Thanks to strict regulations and technology advancement all most every car now days gets a 5 star rating on crash tests, With car only losing points on pedestrian crash impact and on the technology part. But back in the days of beautiful chrome bumpers And slick pillars, Safety wasn’t that important, With only a few carmaker taking driver safety seriously. Most of the carmakers didn’t even talked about safety of their car Because they didn’t want to show how dangerous their automobiles were. But through the late 40s and until the early 60s, A number of engineers, designers and people with an interest decided to change this, But since the technology and the knowledge just wasn’t there most of the time these cars, Turned out weird and, With a design that only the mother could love, And with no real proof that their cars were better than the rest. Called the worlds safest and most revolutionary car The 1957 Aurora is without a doubt one of the weirdest and most ridiculous Cars ever. The Aurora was the brain child of Father Alfred A. Juliano. born December 19, 1919 in Philadelphia, Alfred showed from young age a great interesting design, spending most of his time drawing a sketching cars. But things would start to change on his teens When he decided to devote his life to religion, Entering the local youth church. Despite this Alfred continued to practice his passion for design, And one lucky day, He awarded a scholarship to study automotive design with the king of fins Harley Earl. But Jualiano decided to stay in the cemetery and tor the schoorlship apart. Despite this Alfred continued designeing, and he even started studying physics in the meantime, Showing a great interests on aerodynamics and car safety. And seeing all the cars on market and lack of safety, He set the goal to built the worlds safest car, The started by buying a 1953 Buick Roadmaster Out of which he only kept the chassis and the engine, Named Aurora the design of the car was just weird, Looked like something that would come out of a cartoon movie. There were a number of reasons that the car looked this way according to Alfred, Such as the aerodynamics, and the pedestrian safety. The body was made out of fiberglass, While the windows and the roof were made out of plastic. Since the technology wasn’t there at the time, There were something primitive solutions, Such as the windshield, which was designed in such way that the driver and the passengers would avoid impact in the case of an accident. A number of other features were the roll cage, the ability to swivel the front seats in an accident, reinforced doors with shockproof bars and a number of padded buttons on the instrument panel, Which in sort of way were the airbags of the time. The Aurora was supposed to have it big debut on November 11, 1957 in front of the New Yorker Hotel. The plan was to take a tour across the US after the initial presentation. But this never happened since the Aurora probably had the worst debut ever, The car broke down at least 15 times, before arriving at the New Yorker, Dallying this way the presentation. the journalist just weren’t happy with this, plus the design of the car disappointed them. All the hopes of Alfred To find buys and potential investors did of immediately, Many questions were raised about the money behind the finances behind the Aurora, Alfred was investigated by the church and the IRS, But the guy had done nothing wrong , But Alfred had accumulated a ton of personal debt, And one year later he had to declare bankruptcy. He lost the car since he had left it as collateral for unpaid repair bills. Sadly the car was left abandoned for a many of years. Thankfully the car was bought and restored on its original condition by Andy Saunders a British car collector and tuner. Father Alfred died in 1989 in poverty and oblivion. So guys thank you for watching and see you next time.


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Sources

THE AURORA / Andy Saunders
https://bit.ly/3acNExu

Aurora 1957 / Classic Car Catalogue
https://bit.ly/2WzNfkF

Concept We Forgot: 1957 Aurora Safety Car [video]
https://bit.ly/3dm2CDj

Idle Aurora shot: how the safest car in the world became the ugliest
https://bit.ly/2Utetqv

Spitting in the wind: Trying to pitch automotive safety in a time of highway slaughter
https://bit.ly/39caZhB