Nine years ago, in 2013, when I was volunteering at Buick Gallery (now Sloan Museum of Discovery) in Flint, Michigan, we did a trip to North Carolina. The purpose of the trip was to authenticate what was left of a General Motors milestone vehicle: GM´s 50 Millionth car – The Golden 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe.
The Golden 1955 Chevrolet Sport Coupe was built to celebrate GM´s 50th Millionth Car. It was a 2 door Hard top Bel Air, painted with gold exterior paint, all the 716 (or 600, depends of the source) exterior trim pieces were plated with 24-carat gold. The car was assembled on November 23, 1954 at Chevrolet´s Flint Assembly Plant (in Flint, Michigan) and was put on a float and taken to a “Golden CARnival” parade through Flint downtown. The parade included 72 GM cars and trucks. GM held open house for it´s 125 plants and training centers and around 200,000 people participated on the even nationwide. After the parade the Golden Chevrolet toured the GM´s Motorama shows and disappeared.
Anyways back to our trip to North Carolina…
The car had been destroyed in the garage fire, but the frame, and many of the trim pieces still existed. Some of them had turned black from the smoke and some of them were re-plated and looked like brand new. The original owner had passed away, and his wife was showing us the photos of the vehicle when it was acquired. It had been re-painted black and white, but had still golden trim pieces on it. The paint had peeled off the doors where the “50th Millionth” medallions had been. She also had the car´s original “50 Millionth” license plate that was found under the front seat of the car.
However, Buick Gallery did not purchase the car. I guess there wasn´t enough car left.
The story above takes us to present day, and back to Flint. Michigan. On December 5th, 2023 the Sloan Museum of Discovery was displaying the restored, gold painted – and plated – Chassis for a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe. It is a project that Real Deal Steel, Snodgrass Chevy Restoration and Steve Blades started in April 2023. This 1955 Chevrolet will be exact recreation of the GM´s 50 Millionth Car #3 with the 24k gold plated parts, screws, bolts and washers. Yes, you read correctly – Car #3. According to Steve´s research there were actually three golden Chevrolets built in 1954.
From the Golden Star Classic auto parts brochure:
Car #1 was build in October, 1954 and was used in publicity photos and was the car portrayed to be the 50,000,000th car at the five 1955 GM shows. This car was sold to the public after 1955 and was destroyed in a garage fire in 1996. The Motorama car.
Car #2 was built in late October, 1954 and is the car shown in the ten minute General Motors film titled “Achievement U.S.A.”. This car was only seen in this film and a few still photos. This car has not been seen since and its whereabouts or fate are unknown. The Movie Car.
Car #3 was built on November 23rd, 1954 and was the true GM 50th millionth automobile produced in the United States. This car was only seen in a few assembly line photos, in the background during Harlow Curtice´s speech at the end of the Flint assembly line, and finally on the parade float during the “Golden CARnival” parade through downtown, Flint, Michigan. Unfortunately this historic piece of automotive history has also been lost to time and its whereabouts or fate are unknown. THE 50 Millionth Car.
Car #2 “Achievement USA”
The recreation of the Golden Chevrolet will be completed in few months and will be displayed at Detroit´s Autorama 2024, March 1st-3rd. Link to website
Link to Steve Blades´s 1955 Chevrolet 50,000,000th GM Gold Cars Facebook Group
Below are some photos from the display in Flint, Michigan. The 50 Millionth car was one of the most important celebrations of Flint´s Automotive History, so it will be exciting to see the final product. The chassis by itself looks amazing!
Update 5-18-2024
On March 2nd, 2024 The Golden Chevy replica made did made it´s debut at Detroit Autorama. It looked stunning with the gold plated exterior trim and golden interior! I took some photos from the show, but they seem to be damaged. If I ever figure out how to get them “working” again, I´ll add them on the page.
On May 18rh, 2024 The car was auctioned at Indianapolis Mecum. It sold for whopping $395,000! Hopefully it will be attending shows and not stored away. Here are some photos from the auction.
