Fisker Automotive’s Karma plug-in hybrid has a busy month planned for August. Just 19 months after being unveiled as a concept car, it will make its world driving debut at the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races on Aug. 15. The prototype is on tap to take two laps on the 11-turn Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca course. Karma isn’t just making laps, it’s making history, as this marks the first time a plug-in hybrid vehicle appears on track at the event.

Fisker reps have a busy schedule that week; it will be on display at Concorso Italiano on Aug. 14 along with the Karma Sunset hardtop convertible concept, and the Sunset will be on display at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Aug. 16.

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In just over two weeks, car lovers will flock to the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where they’ll ooooh and aaaaah over some of the finest creations ever to roll across the ground. And this year, it’s possible that no other car will have quite the allure as the reconstructed 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne.

The Biscayne was a concept car built by GM back in 1955 as part of the General Motors Motorama tour. This engine-revving caravan of concept cars traveled the U.S., inviting the public to get a glimpse of their automotive future. The problem was, most of these cars were never road-tested, and when the Motorama tour ended, GM ordered most of the cars destroyed to avoid legal problems.

Three years later, Chevrolet produced a different Biscayne, loosely modeled after the sleek dream car – but worlds away. The Biscayne that hit the road from 1958 until 1972 was designed specifically for low-cost, no-frills transportation, and was the least expensive car in Chevy’s lineup of full-size cars.

The original Biscayne might have been completely forgotten, were it not for Joe Bortz, who was a young boy when he spied the GM dream cars at the 1955 Chicago Auto Show. Unable to shake their memory, Bortz tracked down the remains of the Biscayne and the LaSalle Roadster at a Detroit-area junkyard, and has worked tirelessly to restore these concepts to their original greatness.

On August 17, the Biscayne makes its first public appearance since 1955 as part of the showings at Pebble Beach. Bortz, a self-proclaimed automotive archeologist, will have a few other pieces of history that he’s pieced together as well. Those cars join an exhibit of about a dozen dream cars that GM saved, and they’ll be part of a display celebrating GM’s centennial.

It seems fitting that the Biscayne, which was unceremoniously put out to pasture in the late ’50s, resurfaces now: In the Motorama tour, it was nicknamed the ‘Miracle Car’ because it drew the largest crowds of any of the concept cars. And with soaring gas prices, slowed sales and concerns over fuel efficiency, I can’t think of a time when the auto industry has needed a miracle any more than it does today.

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Many eyes are on Abilene, Texas this week as Yisrayl Hawkins, leader of the House of Yahweh cult, has declared June 12 as Doomsday.

(Of course, the fact that there are no “End of the World” sales going on at Macy’s and Nordstrom’s immediately makes this information seem questionable.)

End time prophecies aside, there definitely will be something big happening in Abilene tomorrow – but it’s a grand opening, not a big finish.

June 12 marks the opening of a new exhibition from the Automotive Fine Arts Society at The Grace Museum in Abilene. And for anyone who loves cars, this exhibit is definitely worth the drive.

It’s the first time the AFAS has presented a museum exhibit, and the national organization has called on artists from all different mediums to make it a breath-taking experience for those who like to ooh and aah over all things automotive. Zero to 60 includes paintings and sculptures, pen-and-ink drawings, wood carvings and more. (Pictured is “Sex in the City” by Ken Eberts.)

“The paintings and sculptures of the AFAS relate their common love affair with the automobile and its history,” said Grace Museum curator Judy Deaton. She said the cars captured by the artists range from classics to current designs; from street vehicles to race cars.

“The subject may be the same but the results vary from the photorealism to energetic abstractions and everything in between,” Deaton says. “Jags, coups, convertibles, woodies, roadsters, Duesebergs, dragsters and Vettes – the romance of the road is in excellent and very talented hands.”

AFAS regularly exhibits its members talents at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, but this marks the first time that many of these artists have been assembled in a non-automotive setting.

So if you’re headed to Abilene tomorrow to catch the End of the World, make sure you swing by The Grace Museum first. And if you can’t make it tomorrow, you have until September 7. (Well, not according to Yisrayl, but I’m going out on a limb and guessing you’re OK on time.)

The Grace Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and until 8 p.m. on Thursday. For more information, visit their web site or call 325-673-4587.

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