Scottsdale, Arizona.

Ben Huberman is the author of this week’s photo challenge topic. I’m not bragging but this one was easy. Ben asks to show us something that stands out from the everyday. From the post, “For this week’s challenge, share a photo of something rare…” You can view the entire challenge post here.

The two automobiles I feature in this week’s challenge are certainly rare. They are known in the automotive trade as “concept cars”. The purpose of a concept car is to show off new designs or new technology to gauge how well the public might embrace the design. Most concept cars never make it into production, thus making them exceedingly rare. The photo above features a 1956 Chrysler Diablo captured in 2013 at the Barrett-Jackson Auto Auction. The vehicle sold at that auction for $1.375 million USD. The vehicle is based upon the venerable Chrysler 300 chassis, the body designed by Virgil Exner Sr. in collaboration with Ghia, an Italian automotive body builder.

The 1954 Packard Panther, (also known as Grey Wolf II) is another rare concept car, one of only four built, and one of two featuring a supercharged engine. This car sold in 2013 for a bargain $825,000 USD. To find out more about the history of these two rare concept cars, just search Google for the year and model name. These two examples went to auction at the same time in 2013, Lot #5033 for the Packard, and Lot #5034 for the Chrysler.

John Steiner