GM Futurliner Progress
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By Paul Prinzing --
Futurliner #10 was shown at the 20th
Anniversary of the Pontiac Nationals in Norwalk, OH at the Summit
Motorsports Park. Arrival and clean up took place late Thursday afternoon and early
Friday morning. Even though Friday was basically the "set up" day for the
show, we had a constant stream of visitors. We were asked to make a run of
the Futurliner down the 1/4 mile drag strip on Friday afternoon. About 45
minutes before our scheduled run, we ran out of gas from using the on
board generator as our power source. We had to scramble to get an
additional 10 gallons in the tank (filling it only to 1/4 tank). That
day's run was made in a blistering 41 seconds at 28.94 MPH!Saturday was a busy day with many visitors who had come specifically to see the Futurliner. A number of them with past encounters and recollections from the Parade of Progress days. 1950's era cars were parked around the Futurliner including the Prinzing's 1954 Chieftain station wagon decked out with General Motors Previews of Progress signage. Saturday's 1/4 mile run was 45 seconds at 29.60 MPH. Slow and Steady wins the race? Paul commented that, given another 1/4 mile or two, he could have gotten her up to 45 mph. Sunday was again a very busy day. While at the event we were provided a large red and white tent to display our wares and to host visitors to some shade. This allowed take down to proceed quickly at the end of the show. A number of us left Norwalk in caravan style with the Futurliner being hauled in between. As the Prinzing's made a fuel stop the caravan continued on. There was a man filling up at the next pump who worked in home repair. He told about doing some repairs in the Cleveland area for an older man (didn't remember his name) that had worked the Parade of Progress and had shown him pictures of the Futurliners. As he finished filling up he said, "Never in a million years did I ever expect to see one of those things in person". This is a response that is often heard as we take Futurliner #10 out to shows. According to an article by Old Cars Weekly he set at least five records that weekend -- the (1) largest, (2) heaviest, (3) longest, (4) tallest and (5) most under-powered vehicle to ever run the quarter-mile at Summit. Best speed, out of two runs, was 29.6 miles per hour. (Pictures provided by Rob Thompson by way of Fred Hoffman.)
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