Miguel Sánchez
The early 50s was a time of dreams in America. Dreams that set their sights very far, beyond the stars. In the middle of the Space Race with the Soviet Union, American society was permeated by a futuristic euphoria that inspired, from movies like Forbidden planet, to bodies of impossible shapes and gleaming chrome.
Today, almost 70 years later, both those first science fiction movies and those cars that pretended to be rockets to Mars arranged on Route 66 do not cease to arouse us astonishment and condescension in equal measure. Astonishment at its original and recognizable aesthetic. Condescension because ... Anyway, they are the result of a certain moment in which of those was "futuristic" now it is, quite simply, pretentiously Kitsch.
And if there is a car where that extravagance and excess of the American futurism of the 50s is expressed at the maximum power ... That is the Golden sahara. The pretentious and spectacular dream of George Barris. The genius who - nothing is by chance - became famous for bringing that excessive and dazzling aesthetic to the cars of one of the most beloved science fiction sagas in American cinema.
A FILM CAREER: GEORGE BARRIS
Make a semblance of George Barris (1925-2015) would take us more lines than those in this article, so we are going to work as Velázquez did on his canvases: we will give some loose brushstrokes that, together, will help us to create an overall image. From the mythical Ford Torino from 'Starsky & Hutch' until comic car from 'The Munsters' going through modifying 25 cars for the Beach Boys, a limousine for Elvis Presley, working on the Jurassic Park cars and above all ... Be the designer of the first Batmobile!
With all this, George Barris He was one of the largest bodybuilders specialized in cinema during the past century. However ... What is surely his most ambitious work was not made for the big screen. Although it does seem to come out of a science fiction work: the Golden Sahara. A vehicle that, we suppose, he would think to sell on request to people who wanted to have what, if it had gone well, would surely have been the most exclusive car of the moment.
To show this, a fact: while in 1955 the most expensive Cadillac cost about $ 6.500 ... The bill for a Golden Sahara was 25.000! An astronomical figure that was given by the fact that the Golden Sahara, in addition to having an unusual amount of extras, added some "Asian luxuries”Made in an almost artisan way, absolutely delusional. Possibly for all this, it did not go beyond the prototype, although it is undoubtedly amazing.
GOLDEN SAHARA, AUTONOMOUS DRIVING
Unfortunately, the mechanical details of the Golden Sahara are scarce. We know little about the details of the gestation of this model; It is as if that cinematographic character of George Barris had permeated everything to give it a narrative of a certain suspense. Anyway, one thing we do know exactly: when the model began to develop around 1952 or 1953It did so on the basis of a Lincoln Capri.
However, as long as we pay attention to the posters that accompanied the car in the presentations that were made of it throughout the country, there would have been nothing left of the original Capri engine; this was replaced by some kind of ingenuity "hybrid" with more than 500CV. Who knows ... As a good film man George Barris knew how to create a spectacle, and we, as good spectators ... We want to be enchanted by the charm of the possible.
Anyway, there a really futuristic system of the Golden Sahara about which there is no doubt: it could be driven thanks to the steering wheel, a joystick or even ... Remote control! Its control system could be connected in various ways, obeying some elements or others.
Therefore, in addition to being able to drive it like any other car thanks to the steering wheel and pedals ... The Golden Sahara allowed it to be steered in other ways, including contemplated a radar guidance system. Come on ... The now so current and controversial autonomous driving!
No matter where you look at it ... It is clear that its aesthetics cannot leave you indifferent. But the truth is that the most exciting thing is the technology that hides under its body painted with pearl paint. Yes ... It's all an excess, you see. An excess that ended up forgotten in a garage, disassembled into pieces to avoid rapid deterioration and that now, almost seven decades later, returns to the front page thanks to its auction imminent in Mecum.
Before we mentioned that George Barris participated in the design of the cars for Jurassic Park. Well, do you remember when the founder of that extravagant park kept saying happily "I have not spared expenses" and still everything went unexpectedly? This is how we see the Golden Sahara: a failed but amazing vehicle, almost science fiction, in which the barrier between reality and fiction is always blurred. Pure cinema.
