LaGasse and Gilland didn’t give Earl just one concept car but two. However, there is some debate about the sequence of events that led to there being two. One story suggests both were built simultaneously, while another version says the second was built a few months later (via Sports Car Market). Whatever the case, the pair made two Bonneville Specials.
The first car was painted bronze and unveiled at the New York City Motorama in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in January 1954. The second, painted emerald green, appeared at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles a few months later (March). One of the origin stories has it that the public response to the Bonneville at the Motorama show was so great they decided to build the second for the L.A. show.
Concepts and prototypes are typically destroyed after making an appearance at auto shows due to fears by automakers that if one was on the road and crashed, they’d be sued. That didn’t happen with either of these two cars. According to Gilland, the emerald green car went on tour to dealerships around the country. In contrast, the bronze car, through some kind of chicanery, found its way out of the GM warehouse it was stored at and was subsequently sold (via Sports Car Market).
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