Starting later this month, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta will be hosting Dream Cars, an exhibit of various concept cars from 1932 up to the present.
Chrysler partnered with the renowned Italian firm Carrozzeria Ghia to design a streamlined, wedged-shape automobile inspired by a small sculpture created by styling chief Virgil Exner, Sr. The result was the 1955 Streamline “X,” or – as its designer, Ghia technical director Giovanni Savonuzzi, nicknamed it – “Gilda” (after Rita Hayworth’s sleek title character in the film noir of the same name).
Automotive styling was heavily influenced by jet aircraft and rocketry in the exuberant postwar era, and Exner wanted to prove that scientific, aerodynamic design was viable in the American marketplace. A one-fifth-scale plasticine model of the “Gilda” was made by Savonuzzi for wind tunnel testing at the Polytechnic University of Turin. His studies determined that the tapered tail fins improved directional stability in crosswinds at high speeds. The completed “Gilda” illustrated the marriage of scientific aerodynamics with the aesthetics and styling of streamlining.
The “Gilda” debuted at the 1955 Salone dell’automobile di Torino (the Turin automobile show), where it was hailed as “shaped by the wind” and caused a sensation with its “experimental body.” The car went on to tour the European show circuit to great acclaim before it was shipped to the United States that October for permanent display at the Henry Ford Museum”
The Art of Auto
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