Only one Zero was made. The same is true for another car in the exhibit, the General Motors Firebird I XP-21. This thing is literally a jet on wheels. Its turbine engine spewed jet exhaust at 1,250 °F. It was so sketchy that the driver was never supposed to push the throttle beyond 100mph. And you know what GM did with the Firebird I XP-21’s co-creator Harley J. Earl after it came out? They didn’t fire him. As the first top-level executive designer in American history, they basically gave him carte blanche, allowing him to introduce the world to both tailfins and the Corvette, too; later, he retired. (It’s worth noting, Earl is credited with creating the original concept car as a way to build hype around design, the Buick Y-Job.)
These are incredible cars. And they’re on display at the museum May 21 to September 7, 2014.
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