Seven Decades Ago, GM Thought A Front-Wheel-Drive V8 Van Might Be A Good Idea

Most automakers around the world agree: the V8 engine is a fine thing for rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive applications. GM, though, never quite agreed on that point, building a whole rash of nose-heavy tail-draggers over the years. Once upon a time, it even thought a front-wheel-drive V8 might be the perfect drivetrain for a big old van.

The year was 1955, and American automakers were building opulent, lavish cars while also experimenting with new concepts and technologies that would take the automobile into a new era. It was against this backdrop that GM debuted a new concept at its 1955 Motorama show—the GMC L’Universelle.

The van was to be a total departure from conventional practice. Forget driving the rear wheels, forget simple slab-sided designs with hinged or sliding doors. The rule book was thrown out, because something new was being hewn for the future.

Doing Things Differently

The name was deliberate. GMC was invoking a little European flair, while also nodding to the “universal” nature of the van. It was designed to be as configurable as possible to suit the whims and desires of the customer paying for it.

To this end, the front-wheel-drive layout was chosen for good reason. The thinking was that with the bulky drivetrain up front, the whole rear of the vehicle could be dedicated to whatever layout best suited the end user.

In an eye-catching move, GM also gave the concept vertically-opening side doors, which provided easy access to the cargo area. The gullwing-like design was more complex and a touch less practical than a sliding door would be, but it added a certain flair befitting a proper concept car. The rear door opened vertically, too, with a simple four-bar linkage enabling it to lift out and up.

All those design choices left the most space possible for a flat, expansive load area, barring the slimlined humps for the rear wheel wells. Floor height was just 13 inches, while the vehicle itself stood only 5 feet 9 inches tall. It had a total 173 cubic feet of total cargo space, though payload was a touch limited at just 1,000 pounds.

Philip J. Monaghan was two years into his tenure as GMC’s general manager when the L’Universelle debuted, and he was eager to convey the benefits of the new drivetrain philosophy. “Although the basic design of L’Universelle is a panel delivery, minor manufacturing changes can convert it into a small bus, taxi, station wagon, or sportsman’s car,” he explained.

While “modular” vehicle designs are bandied around as some new cutting-edge concept these days, the idea goes back much farther in automotive history. Monaghan’s words sound like so many other EV startup pitches we’ve heard in the past decade. Ultimately, flexibility in vehicle body design has always been desirable, and smart engineering has always been key to making it happen. Still, more often than not, economies of scale have seen automakers stick to building plain vehicles while letting outside coachbuilders and upfitters do the reconfiguration work.

Front-Wheel-Uh…

Having debuted a full decade before GM made front-wheel-drive V8s famous with the popular Oldsmobile Toronado, the automaker didn’t have a drivetrain ready to drop into the concept. Engine-wise, GM had selected a 4.7-liter V8 engine for the project, which was denoted as the GMC 288. However, it was really a two-barrel version of the Pontiac 287 at heart, as was used in existing Pontiac and GMC products of the time.

While the V8 was officially supposed to deliver 180 horsepower and 264 pound-feet of torque, the L’Universelle couldn’t actually move under its own power. There was a cobbled-together drivetrain solution up front that never quite worked, so it ended up as a roller only when it was first shown to the public and the press.

Nevertheless, it boasted some grand practical ideas. GM was eager to show off the chassis packaging, with all the important mechanicals tucked into the front third of the vehicle. The radiator itself was placed in a sealed-off bulkhead right behind the front passenger seats, with air ducted out through the roof. The steering was also a little oddball, with the steering shaft effectively having to do a full 180-degree turn to reach the wheels underneath the driver.

Despite the nose-heavy design, the L’Universelle wasn’t entirely unbalanced. Weight distribution was a healthy 54 front, 46 rear when unloaded. This made sense for a work vehicle, with cargo naturally balancing the weight distribution closer towards even.

Even without the fancy doors, though, the GMC was a remarkably sharp design. It had a beautiful wrap-around glass windshield providing a panoramic view with only the slimmest window pillars to get in the way. It also wore an elegant set of round headlights sitting above a very era-appropriate bullet bumper.

The concept was finished in a peach rose over stainless steel body moldings gave it a neat two-tone look, and simply looked ten times too fashionable to be any sort of real work vehicle. Indeed, GM photographs show it delivering flowers, which seems like the right sort of job for a vehicle this elegant.

GM ultimately didn’t take the concept any further. After a limited number of showings, it didn’t make any further appearances or directly enter production. While the front-wheel-drive layout offered some real benefits on paper, the L’Universelle was somewhat overcomplicated compared to the more traditional vans GM was successfully selling en masse at the time. There simply wasn’t enough reason to invest the grand sums to develop a suitable transaxle, chassis, and body design to make it work in a production sense.

Ultimately, GM didn’t capitalize on front-wheel-drive vans back then. However, they’ve nonetheless become a hot segment in decades since for precisely the same reasons of practicality and space—albeit by and large without V8 engine options.

One of the most famous examples is the Volkswagen Transporter. The German automaker adopted a front-wheel-drive layout with the T4 generation, after having spent much of the 20th century sticking to classic rear-engined designs. The new configuration offered a more flexible cargo area and eliminated some of the fussy access and cooling issues inherent in the rear-engine design.

The switch worked very well for Volkswagen, and the T4 Transporter became an excellent-selling product line. Notably, though, Volkswagen’s production vehicle was very much a conventional van in every other sense. It launched with sliding doors, and a simple work-like design with basic panels and minimal adornment. It also put the engine and front wheels out in front of the driver, simplifying things like cooling and finding space for the steering shaft.

It’s also worth noting that GM’s experiment in this area by no means made it the first to build a front-wheel-drive van. German automaker DKW had actually put its own front-wheel-drive van into production all the way back in 1949. It was known as the Schnellaster, or F89L, it boasted a tiny two-cylinder engine mounted transversely between the front wheels. It similarly traded on the flexibility of its layout, with a flat load floor and easy reconfigurability to fit seating or cargo as needed.

GM might not have been able to make a case for the L’Universelle in the 1950s, but DKW didn’t have the same issue. It was able to sell the front-wheel-drive van in Europe all the way from 1949 through to 1962. It even went on to have an extended life as a licensed-built model in Spain and Argentina for some years after that.

We can only speculate as to why GMC didn’t pursue a production model of the L’Universelle. Perhaps the easiest answer is that it was a van the company simply didn’t need at the time. GMC was having no real issue selling its conventional vans at the time to individuals and businesses alike. There was little reason to invest in retooling to build a fancier, more complicated model that the customer base wasn’t actively looking for. GMC’s regular rear-wheel-drive vans were good enough for hard work, and the compromises the front-wheel-drive layout came with—particularly in terms of maintenance and cooling—probably weren’t worth the fuss, either.

In any case, the L’Universelle stands as a reminder that there is value in exploring alternative solutions. They might not have been right for GM at the time, but they were right for other automakers down the line. Few concepts ever make it to production, but it’s always worth exploring a new idea—and it’s a bonus if you can make something memorable and beautiful while you’re at it.

Top graphic image: GM