History We ALL Love a DARE! PIX of TRULY Extinct Makes?

Thanks to ConceptCarz, here's a fabulous look at an actual 1928 Martin Aerodynamic Model 100 at a Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles. This was one of three "cars of the future" put forth by James V. Martin, famous for aircraft, from 1928 to 1950. The resemblance to Stout's Scarab seems unmistakable, suggesting Stout was impressed enough to given the visual concept an impressive Art Decco treatment a few years later.

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Anybody know what the four-banger with updraft carb is?
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Her's pics of Roosevelt










The Roosevelt was made by Marmon in 1929 to 1930

/Stefan

 

Note the text of Brisbane news item from late-December
1932 posted by MrFire. The use of Duralumin, usually used
for light, strong aircraft, underscores the company's plans
for a light, monocoque-bodied wind-cheater, whose 80
horsepower might, then, achieve the attention-getting
speed of 100. A bit to hope (or boast) for!

_______________________________________________


Brisbane Courier, December, 1932

REAR-ENGINED CAR.

Streamlined Model.

An interesting car, a rear-
engined Bremac, is to make
its appearance in America shortly.
The car, which is not intended for
quantity production, will be fit-
ted with a special streamlined
body. An 80 h.p. eight-cylinder
enginer is to be used, and it is
estimated that the power-weight
ratio will be 33lb. per horse-
power, which, together with the
streamlining, will provide a maxi-
mum speed of over 100 m.p.h. The
novel body will consist of a series
of duralumin hooks framed with
wood and covered with metal.
__________________________________________________

Introduced in 1909 "Duralumin" (now an obsolete term) was
the original name for an aluminum alloy, stronger and lighter
than aluminum alone. Besides aluminum the alloy includes
some copper, manganese and magnesium. Relatively quickly,
its use in rigid dirigibles (Hindenburg included) and airplane
monocoque fuselages spread from Germany through the world.

 

William Stout's Scarab, 1935

 

Pic of the final evolution of Paul Lewis' 1937 Airomobile,
thanks to SunRoofCord, who dug for it.



Photo source: Thanks to FindRareCar.com
(Hemmings AutoBlogs)

 

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McQuay-Norris Streamliner, 1934.
Photos THANKS to Diseno-Art.com!

 

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion, 1933.





Below is a patent drawing of the Dymaxion. Note the driveline.

 

Yup, a REAL Dymaxion, in case anybody thought they all wound up in museums. Doug Gary said his grandfather's bottling company acquired it in Washington, D.C., for ad power. It was driven to Charlotte, NC, where it eventually burned up after its driver forgot and left the gas cap off after a fill-up. HAMBer Mazooma provided the link to most of these Dymaxion photos. THANKS!

 

The Starliner was a one-off teardrop car created by Robert Gouge
of Bay City, MI, in 1935. Amazingly, it survives, though new owner,
Geoff Hacker of Tampa, FL, has work to do in bringing it back.




The dorsal fin originally was taller
and went further up, Geoff says.


Geoff with his dream car

 

Unnamed four-wheel vehicle, model only, 1934 by industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes.



Norman Bel Geddes, 1893-1958, paved the design
thought path for others whose names are better
remembered today than his own.


1931


1931

 

Bel Geddes flying car, 1945

[SIZE=-1]Double-decker airliner, Bel Geddes with Otto Koller, 1929[/SIZE]​

 

Vintage Dream Car Pictures

1. 1951 Buick Lesabre

2. 1954 Cadillac Park Avenue

3. 1955 LaSalle Sports Coupe

4. 1956 Buick Centurion

5. 1956 Chevrolet Impala

 

Sheesh, Jim, EVERY one of these shots is just amazing -- several of which I have NOT seen before! But for the obvious "show" windshield/roof, this '56 Impala is pretty darn amazing!

 

Ford Fairmont Durango

For the 1978 model year, General Motors introduced the downsized A-body platform, and with it, the downsized El Camino. Ford’s financial condition had been weakened, and its mid-sized platform held out through the 1979 LTD II. Ford had not prepared a proper Ranchero replacement. As a last attempt to capture some of the car-based truck market, Ford looked to Gardena, California-based National Coach Corporation for help. Primarily an airport-limo converter, National Coach took the Ford Fairmont Futura sporty coupe, removed the bodywork aft of the thick B-pillar, and crafted a fiberglass cargo bed in its place. The body lines of the Futura, including the rear panel reconfigured into a tailgate, seemed pre-designed for conversion into a pickup. The whole package only added 50 pounds in the transformation. The new model was dubbed Durango.

Built in 1980 and 1981, the Durango’s production numbers range from a low estimate of 80 to high estimates of 210 or 220. With prices in the $9,000 range, the Durango held a $2,500 premium over the standard Fairmont. The Fairmont ended production in 1983, and National Coach closed its doors around 1990.

I don't think I've ever seen one before.

 

Man, me either, SunRoof. It's fun when something I wasn't even aware of at the time just drops out of the sky! THANKS, buddy.

 

Before we totally leave the mid-'20s to mid-'40s teardrop cars, I want to show Paul lewis' '37 Lewis Aeromobile, BEFORE the headlights got fared into the fenders! Never a beauty-contest winner the Aeromobile looked a hell of a lot better with a little cosmetic work, eh?



Pic of the final evolution of Paul Lewis' 1937 Airomobile,
thanks to SunRoofCord, who dug for it.

