1958 Ford Nucleon

The Ford Nucleon was a 1958 concept car designed by the Ford Motor Company to represent the Nuclear powered cars of tomorrow. Rather then use a combustion engine the Ford Nucleon used steam power generated from the heating of water by a compact Uranium fission reactor located in the back of the car so as to distance the driver and passenger from the likely radiation and provide space for internal shielding against it. However at the time it was not possible to create a Nuclear reactor that small, and thus a working prototype of the Ford Nucleon was never produced. Though a scaled model was produced for display, as well as a smaller model. The larger of these was destroyed in a fire but the smaller is currently on display in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Note: There are variations of this design which may account for the 1959 and 1960 Ford Nucleon concepts. More research is required.