Meet Kaiser's ill-fated vision for an all-aluminium future

The two decades after WWII were really a wild-west of car design. The world wasn't ready for these concepts, though.

The 1964 jet-engined Chrysler Turbine might immediately spring to mind. But often forgotten are the wacky creations of the Kaiser corporation and its subsidiaries. These odd concepts were perhaps a little too advanced, and never made it to production.

The concepts had a… complicated inception. In the late '50s Kaiser Motors, the spin-off of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, was in rapid decline. 

The company was known for some rather eccentric designs throughout the '50s such as the 1954 Kaiser-Darrin sports coupe, which had bodywork constructed entirely of fiberglass.

By 1958 though, the company was all but wrapped-up due to economic pressure brought about by the Korean War and tough competition with GM, Ford and Chrysler. Its assets (which included Jeep) were sold off to AMC, which eventually became part of Chrysler anyway.

Kaiser Aluminium, as some sort of marketing stunt, released some designs in the early '60s (probably from the cutting-board of the now-defunct Kaiser Motors) that predicted some sort of Jetsons-esque aluminium-fueled future. The designs included the Menehune coupe, Pele sedan and the Waimea van thing (pictured, top). All of the cars were intended to have aluminium bodies, frames and engine blocks.

The hopelessly optimistic visions into a long-forgotten future also serve as a rare opportunity to see the span of options an automaker goes through before a production model is finally shown to the public.

Many of these mooted models show significant overlap in style and purpose, indicating that perhaps only one or two would normally ever make it past the design stage.

Out of all of these concepts, only the Waimea actually ended up being built. Well, sort of...

A third-party enthusiast made a mocked-up concept out of a Chevrolet Corvair Greenbriar Sports Wagon. It mirrors many of the design queues of the concept, but instead of a ‘front-located aluminium engine’ - as proposed by Kaiser - it maintains the rear-mounted under-floor flat-six from the donor Greenbriar.

The design looks decidedly impractical… there are only two doors, a centre mounted steering column, apparently no boot opening and access to the engine only available via the tight looking lower-rear hatch.

While it’s probably pretty awful to actually own and drive, it’s an example of a once-dreamt up alternative to the now stagnant people-mover format. We’re glad someone went and built it so we can gaze upon its glory.

Think too hard about concept cars that people had to build themselves and you’ll remind yourself of those guys who once teamed up with Pininfarina to build a brand-new Lancia Stratos. Don’t do that though, nobody needs the pain of being reminded that car will never be produced.

Which concept car do you think should have made it to production? Tell us about it in the comments.