Transparent 1939 Pontiac hitting the auction block in July

13 years, 6 months ago - 14 June 2011

It's a car you can't really drive, but RM Auctions expects that a 1939 Pontiac with a Plexiglas body will go for anywhere between $275,000 to $475,000 at the St. John's auction that's being held as part of the Concours d'Elegance of America in Plymouth, MI this July.

The Pontiac was built for the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair and appeared as part of General Motors' "Futurama" exhibit that showcased how the immediate pre-World War II imagination pictured 1960.

See-through cars were not part of the prediction, but a tough new transparent material that could be molded into such a complex shape was certainly something worth showing off. The Pontiac's body was created by Rohm, inventor of Plexiglas, to show off its revolutionary new material, and this particular car is the only one of two such vehicles that's known to survive.

This Poncho is unrestored, so there's some visible damage that's been accumulated over the years, but this impressive artifact is the first full-size automobile rendered see-through and therefore deserves a place of prominence in someone's collection... or living room. Either way, it will be a conversation piece.