Ground-hugging lines and an overall height of 51.8 Inches are features of La Galaxie, a full-size car unveiled by Ford Motor Company at the Chicago Automobile Show.

Developed to explore future styling concepts as they evolve from engineering and technological advances, La Galaxie envisions the use of such operating features as an electronic proximity warning device that would stop the car automatically if it came dangerously close to another vehicle or object in its path.

Although most of its features have gotten no further than the advanced styling studios, the car is by no means totally impractical, according to George W. Walker, Ford vice president and director of styling.

"Engineers and experts in automotive safety have made such tremendous progress in recent years that the stylists can no longer assume that the things that are Impossible today will also be impossible tomorrow," Walker added.

New in concept and bold in its styling approach, La Galaxie portends a return to simplicity but with features new to the American automotive scene.

The Scenic-Scope compound windshield sweeps back over the passenger compartment, its lines broken only by a single airscoop and by the strip of sheet metal to which the twin-section butterfly roof would be hinged. An oval indentation in the roof area surrounding the rear passenger compartment assures both privacy and adequate visibility for rear-seat passengers.

Inside La Galaxie are three individual, fully-adjustable front seats. Each has an adjustable head rest, and the two outboard seats are also provided with arm rests. The Form-Flow rear seats are Integrated with the side panels and accommodate three passengers.

The steering wheel is mounted on one of two pods that run through the windshield and are suspended in two depressions in the hood. Transmission and turn indicator controls are on the steering wheel within easy reach and sight of the driver.

While the car is non-operable at present, fine-textured grillework which runs along the lower portion of the body from the bottom of the headlights to the middle of the door is designed to house exhaust ports for an engine. One chrome bar sweeps across the top of this area from the center of the headlight. A second, two-piece bar drops gently from the bottom of the headlight to the front of the wheel housing, then continues from the rear of the housing to terminate in a scooplike section in the middle of the lower edge of the door.

La Galaxie is 223.6 inches in length and 80.1 in width. It has a wheelbase of 126 inches.