The Aurora - A Safety Car built by a Catholic Priest

The Aurora on display in the late 1950s.

 The story of the Aurora begins kind of oddly: a Catholic priest, Father Alfred A. Juliano, decided to build a car which pushed the art of car safety. This was 1957, a time when padded dashboards were extra cost options, seat belt wearers were as rare as Superman #1 comics, and Unsafe at Any Speed was still eight years away.

Looking at it from a 2014 perspective, some the safety features wouldn't work very well, but many have survived in cars to this day. There were seat belts - which wouldn't be required for another seven years. A collapsible steering column, which was still ten years from becoming commonplace. A roll cage. And a padded dashboard. Pretty standard stuff, but ahead of its time.

While none of the Aurora's safety features could be considered idiotic by a 1957 standard, 2014 is a much harsher judge of car safety. The Aurora had a button that the driver could push to swivel the seats rearward in the event of an impending crash, a windshield that bulged out to prevent impact, and a scoop like structure on the front end (clearly seen in the picture) that would reduce harm to pedestrians if one was hit. The latter two features were largely responsible for the Aurora being labeled one of the ugliest cars ever made.

The Aurora was built on the salvaged chassis of a 1953 Buick, with the body structure being made of fiberglass and wood. The production version was to offer a choice of Chrysler, Cadillac, or Lincoln engines and be priced at $12,000 ($100,908 in today's dollars). On its way to its first press conference in 1957, it broke down 15 times, with most of those times being related to the fuel system, which had been sitting still for four years. It arrived hours late, and there were no advance orders.

For that matter, there were no orders whatsoever.

Only one was made.