The 1956 Buick Centurion Concept Car – a Marvel of Ingenuity and Art

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This 1956 Buick Centurion on display in Sloan Museum's vehicle gallery is a one-of-a-kind concept car. Developed for and debuted at the 1956 Motorama, the Buick Centurion's futuristic design has been beloved for decades. With many features considered "new" today, this car was certainly ahead of its time. In this episode, Sloan Museum Curator of Collections Geoff Woodcox details these unique features, such as a freestanding speedometer with a fixed indicator and rotation dial. There is also a television camera mounted just above the tail cone that projected images from the rear of the car to a screen on the dash, thus eliminating the need for a rear view mirror. While rearview cameras with unobstructed views are now mandatory on all new vehicles, the 1956 Buick Centurion was the very first to unveil this forward-thinking feature.
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