Junkyard owner kept GM concept vehicles secret

Jaw-dropping ‘Motoramas’ part of LA museum exhibit

2024-04-09 - Mark Phelan

Six General Motors concept car from the 1950s – five of them stunningly restored, the sixth even more stunning because it is untouched since it was reclaimed from decades in a suburban Detroit junkyard – just went on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

The jaw-dropping vehicles form “GM’S Marvelous Motorama: Dream Cars from the Joe Bortz Collection.” They epitomize the heights of American auto design in the 1950s and include a couple of very personal designs legendary GM Design Chief Harley Earl created in a farewell gesture before retiring after 31 years at the automaker.

The cars:

● 1953 Buick Wildcat

● 1953 Pontiac Parisienne

● 1954 Pontiac Bonneville special

● 1955 Lasalle II roadster

● 1955 Lasalle II sedan

● 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne

“The Motoramas were an important part of automotive history, but very few exhibits have truly celebrated what Harley Earl and GM brought to life. We are honored to share Joe’s collection of ‘Dream Cars’ with enthusiasts from around the world,” Petersen Museum executive director Terry Karges said.

The concept-car whisperer

Bortz, a Chicago restaurateur who grew up riding streetcars to see the flamboyant concept cars that starred at auto shows and automakers’ private salons in the 1950s, began collecting historic concept cars in the 1980s. The Wildcat – the first of three “Wildcat”named concepts GM created in the 1950s – Parisienne and Bonneville were among the first concepts he acquired.

GM didn’t have much regard for its history at the time. Company policy was to destroy concepts after they served their purpose: drawing crowds to auto shows and GM’S traveling Motorama exhibitions.

“It’s rare to see so many of these GM Motorama cars in one place. These cars were about marketing as much as technology or design.” Matt Anderson Transportation curator of the Henry Ford museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Mich.

“Some cars were saved by executives and designers who couldn’t bear to see them destroyed,” Bortz said.

When word got out that Bortz collected and restored concept cars, he began receiving calls from retired designers who’d been sheltering rescued concepts in their garages for decades: Would he give their babies a home?

Masterpieces that dodged the car-crusher

The Petersen exhibition combines three of Bortz’s earliest acquisitions with three cars from the legendary Warhoops find, where he discovered a brace of cars GM executives ordered destroyed as the company economized during the 1958 recession.

Car-loving junkyard owner Harry Warholak Sr. saved the two Lasalles, Biscayne and a handful of other classics when GM trucked them to his Warhoops junkyard in Sterling Heights to be destroyed.

Warholak kept their existence secret for decades, while rumors of a treasure trove quietly decaying in a junkyard somewhere swirled in the classic car world.

Bortz reached out to the secretive Warholak, got a glimpse of what the junkyard held, and eventually acquired the cars, including the three at the Petersen.

“It’s rare to see so many of these GM Motorama cars in one place,” said Matt Anderson, transportation curator of the Henry Ford museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. “These cars were about marketing as much as technology or design. When the show season passed, concept cars were just assets on the books to be replaced by newer ideas.

“We owe our thanks to folks like Joe Bortz who searched for and safeguarded these cars over the years. His collection of dream cars is unlike anything else.”

Jet Age design and Harley Earl’s dog

The exhibition creates an atmosphere like GM’S flamboyant Motorama to showcase the cars. The GM Heritage Center provided original artwork for brochures and advertising that adorn the walls behind several cars. The sets for other vehicles include wall-size photos of crowds packing the Waldorf hotel ballroom in New York to see the cars.

“The display looks like Harley Earl came back and designed it himself,”

Bortz said. Details on the cars:

1953 Buick Wildcat

The first of three Buick concept cars featured in Motoramas, the Wildcat, debuted at the Los Angeles auto show.

Bortz relates the tale that its carhauler had a flat tire en route, arriving after the auditorium closed. With time and a one-of-a-kind convertible on their hands, the drivers unloaded the car for a joyride on the then-new LA freeways. Unfamiliar with the area, they got lost, driving around neighborhoods until a curious LAPD officer pulled them over and escorted the Wildcat back to where it started.

The car’s features include push-button doors and front-wheel hubs that remained static while the wheels and tires rotated around them. The ’53 Wildcat concept has a 188-horsepower, 5.3L inline eight-cylinder engine, or “straight eight.”

1953 Pontiac Parisienne

The only car in the show with a steel body, the Parisienne was based on the 1953 Pontiac Chieftain production convertible.

Like all the cars except the two La Salle IIS, the Parisienne is a running vehicle. Intended as a chauffeur-driven town car, the concept’s front passenger seat had hydraulics to automatically move it forward when passengers opened the rear door.

The front seat was upholstered in “Roulette pink” cowhide. The rear bench featured black, button-tufted nylon. The Parisienne’s roof was seven inches lower than the production model.

The Parisienne’s 4.4L inline eightcylinder engine, or “straight-eight,” produced 122 hp.

1954 Pontiac Bonneville Special

Every piece of the Bonneville Special is from the original show car, even the tires.

“The only changes are rebuilt and repainted carburetors and brake master cylinder,” Bortz says. “There may even still be some 70-year-old air in the tires.”

The bubble-top design is one of many aviation-inspired elements on

GM’S 1950s concepts. The Bonneville Special was powered by 4.4L inline eight-cylinder car that produced 230 hp.

1955 Lasalle II roadster and sedan

Badged La Salle II, a brand that never existed, these cars were Earl’s tribute to La Salle, a lower luxury brand GM produced from 1927-40. Earl’s first job at GM was designing the 1927 La Salle. The two cars are the only ones in the exhibit that did not run.

Bortz restored the roadster from its years of neglect, but left the sedan in junkyard condition as testimony to the neglect many historic show cars endured.

Unlike badges on La Salle production vehicles, the badges on the roadster include a profile of a dog – a tribute to Earl’s beloved family dog, who died during the concepts’ development. Just 180 inches long, the sedan was a foot shorter than a 1955 Chevrolet Be Air. Both La Salle IIS feature a 2.5L V6 producing an estimated 150 hp.

1955 Chevrolet Biscayne

The Biscayne was an early experiment in creating a compact car, but it also showcased the new Chevrolet small-block V8 engine.

While many of the Biscayne’s styling elements were abandoned, the concept’s rear end influenced the Corvair – the other small car proposal GM was evaluating when the Biscayne was created.

The Biscayne’s wide stance created a roomy interior, while the tinted upper third of its windshield previewed a feature introduced on 1959 Chevys. Its 4.3L V8 engine produced 215 hp.