I always wanted to own a dream car,” said Andy Saunders, 44, who has a flair for customizing cars. “But others had already bought all the dream cars.”
So Saunders settled, instead, for a nightmare.
“I remember one day going through a book about dream cars, and I saw a tiny drawing, a sketch really, or artist's impression of a car called the Aurora,” Saunders said in a telephone interview. “My dad commented, ‘Have you ever seen anything so ugly?' He was right; it was so ugly it was unreal. I said straightaway, ‘I've got to own that.'”
Saunders, who operates an auto importing and customizing business near his home in England, said he enjoyed a challenge. He has worked on cars that include a Lancia and a Cord (www.andysaunderskustoms.com).
He saw the image of the Aurora in 1993, and it took him several years of detective work to find what happened to the car.
The Aurora may have had the most unusual pedigree in the history of the auto industry. It was created in the mid-1950s by a Catholic priest, Alfred Juliano, and partly bankrolled by parishioners of his church in Branford, Connecticut.
Juliano wanted to create the world's safest automobile, and his Aurora featured innovations that were years ahead of their time. The Aurora also had many wacky ideas to go along with its bizarre styling. Some auto historians have called it the ugliest car ever made.
Although Saunders originally agreed, he has come to see beauty in the Aurora.
Juliano, who studied art, said he always wanted to design cars, even as he studied to join the priesthood. Published reports said he entered competitions for aspiring auto stylists, including one sponsored by General Motors. Juliano's family said GM offered him a scholarship to study with the legendary designer Harley Earl, but he said the offer came just after he had been ordained a priest.
Juliano continued to be fascinated with cars and their design. He also believed that most cars were unsafe, and began a quest to design a car that addressed his laundry list of safety issues. His solutions were novel, to say the least.
“Despite having no mechanical knowledge, Juliano set out to put his heart and soul into that car,” Saunders said. “He bought a totaled 1953 Buick, straightened the frame, and began building his dream around that.” He spent two years designing the car and another two constructing it.
Over a plywood substructure, Juliano fashioned a swoopy 5.5m-long fiberglass body, which he said was resistant to dents, rust and corrosion. It had a gaping, cow-catcher-style nose, filled with foam, to safely scoop up errant pedestrians and cradle them on a kind of platform. The spare tire was in a “crush space” under the nose.
Hydraulic jacks, activated by a dashboard control, lifted the Aurora off the ground for service.
The oddly bubble-shaped windshield, made from shatterproof resin, had no wipers because Juliano said it was so aerodynamic, raindrops blew away. The bubble curved out, away from occupants, to minimize head injuries. The roof was a stunning panoramic dome, with metal blinds inside.
The driver's seat was toward the center of the car, for better protection in a side impact. There were four seats, each with seat belts, still a revolutionary idea at the time.
The seats had high, reinforced backs and were mounted on a pedestal that could be rotated so, in case of an impending crash, they could be spun backwards.
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