General Motors built the Firebird III in 1958 as part of its Motorama show circuit — a traveling exhibition where GM displayed its most ambitious and experimental designs. The car was never meant for a dealership floor. It was a rolling demonstration of where GM believed automobiles were headed, and it pushed nearly every boundary that existed in automotive design at the time.
The man behind the Firebird III’s look was Harley Earl, GM’s chief of design and one of the most influential figures in the history of American cars. Earl looked to military fighter aircraft for inspiration — a natural source given how dominant jet technology had become in the public imagination during the late 1950s. The result was a fiberglass body with seven short wings and dramatic tail fins that made the car look less like a vehicle and more like something launched from a runway.
Unlike most American cars of the era, the Firebird III deliberately avoided chrome and parallel lines. Earl’s team instead used sculpted surfaces and a sharp rocker panel tuck-under along the lower body. That specific design detail was directly adopted by the 1959 Cadillac, making the Firebird III one of the clearest cases of a concept car directly shaping a production vehicle.
Power came from a 225-horsepower Whirlfire GT-305 gas turbine engine — cutting-edge technology in 1958. A second, much smaller two-cylinder gasoline engine producing 10 horsepower ran the car’s accessories separately. This dual-engine arrangement was unusual for any road vehicle, let alone a concept, and it signaled GM’s genuine interest in turbine propulsion as a viable automotive technology.
The body featured a double-bubble canopy that covered both seats and gave the cabin a spacious, aircraft-cockpit feel. Inside, the Firebird III was equipped with cruise control and anti-lock brakes — technologies that would not become common in production cars until decades later. The car also had air drag brakes, flat panels built into the bodywork that extended outward to slow the vehicle from high speeds, borrowed directly from aircraft design.
The most talked-about feature inside the cabin was the joystick. Mounted between the two seats rather than in front of the driver, it replaced the traditional steering wheel entirely. The joystick controlled direction and gave the driver precise handling input in a way that no production car of the time offered. It was a radical choice, and it reinforced the Firebird III’s identity as a vehicle designed to challenge assumptions.
Entry to the car worked through an ultrasonic key — a device that unlocked the doors without any physical contact. GM also built in an automated guidance system designed to help the driver avoid accidents. These two features, taken together, pointed directly toward ideas that would not seriously re-emerge in automotive development until the 21st century.
The Firebird III made its public debut at the 1959 Motorama, where it drew significant attention from audiences and automotive press alike. The show was the right stage for a vehicle this ambitious — Motorama crowds expected to see ideas that felt years ahead, and the Firebird III delivered on that expectation without reservation.
GM’s designers did develop early plans for a Firebird IV, including a full-sized wooden frame. The project never moved beyond that stage and was shelved before it reached any further development. The Firebird III therefore stands as the final fully realized entry in GM’s Motorama Firebird series.
