The GM Futurliners were a group of custom vehicles, styled in the 1940s by Harley Earl for General Motors, and integral to the company's Parade of Progress—a North American traveling exhibition promoting future cars and technologies.

At 33 feet long, 8 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and weighing more than 12 tons, each Futurliner featured heavily stylized art deco, streamlined bodywork, deep red side and white roof paint, large articulated chrome side panels, a military-grade 302 cubic inch GMC straight-six gasoline engine and automatic transmission,[5] whitewall tires and a prominent, high-mounted, centrally located driver command position with a panoramic windshield.

[6] Originally manufactured for the 1939 New York World's Fair,[7] the Futurliners were later featured in GM's Parade of Progress, a promotional caravan travelling a 150-stop route across the United States and Canada.

Interrupted by World War II, the vehicles were refurbished by GM and the Parade of Progress resumed in 1953.

The 1953 Parade started in April 1953 with rehearsals in Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky, followed by the premiere in Dayton, Ohio.

[8] In 1955 a miniature automobile assembly line display named A Car Is Born was constructed for one of the Futurliners.

[10] This display was narrated by Parker Fennelly and featured a complicated animated diorama that transformed to show progress in road and infrastructure improvements from 1902 to 1953.

The reborn parade was discontinued in 1956 for the last time, displaced by increasing popularity of network television—one of the very technologies the Futurliners themselves had once promoted.

The original powertrain for the Futurliners was a four-cylinder diesel coupled to a four-speed manual transmission, giving the vehicles a top speed of approximately 40 mph (64 km/h).

[1] When the Parade of Progress resumed in 1953, the Futurliners were refurbished by fitting a six-cylinder, 302 cubic-inch engine, along with a four-speed automatic transmission and gear splitter; a metal roof was added to the glass cabin and air conditioning was fitted to reduce heat.

The 302 cu in (4,950 cc; 4.95 L) six cylinder gasoline engine refitted in 1953 had a rated output of 145 hp (108 kW) and 262 lb⋅ft (355 N⋅m) of torque at 1,400 RPM, with a compression ratio of 7.5:1.

[17] Rick had previously had Kindig-It Design customize a VW 23 window bus with a Fusion-IO theme.

The overhead pod light that extends out of the roof needs to be repaired and parts may be used from the other Futurliner which is described as a carcass according to John Cieplik, general manager of Peter Pan Coach Builders.

[21] In the mid-1980s it was sold to Brent Knight of Roselle, Illinois; in the late 1990s, found in a junkyard in Yuma, Arizona.