General Motors created the LeSabre as a concept car following World War II. The general public wanted to shake off that wartime funk and look forward to something hopeful and fun. General Motors responded with the creation of the LeSabre, a car that was named for the F-86 LeSabre fighter jet, hence the massive aviation themes present in the vehicle. This car was conceived as the blending of aviation and automobile technology, with the restrictions of fuel, materials, and cost theoretically lifted.

General Motors uses the LeSabre as inspiration for its current models to this day, although their plant recently suffered an extended shutdown due to a semiconductor chip shortage.

Read on to find out more regarding the creation and history of GM's 1951 LeSabre Concept Car.

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Tired Of War

1951 GM LeSabre Concept Car parked on lawn
via Hemmings

The LeSabre came about in the years immediately following World War II. People grew tired of war, and op culture at the time was fueled by a renewed sense of optimism. New technologies were also being invented and adapted to make new designs and advances in engineering. The general public wanted something new and fun. Cue Harley Earl, Head of Design at General Motors, with an idea to make a sequel to his Y-Job from a decade beforehand. Earl hired Charles Chayne as the chief engineer for the project.

Together, those two redesigned car manufacturing from the ground up, ditching a lot of preconceived notions, traditional manufacturing, and standard guidelines along the way. The idea was to make this new vehicle incredibly comfortable, perform well, and easy to drive, while making it have a unique and distinctive appearance. The 1951 General Motors Le Sabre Concept car was driven by these goals, as well as the thought of a car being created without the limitations of fuel, materials, and cost.

Let's Get Functional

1951 GM LeSabre Concept Car parked on lawn; rear view
via Car Body Design

Having a functional design was the overall theme of designing the LeSabre. This vehicle had a lot of aviation inspiration, as noted by its aerodynamic body, wrap-around windshield, tailfins, and jet aircraft air intake and exhaust replica, which were actually functional by design. The front intake hid dual bulbs beneath it, and the rear exhaust was actually the Le Sabre's central brake light. Given that the vehicle's namesake was the F-86 LeSabre fighter jet, a certain level of resemblance and inspiration makes sense.

The LeSabre was the first post-WWII “dream car,” even if it was only a concept. Earl designed this vehicle to adapt modern jet technology into an automobile format. For the LeSabre, “functional styling” was the name of the game, where every element incorporated into the vehicle was both deliberately included for a specific function and also aesthetically appealing. Case in point: each of the dual tail fins contained a 20-gallon fuel tank.

Further, magnesium, aluminum, and fiberglass were creatively combined and crafted into a lightweight body for the LeSabre, and it was made more rigid thanks to its chrome-molybdenum steel chassis. Weight distribution was more balanced when Chayne opted to move the transmission to the vehicle's rear; this was considered a bold move, as cars on the street did not have exclusively rear transmission.

When flat tires would occur, the LeSabre was ready with several built-in hydraulic jacks. The exterior styling, however, was what Earl wanted to be most appealing to audiences at car shows. The oval grill, aircraft fuselage-inspired snout, and wraparound windshield were all designed to snatch attention.

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Not Just For Show

1951 GM LeSabre Concept Car being driven down road
via Pinterest

Unlike many show cars, the LeSabre was intended to be on the roads once its time in the showroom ended. Most show cars, by comparison, were never even designed to be road-ready, much less intended for that purpose, and the show cars wouldn't even be made out of real car material; they would be made from clay or some kind of plastic, soon to be disassembled as soon as their showtime ended. Not so with the LeSabre. After all, its engine was a custom-built, supercharged V8 that could put out 335 horsepower, whether it ran on methanol or gasoline.

As for the rationale behind this unusual functionality, not only would this test the experimental, aforementioned engine, but also Earl liked to use GM's concept cars for his personal vehicles once their showtime ended. After all, the Y-Job was made a decade earlier and was falling apart by this point. Earl fully intended take the LeSabre as his own, which he did, racking up another 45,000 miles on it after he seized control. That said, the car's current location is Sterling Heights, Michigan, where it lay among other vehicles from GM's history at the GM Heritage Center Collection.

Designer's Prerogative

1951 GM LeSabre Concept Car driving in rain; rear view
via Pinterest

The man who designed the car determined a lot of the guidelines, features, and aspects of the vehicle. Earl was driven to one-up the competition, and when his Y-Job felt dated by the end of World War II, he decided to create the LeSabre concept.

However, a lot of the technology and features present in the car were included not because he thought the general public would like it, but because he personally liked it and would often presume the general public would like what he liked.

In all fairness, his track record showed that this belief happened to be coincidentally accurate most of the time. Also, as mentioned before, because Earl intended on using the LeSabre as his personal transport once showtime was over, he wanted a vehicle that he would be personally satisfied with.

Sources: historicvehicle.org, conceptcarz.com, hemmings.com,

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