 

Okay, so who doesn't like "swoopy" sports cars -- especially
when they were ahead of their time??? Made ONLY in 1959,
the Asardo was made, of all places, in North bergen, NJ. Asardo
is an acronym standing for American Special Automotive Research
& Design Corporation. The Asardo 1500 AR-S was powered by
1485cc 135bhp Alfa Romwo Giulia 1300 engine. It featured
gull-wing doors and also had Alfa Romeo transmission and rear
suspension. This only prototype was later refitted with a 3528cc
Buick V-8 engine. For these wonderful and exciting pix of this
super-rare machine, my sincere thanks to findrarecar.com.
Actual photography is credited to yclasicos.com and
motorpasion.com.

 

Courtesy of Daniel Strohl, Hemmings Classic Car

For all the streamliners and teardroppers sketched out, put into clay and prototyped, very few successfully became the car of the future that they claimed to be. But they sure made for excellent copy for the newspapers and mechanics magazines of the day, and David Greenlees recently came across a small treasure trove of streamliners in press photographs, few of which have been seen until now. Fortunately, he knew these were right up our alley and forwarded them on to us.

First up, the Dan LaLee car The photos all date from February 10, 1938, and depict LaLee, along with Jack Knight of United Air Lines and model Betty Bryant, showing off the retractable in or around Dearborn, Michigan.

A couple of the photo descriptions include the word “rebuilt” and those wheels appear to come from an earlier Ford, so we can presume LaLee used a chassis from a wrecked car on which to base his retractable.

 

Raymond Loewy streamliner rendering courtesy of Daniel Strohl. Raymond Loewy penned this , dated January 1938, and described it as &#8220;a model of the automobile of the future, with its engine in the rear.&#8221;

 

Walter Teague streamliner rendering courtesy of Daniel Strohl.This one comes from Walter Dorwin Teague, and was used around March 1940 to promote Teague&#8217;s book, &#8220;Design This Way Day: The Technique of Order in the Machine Age.&#8221; This rendering is described as &#8220;the rear-engined, teardrop car of tomorrow&#8230; designed by Mr. Teague and Walter Dorwin Teague, Jr., features clear vision, extra seating capacity, built-in bumpers and airflow form.&#8221;

 

Frank Spring streamliner, courtesy of Daniel Strohl. This tadpole-configured model, dated March 1944, is credited to Frank Spring, who intended to combine &#8220;maximum streamlining with practical considerations.&#8221; Of course, everybody but Spring had designed their streamliners to be as impractical as possible&#8230;

 

Libby Body Riley Head car

 

Alberto Gorgoni-designed rhomboid-type streamliner courtesy of Daniel Strohl.

 

Unidentified streamliner, courtesy of Daniel Stohl

 

In the history of streamlining and teardrop cars, you can’t overlook Emile Claveau, who, as Lord K recently wrote on Dieselpunks, helped bridge the gap between the early efforts to produce an aerodynamic car in the 1920s and later production efforts such as the Zephyr and Airflow. (Note: It appears much of LordK’s article comes from an earlier article on Claveau at the Tampa Bay Auto Museum’s site.)

Courtesy of Daniel Strohl, Hemmings Classic Car

 

You wouldn't know it by looking at Saab's current automobiles, but once upon a time the Swedish marque was known for crafting almost impossibly rounded bodywork. Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars, which just completed its acquisition of the Saab brand, plans to reintroduce such teardrop-shaped emotion back into the automaker's line with a new vehicle codenamed 92, or in more modern parlance, 9-2.

Don't expect to see the small, premium 9-2 before 2013 or so, when it would theoretically go up against machines like the Mini and Audi A1. According to Autocar, Saab would likely borrow a suitable set of underpinnings from GM's Opel division, as is the case with the new 2011 Saab 9-5.

If Saab is able to get this new entry-level model into production as planned, its inclusion would no doubt go a long way towards reaching Muller's stated goal of hitting 100,000 total sales per year for the newly acquired automaker. That's not too big a stretch considering that the brand sold 93,220 cars as recently as 2008. We wish him, along with the rest of those with a stake in Saab, lots of luck.

 

Norton Oldfield Streamliner

This car is currently on display at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria.

web site: The Spirit of Tomorrow - Home

More info: http://www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Conte...ws_October.pdf

 

Now for a REAL change of pace, we give you the Autoette. "Huh?" you say? Made in four different decades, the Autoette is hard to pigeonhole. Is it a car, a golf cart, an urban runabout, a wheelchair . . . a tow truck?

Well, er, uh, yes and no. In fact, the Autoette's versatility helped make it a long-lived micro-car which still has a large following today! Obviously, it never pretended to be a Deusenberg, ya know? But in terms of a basic-transportation vehicle, it lived up to all its promoters promised.

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1953 Autoette, thanks to photographer Larry Fisher
on his Autoette blog.



On the isle of Catalina, here's an Autoette tow vehicle. The little micro-cars are still the preferred mode of transport on the island! The Autoette was made, and evolved, from 1948 to the 1970s by Royce Seevers, owner of the Autoette Electric Car Company Inc. of Long Beach, CA.

According to Wikipedia, the two-seat, three-wheeled micro-car was electric powered by specially made batteries propulsion by a converted 24-volt Dodge electric starter motor. This was later changed to a proprietary motor built for Autoette. Models included the "CruiseAbout", "Golfmobile" and "Electric Truck". Autoettes were available with a broad range of accessories, usually installed by the dealer as upgrades, including windscreens, doors, convertible tops, side curtains, etc.

 

HEY! thats my car! lol (just kidin)

 

Jim, sounds as though the four years of work by the three
gentlemen (1938-42) produced a very roadworthy car in the
Spirit of Tomorrow! Here it's shown in one of your links, in
the Ozarks! That's a goodly distance from British Columbia, eh?


And though we've all seen illustrations like the one in this 1939
newspaper, below, I think it's fun to see, while we are still on the
subject of the early "streamliner" experiments.