At the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Ford unveiled a huge boat of a car with more glass than bodywork in the Aurora concept. The “Luxury Lounge” was a pivotal change in road-going luxury and came at the height of the station wagon as the top shelf family hauler of choice.
Gene Bordinat, Vice President and Director of Styling at Ford in 1964, introduced the Aurora concept as “..a rolling laboratory of new ideas in styling and engineering.”
The Aurora Luxury Lounge, as it would come to be called, introduced several ideas to the luxury market. Both the second and third rows of seating were curved and couch-like, the passenger’s seat pivoted to allow the front passenger to face the second row, and the whole car was the length of a school bus (or thereabouts) to accommodate all of this interior space.
The lower half of the concept car was arrow-like with a sharpened front wedge with striping and bodywork to accentuate that forward piercing look. The rear was a curved clamshell opening with the top half opening upward and the lower tailgate dropping down to form a ramp to the interior. Further segmenting the lower half of the body from the upper greenhouse. That upper portion was more glass than pillar, with an open-style feel that was probably superheated in actual use.
At the time that the Aurora concept was introduced, Ford’s Country Squire station wagon (and the related Mercury Colony Park) were high-selling models for the company. The Country Squire going into its now-iconic land yacht LTD stage for the 1965 model year.
Conceptual ideas besides the lounge-like seating arrangement in the Aurora concept included a horizontal bar to replace the steering wheel and a three-door design (rear door on the passenger’s / curb side) rather than four. Polarizing moon roof glass could be changed from clear to opaque with the push of a button, and a half-turn rack to steering fully left or right without fully rotating the steering bar. Illuminated paneling on the body sides lit up the area around the car, in precognition of today’s “floating LED” trend.
The Ford Aurora Luxury Lounge concept was a big hit at the show, but never made production. Most of its technologies were not production-ready and the car itself would have had limited market interest due to its size and complexity.
The concept is still in the Henry Ford Museum along with several artifacts from the New York show, including Ford’s original brochure for the car, Bordinat’s full speech introducing it, and several photographs.
