Autoblog

click above image for gallery of the Aurora Safety Car

"We pass the basket for a second collection this week at Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration so the parish project car can be finished." It didn't go down quite like that in the Branford, CT parish of Father Alfred Juliano back in the 1950s, but the priest did build a car of his own design that was partially funded by parishioners. I remember rifling through a stack of musty Mechanix Illustrated backissues in my misspent youth and coming across a feature on this vehicle, called the Aurora. A lot of people have declaimed the hideousness of Juliano's "safety car" throughout the years. It certainly has a peculiar reverse rake to its stance, while the flowing, organic form of the fiberglass body give the Aurora the appearance of a quickly departing Sea Ray , rather than an automobile headed at you.

Father Juliano had a lifelong automotive avocation and studied art before entering the priesthood. His intent with the Aurora was to create the world's safest automobile atop a salvaged Buick chassis. The body was hand-laid fiberglass and the bubbilicious daylight openings are rendered in plexiglass. Despite his efforts, things did not go well for Fr. Juliano. The car's press unveiling was a disaster, and Juliano ultimately ended up in financial trouble and was forced to leave his order. The Aurora was given to a garage to settle a debt, and that's where England's Andy Saunders tracked the vehicle down. Andy runs an auto import and customization business, and relishes a challenge. Restoring the Aurora was an arduous process, but as you can see, it's risen like Lazarus from the very disintegrated state Andy found it in. Since its restoration, the car has appeared at several events and museums, including Goodwood. Quite the resurrection.

[Source: NY Times, Photo: Andrew Saunders / NYT]

While in Paris, Eric Bryant and I spent a lot of time pounding the pavement on the streets of Paris and talking all things autos. Invariably we touched upon Oldsmobile's demise, the reliving of which inspired today's RR of the Day. Owned by a 20-something Flickr member who goes by the handle madeindetroit_2006, this 2003 Oldsmobile Aurora is one of the Final 500, the last half-thou of Auroras built at GM's Orion, Michigan plant. It features the 4.0-liter L47 V8 that was a special version of Cadillac's Northstar V8 producing 250 horsepower and 260 ft-lbs. of torque made only for Oldsmobile. This particular model is No. 252 out of 500.

The Aurora was part of a strong car lineup abandoned when Oldsmobile was put down like a sick puppy in 2004. Together with the Silhouette, Bravado, Intrigue and the Alero, of which I happen to own a 1999 example of the latter, the Aurora ushered out of existence a company that had been selling cars since 1897. The least we could do is feature one of the brand's bright spots before its star faded.

If you'd like to see your own ride featured here, simply upload photos of your ride into our Flickr group. We select one image to highlight each week day, and on the weekend let you vote for the RR of the Week. Detailed instructions can be found after the jump.