The Petersen Automotive Museum is home to a collection of the rarest and most captivating cars in the world, and very few of them are truly unique. One of those cars is this one-of-a-kind 1954 Plymouth Explorer.
During the 1950s concept cars were all the rage and meant to point toward a future where autos were both practical and pieces of mobile art. Entire departments at the various automakers were dedicated to providing designers an opportunity to dream, sketch and imagine out-of-the-box and unique vehicles which might one day enter production.
The 1954 Plymouth Explorer ticked all the boxes when it came to such dream cars and it flew in the face of the Plymouth brand at the time which leaned heavily on a reputation for dependability, reliability, and a focus on uncomplicated mechanical underpinnings – but hardly for style. This Plymouth could have well represented – and might still be – the sexiest body ever built on a Plymouth chassis.
Completed by Carrozeria Ghia of Turin, Italy, as a collaborative project with Chrysler’s stylists, the Italian influence is made clear via a pair of deep-set headlights, smooth fenders that grace the length of the car’s front end, and a beautiful – if unsubtle – large grille.
But as was common for these prototype cars back in the day, many of them failed to find the proper maintenance from their owners and slowly fell into disrepair.
Leslie Kendall, the curator for the Peterson Automotive Museum, says that, once the cars passed on from their initial owners, many became ‘daily drivers’ and their condition suffered as a result. This example went through a number of paint jobs and the addition of an inappropriate bumper and a grille.
But fortunately, as the Explorer was restored, the bumper and grille were removed and it was repainted to the period-appropriate color you see here.
But while these cars were often lovely to behold in a design sense, they sometimes lacked anything like an inspiring powerplant and this one is no exception. This Explorer has but a tiny 230ci six-cylinder flathead under the hood and that provided just 103 horsepower.
Kendall says the problem with these types of dream cars was that building them on an assembly line was well-nigh impossible.