The General Motors Firebird is a sequence of 3 idea vehicles designed by Harley Earl, and built by General Motors for the 1953, 1956 and 1959 Motorama car shows. They were much electrified by breakthroughs in fighter aircraft design at the time. Not one of the designs were reserved for production, but instead were to demonstrate the extremes in technology and design that General Motors was able to attain. The vehicles were latterly placed on show at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, and still make regular vehicle show appearances.

History

General Motors had done research on feasibleness of gas turbine engines in vehicles as early as the 1930s.
It was not till the early 1950s that they began building an honest to goodness engine, with Emmett Conklin leading the project.

Firebird 1

By 1953, the study team had produced the Firebird XP-21, later called the Firebird I, which was fundamentally a jet plane on wheels. It was actually the first gas turbine powered automobile tested in the US. The design is entirely unrealistic, with a bubble topped cover over a single seat cockpit, a bullet formed fuselage made totally of fiberglass, short wings, and a vertical tail fin. It's got a 370 hp (280 kW) Whirlfire Turbo Power gas turbine engine that has 2 speeds, and expels jet exhaust at some 1,250 F (677 C). The whole weight of the auto is 2,500 lb (1,134 kg). Initially, Conklin was the sole person qualified to drive it, and he tested it to one hundred miles per hour (160 km / h), but on shifting into 2nd gear the tires lost traction under the extraordinary engine torque and he straight away slowed down for fear of crashing.
The vehicle was later test driven at the Indianapolis Speedway by race vehicle driver Maury Rose. The automobile wasn't basically meant to test the power or speed potential of the gas turbine, but only the practical viability of its use.
The braking system differs from standard drum systems, in the drums are on the outside the wheels to help fast cooling, and the wings actually have aircraft style flaps for slowing from high speed.

Firebird 2

The Firebird II in 1956, the second prototype, was a more effective design: a four-seat, family vehicle. It's a low and wide design with giant twin air intakes in the front, a high bubble cover top, and a vertical tail fin. Its exterior bodywork was made totally of titanium.
The engine output was two hundred hp (150 kW), and to resolve the exhaust heat problem it was fed thru a regenerative system, which authorized the whole engine to operate at almost one thousand F (538 C) cooler, and also power the accessories. Another invention on the automobile was the 1st use of 4 wheel disc brakes, with a totally independent suspension, as well as a classy direction system which was meant to be used with "the road of the future", where an electric wire would be inserted into a roadway to send signals that would help guide future automobiles and prevent accidents.

Firebird 3

The Firebird III, the 3rd design, was built in 1958 and first shown at Motorama in 1959. It is another flamboyant prototype with titanium skin, and no less than 7 short wings and tail fins that were tested at length in a wind tunnel. It's a 2-seater powered by a 225 hp (168 kW) Whirlfire GT-305 gas turbine engine, and a 2 cylinder ten hp (7.5 kW) petrol engine to run all of the accessories. Its exterior design features a double bubble cover, and more technical advancements to make it more effective, for example cruise control, anti-lock brakes, and air-con. It also featured "space-age" discoveries , for example special air drag brakes, like those found on aircraft, which appeared from flat panels in the bodywork of the vehicle to slow it from high speeds, an "ultra-sonic" key which signaled the doors to open, and an automatic direction system to avoid accidents and "no hold" steering. The steering was controlled by a joystick positioned between the 2 seats. This gave the auto a more hi-tech feel and simulated the experience of flying an aircraft.

Motorama Theme (1956)

The 1956 motorama projected picture projecting a future contrasted with the present ; in the present ( 1956 ), a nuclear family of hot and perspiring convertible occupants are trying to travel to the beach - but they're stuck, imobile, in an intolerable freeway jam. In a flashforward to the future, they're cruising at high speed in air conditioned comfort along an automatic freeway (with no other cars to be seen) in their turbine-powered Firebird. The tenet ( now over 50 years of age ) was this future wasn't excessively remote, and would be supplied by General Motors, yet is consistent with current projections ( 2008 ) for future automobile travel using electronic car control and improved road infrastructure.