Automotive designers and manufacturers released some really far out looking vehicles in the mid-20th century, but no car embodied the Space Age design ideal like the Astra-Gnome, the "time and space car".
The Astra-Gnome was a science fiction vehicle come to life, and its creators at the Richard Abib Company were sure their futuristic car would change the way we drive when it was released in 1956.
The concept car was constructed on the chassis of a 1955 Nash Metropolitan, measured 6 feet wide and 13.5 feet long and contained the kind of features you'd expect to find in a car from the year 2000:
Everyone has always wanted a smaller car that has plenty of luggage space! The Astra-Gnome provides just this through its unique “integra-luggage” system with distributes suitcases into otherwise wasted space areas.
Everyone has always wanted a full vision top without troubles of a convertible! The Gnome’s bubble canopy, plus air conditioning, gives this open feeling, but with no wind noise and “walk-in” entrance and exit ease. Everyone has always wanted futuristic styling, but in a practical form that is functional – not just different! The Gnome has an “out of this world” look, yet features interchangeable colored aluminum trim panels in place of gaudy paint schemes, functional big car bumpers in place of small car weaknesses, and admirably adapts to unit-body construction.
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And then test dummies were invented.