Are there any cars that have gone extinct?

I googled around and found this...

 

RustyNewYorker, you are right. That was OT.

 

ClayMart, I have to go back and check the details but I think Fuller was showing off the Dymaxion at the world's far, driving it on the grounds for promo. A Britsh car enthusiast traveled to the fair just to see the car and persuaded Fuller to allow him to drive it. One account held that some sort of vehicle pulled in front of the Dymaxion and, in trying to avoid a collision, the British driver upset the Dymaxion and was actually killed.

The accident seemed to take the wind out of Fuller's sails, even though this was purely an accident. It still amounted to bad publicity, with the Dymaxion suddenly cast in doubt in the public's minds.

I may be wrong, but I do believe one of the Dymaxions still exists but it just a museum piece.

 

Did a little scratching &, YES, the second of the THREE Dymaxion prototypes DOES exist -- though just barely. It is in Harrah's collection in Reno. The interior is a "blank," because no one knows what Fuller's interior looked like.

SO, yeah, THIS is one that is very, very nearly extinct. Thank goodness there is ONE!

[BTW: The fatal accident was at the 1933 World's Fair.]

 

Since we touched on experimental protypes, how about Lewis' Aeromobile, from the late 1930s. Some claim Ferdinand Porsch swiped the shape for the original VW design. I think Lewis only built two. Anyone know if there's a SURVIVOR?

 

These are on the endangered list...

 

There was never an Owl car,acording to The Serial Number Book For U.S.Cars-1900-1975.
It list's over 280 car makes and over 10,000 models and the years they were built.
Some are Wasp , Vogue, Sun, Spacke,ReVere,Prado,Maibohm,Jones,Gatts,Cutting,Delling,Cameron,BayState,&Argonne

 

FNG's.......

 

The Moore,was built buy Moore MotorCf Minneapolis,Minn. and Moore Motor Vehicile Co.,Danville,Illinois. The were all 4 cyl.Model 30, 1916-1919 ,1920 model F30

 

How about the J.I.Case Threshing Machine Company ? There first car was in 1910 and last was 1927. This was the same time Case built there best steam traction engines. My friend has the only 1916 thats left , worth a lot.

 

It would be practically impossible to prove any car is extinct unless you could account for every one being scrapped or destroyed. There are obscure cars in collections all over the world. If you read antique car magazines especially the English ones, every month there is at least one astonishing find of some mega rare or unique car, some of the have been sitting in someone's garage for 40 years.

An extreme example, 2 cars of 1908 and 1910 vintage turned up in a warehouse in London. The original owner was a Russian aristocrat who left Russia before WW1 and lived in England for a time. Right after WW1 he moved his family to Paris, putting all his furniture in storage in London along with the 2 cars. He never did come back but he, or his business manager, continued paying the storage bill for nearly 100 years.

 

Buckminster Fuller built 3 Dymaxion cars. Each one unique, each an improvement over the previous one. He said at the time (early 30s) jobs were hard to get so when the first car was nearly done work slowed down to a crawl. To get the first one done he had to start the second one, and to get that one done he had to start the third.

About the wreck that killed the driver. Fuller and others drove these cars all over the place with no problems but they did attract a lot of attention. In 1933 one got into a race with a big limousine on a highway near Chicago. The limousine ran the Dymaxion off the road, killing the driver. The limousine sped off and, as it belong to a high official in the Chicago city administration, nothing more was said about it. The headline in the next day's paper said "Freak Car Kills Driver". No mention of the other vehicle.

Fuller drove one of the cars over 200,000 miles before he got rid of it. He had the engine (Ford V8) replaced several times. The tires were Goodyear Super Balloon, when they stopped making them he had to have the old ones recapped. I think he made the decision to get a new car when he could no longer get tires.

The cars were built in the old Locomobile factory by mechanics and custom body specialists who used to build Locomobiles, a custom built luxury car that sold for Rolls Royce prices.

 

I have a friend that has the original blueprint cover sheet for the Dymaxion. He also has a top view diagram of the car's odd turning pattern. I'll see if he'll let me take photos.

I believe the Lane museum has commissioned an exact replica. I saw pictures of the finished wood frame on a running chassis on its way to get skinned. Cool project.

 

This is a Chevy Mercury. I've never seen one . Bill aka Tnomoldw

 

I believe the american picker guys now own that place and run there second shop there.