In 1954, in a second of absolute frankness, the president of Gifford Motors described his firm’s newest luxurious car: “Designed to attraction to the snob in everybody. Designed to transform your checking account into our dividends.”
Maybe you’re questioning why you by no means heard of such an trustworthy automotive government. That’s as a result of he existed solely in Hollywood. The traces come from the opening scene of the 1954 drama Woman’s World, through which three businessmen—with a beneficiant help from their wives—vie to develop into the following normal supervisor of the fictional Gifford Motors.
What Was the Ford X-100 Idea Automobile?
Onscreen shenanigans apart, the posh automotive featured within the movie was the actual deal: the Ford X-100 idea automotive. An early model debuted on the Chicago Auto Present in early 1952. The 2-door convertible on show had no engine, gears, or devices, however its exterior, doubtless fabricated from plaster and fiberglass, resembled a rocket ship, which was the intention of designer Joe Oros.
The Ford X-100’s V-8 engine featured a three-speed automated transmission.The Henry Ford
Over the following yr and a half, Ford engineers, led by Hiram Pacific, spent at the very least US $2 million (about $24 million in the present day) turning the show mannequin into a completely purposeful automotive. Paul Adams was chief electrical engineer and in control of a lot of the devices; Paul Wagner was {the electrical} engineer tasked with making {the electrical} system work. By the point they have been carried out, the automotive contained 302 kilograms {of electrical} tools, together with a 12-volt ignition system, an extra-large generator, 24 electrical motors, 44 vacuum tubes, 50 lightbulbs, 92 management switches, 29 solenoids, 53 relays, 23 circuit breakers, and 10 fuses, all linked by 16 kilometers of wiring. That’s numerous electronics, however then once more, numerous gizmos have been jammed into the automotive. Touted as a “laboratory on wheels,” the futuristic auto included greater than 50 improvements.
Probably the most seen options was the clear, nonglare, heatproof plastic sliding roof panel. On the flick of a lever, the home windows rolled down and the highest retracted. When {an electrical} moisture sensor detected a touch of rain, it could robotically seal the automotive. Alas, the X-100 didn’t have air-con. I’m a South Carolinian, and the considered an uncooled drive on a sunny, sizzling August day is, let’s say, unappealing. I believe the designers, being in Detroit, hadn’t thought by way of summer time within the Deep South.
On this 1953 photograph, the Ford X-100’s roof panel is retracted and the home windows are down. The Henry Ford
The designers did contemplate sure varieties of climate as a result of the windshield wipers might spray sizzling or chilly fluid relying on the surface temperature, and the rear window had a defroster. One other characteristic that I’m positive wowed individuals in colder climates have been the automotive’s heated leather-based seats. The entrance seats have been additionally electrically adjustable in six positions, with presets for 2 completely different drivers.
The automotive had a 10-tube, signal-seeking radio with separate controls and audio system for entrance and rear passengers. The radio itself was tucked out of sight under the dashboard, however a prismatic mirror may very well be lowered to indicate the dial.
The Ford X-100 had a radiophone [top], built-in electrical shaver [middle], and multifunction steering wheel with a clock and variable-volume horn [bottom].The Henry Ford
Bluetooth pairing clearly wasn’t out there in 1953, however the Ford X-100 did have a radiophone mounted within the heart console, by way of which you may place calls by way of the Bell System’s Cellular Phone Service. It additionally had a dictaphone to document all these nice concepts you’d have whereas driving round with the wind in your hair. One innovation that didn’t stand the take a look at of time was the electrical shaver and pop-up mirror stowed away within the glove compartment.
Every wheel had a built-in hydraulic jack connected to the chassis to simply raise the automotive if you needed to change a tire. (Tubeless tires weren’t but commonplace, so altering flats was one thing each driver needed to do.) A clock was mounted within the heart of the steering wheel, the place you’d count on the horn to be. The horn, in the meantime, may very well be activated by a skinny circle surrounding the clock or from buttons on the arms of the steering wheel. It had two completely different quantity settings, softer for metropolis site visitors and louder for nation roads.
The transmission had an electrically operated gear selector, which most automobiles didn’t have on the time. Along with energy steering, there was energy braking that included an electrical power-assisted hand brake. Electrical switches on the instrument panel opened, closed, locked, and unlocked the hood and trunk. Sadly, although, there have been no mechanical releases to open the hood and trunk if the automotive misplaced energy.
The X-100 had a built-in battery charger that may very well be plugged into {an electrical} outlet to permit the varied gizmos to work even when the automotive wasn’t working. However not each characteristic was electrical: Housed in a black leather-based pouch in entrance of the middle console was a brass pump-style fireplace extinguisher. Simply in case of emergency.
The Ford X-100 Was Huge in Paris
The idea automotive had its second debut in the summertime of 1953 throughout Ford’s Fiftieth-anniversary celebrations. The anniversary offered a golden alternative for Henry Ford II to redefine the corporate, as Douglas Brinkley writes in Wheels for the World, a sweeping historical past of Ford revealed by Penguin in 2003 to have a good time the corporate’s centennial. For its Fiftieth, Ford produced the movie The American Road; an illustrated firm historical past, Ford at Fifty: An American Story; a two-hour television special hosted by Edward R. Murrow and that includes Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, and Bing Crosby; and a calendar illustrated by Norman Rockwell.
As a part of this celebration, the Ford X-100 made the European circuit of auto exhibits. It racked up practically 10,000 km crisscrossing the continent, driving from Paris to London to Bonn to Cologne and averaging 12 miles per gallon (about 5 km per liter) of gasoline. Regardless of its fuel gauge indicator lights, the X-100 ran out of fuel in the midst of the evening on its ultimate journey to the French port of Le Havre.
The Ford X-100, proven right here in Paris, racked up practically 30,000 kilometers driving to auto exhibits, festivals, and dealerships. Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Photos
The automotive additionally toured america, stopping at festivals and dealerships and including one other 12,000 miles (19,300 km) to the odometer. A Ford engineer all the time accompanied the automotive to display the varied options and reply any questions.
The X-100 wasn’t precisely the star of Girl’s World, however the film trade estimated that 80 million individuals noticed its options demonstrated on display. 4 different Ford idea automobiles additionally appeared, together with the XL-500, the XM-800, and the Ventura, as did a Detroit auto plant.
Between the film and the auto exhibits, Ford estimated that extra individuals noticed the X-100 than another idea automotive. The corporate ultimately donated the X-100 to The Henry Ford museum, in Dearborn, Mich., the place it went into storage. In 1987, the X-100 went again on public show as a part of the Vehicle in American Life exhibit. Though the automotive isn’t presently on exhibit, it nonetheless turns up often at auto exhibits.
The aim of an idea automotive is to excite the general public with goals of a doable future. The Ford X-100 did greater than that: It not solely embodied aspiration and hope, it truly delivered on a lot of its guarantees. Automobile-connected telephones, heated seats, and electrical home windows could appear commonplace now, however they first needed to be imagined. Apart from that electrical shaver, kudos to the Ford engineers of the Fifties for making these goals a actuality.
A part of a continuing series taking a look at historic artifacts that embrace the boundless potential of know-how.
An abridged model of this text seems within the November 2025 print problem as “Ford and the Street Largely Taken.”
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