what's good for General Motors is good for [the USA] '

Far as I know, there isn't a program with people going out to schools across the country making presentations, the way they did when I was in high school.

Doug

[tnjrp]

Some of the less outlandish ones would even be excellent for a "proper" non-retro sci-fi setting

Depending on the definition of "outlandish", I might actually go with some of the more so -- as I'm rather a fan of the far futuristic high techy stuff.

But generally it's obviously possible that a society with excessive amount of time and other resources on their hands can turn whatever historic period for inspiration -- nothing really ever goes away after all, it just gets recycled endlessly. We already have a thriving quasi-Victorian aesthetics reliant subculture that could precede full blown Neo-Victorians of The Diamond Age or Gun Club zoku of The Causal Angel. So why not a Fifties inspired one too.