It’s not often one gets to have their pictures taken with an actual movie star. But at pebble beach anything is possible. It is after all California land of the movie stars. While Jay Leno was being crowded by thousands of people I slipped around to undercover what I believe was the true stars, the cars. Well my search prevailed I found the Phantom. Of course not of the Opera. But, the concept car design by Rust Heinz (the heir to the Heinz 57 fortune).
Well the lil’ ol ketchup heir and a co-designer got this great idea to build a unique piece of automotive art. It broke all contemporary automotive designs rules.
With a height of only 147 cm (58 in.), the steel and aluminum body had no running boards, fenders or door handles. Instead, the doors opened at the touch of buttons located on the outside and on the instrument panel. To match the advanced design, Heinz chose the most advanced chassis available in the United States at that time to fit the body onto, the Cord 810. The V8-engined Cord was equipped with front wheel drive and an electrically operated four-speed gearbox, as well as a fully independent suspension and adjustable shock absorbers. To accommodate the large body, various changes were carried through on the chassis. The car’s lower frame was made of chromoly steel and the upper frame was constructed of electrically welded aviation steel tubing. Power for the 2-ton / 4500 lb. (2000 kg) Phantom Corsair came from a modified Cord 810 Lycoming 8-cylinder unit, supercharged by Andy Granatelli to produce about 190 hp. The slippery body enabled the car to reach speeds of up to 115 miles per hour (185 km/h).
Heinz planned to put the Phantom Corsair (which cost approximately $24,000 to produce in 1938 – approximately $300,000 in 2005 dollars) into limited production at an estimated selling price of $12,500. His death, however, shortly after the car was completed, ended those plans. The automobile was featured as the Flying Wombat in the 1938 film, “The Young In Heart.”
Alright now this piece of automotive art has history. Even though it didn’t make it in to production in the 30′s it did however make it into the Hot Wheels production line. I wonder if we can find this automotive art star in model form at the best toy car museum.
While at the DFW Toy Museum look at all the other automotive art stars. Like The Eva Braun Car. Now this little feature has a history involving Hitler. And the admission is free.