Mystery Car

As I pulled into a Flying J in Waco, Texas the other day, I spied this early 50's beauty on a flatbed.



In talking to the driver, his boss had just bought the car and it was headed for a complete restoration. It is one of only 435 made.

While in high school, I had a friend whose dad was a car dealer and had one.

Who else knows what it is and what made it so unique ?

Tim

Cool!

That appears to be a Kaiser-Darrin roadster and actually pre-dates the Corvette (some claim this is the first true American sports car).

If I recall correctly the unique design feature is that the doors "slide" open, and also uses a fibreglass body (before the Corvette).

Darrin is an American coachbuilder who worked closely with the Kaiser-Frazer corporation during the time they built cars (only briefly).

My Darrin question is this... He built a coachbuilt car based on the DKW in 1957 and/or 1958, I've seen a picture once in a period magazine out of my collection (weird looking car), now can't seem to find the magazine reference anywhere and have looked! (aargh...) Anyone remember that car?

Sherlock,

You are correct on all counts. You MUST be my age.

The DKW... Anyone remember that car?

You bet ! After I graduated HS, I dated a girl who was still in HS. She had a PINK DKW just like this one

https://home.earthlink.net/~gfoster07k/layheike1.htm

3 cylinder, 2 stroke..... Funny little car ! !

Here is a good source of information on the various DKW models.

https://home.earthlink.net/~gfoster07k/galleryd.htm

Tim

These were built in Hartford, Wisconsin. This is about thirty or so miles away from me, attractive little town.

Look at the car behind the Allard - the picture was taken at Thompson in 1955.

Hmm.... I wonder if that car was a six or one of the Caddilac V8 models ?

Judging from the competition, probably the V8.

Tim

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Look at the car behind the Allard - the picture was taken at Thompson in 1955.



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So John, is that you in the Allard? What colour was it? Just curious........

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So John, is that you in the Allard? What colour was it? Just curious........

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Steve, that's Ray Saidel (Jomar and TVR fame) in the Allard. His son Alex sent me the picture. I think the car was red.

Of course I remember the DKW. I learned to drive using the family Deek. I was so struck by the car we bought a 1963 model that is awaiting restoration. I think the cars were sold in cities along the coasts and the Great Lakes- where they were easiy unloaded from the ships. T.T.

The car I'm after is described as the following in my Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile:

Listed under the "Darrin" listing - "...In 1957 Darrin was back in the sports car business with the Flintridge-Darrin, also called the Darrin Mk II DKW. This was a rebodied DKW 3-cylinder sedan sold through were sold through Flintridge Motors in La Canada, California. The sporty convertible bodies were made of fibreglass by Woodill Motors and a removable hardtop was available. Seating was on two bench seats that held up to six thin passengers."

Coldplugs....behind the KD, to the right of the Jag....is that the Tobin BMW Special? Haven't seen that baby in years!

Judging from the photo you posted, that Darrin does not need a full restoration. Might just ruin it, in fact!

-William

PS-Xracer, Tobin who? I know a guy who's last name is Tobin (and is a mechanic, to boot). I wonder if there's a connection?

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Coldplugs....behind the KD, to the right of the Jag....is that the Tobin BMW Special? Haven't seen that baby in years!

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I don't know, since I don't remember the car. Was it 328 based? The car to the right of the Jag (from the photographer's viewpoint) looks like a Healey but the quality isn't really good enough to tell. Is that the car you mean?

I checked a Thompson race listing from a race a bit earlier than the one shown in the picture. The (Olds powered) Allard ran in C-Modified (3-5 liter engines). CM cars running in a race close to the '55 event pictured were Ray S's Allard, a Nash Healey, a 4.1 Ferrari, 2 Chevy specials, 3 XK-120's, a C-type (Walt Hansgen), a Jag Special, and a "Ford Riley" - no BMW.

Kaiser-Darrins are really not rare. The only thing that makes them at all memorable are the sliding doors.

A friend here in the Northwest has a 1941 Darrin-Packard. In the 50s, Dutch Darrin himself offered to trade him a new K-D for the original D-P. He declined, and still drives the D-P all the time.

The K-Ds were very underpowered, and the original beautiful design was destroyed when new minimum bumper-height restrictions caused the front to be drastically changed.

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...the original beautiful design was destroyed when new minimum bumper-height restrictions caused the front to be drastically changed.

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My impression is that these cars were only made for 2 years or so (roughly 1954-55). I wasn't aware that there were any bumper height rules that early, at least federal rules. Did some states have them?

Some manufacturers produced later cars that had lower bumpers or in some cases none, with just a couple of vertical bumperettes.

Whoops, that's what happens when you usually are discussing MGBs!!! Just a brain-fart...

What I meant to say was...

"Minimum HEADLIGHT height restrictions" implemented between the time of the prototype and production. Dutch Darrin hated the heightened look, and made a comment to the effect of indicating it looked like it was always going "uphill."

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"Minimum HEADLIGHT height restrictions" implemented between the time of the prototype and production.

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This little rule messed up a number of import car manufacturers, and created what would become in the future - rare low-headlight versions of cars. I think it was about 1950 or 1951 when that came into place.

A friend has a 1947 or 1948 Sunbeam-Talbot saloon, it is unusual in being the low-headlight version, not many LHD North American-spec examples of an early Sunbeam-Talbot like that are believed to be left.

The Morris Minor is the most well-known example of being forced to change the front end treatment as a result of that rule. I'm not sure the exact specifications of the height, but suspect it would have only had impact on smaller import cars.

On Racing Girl's Ginetta G15, the headlight pods are actually mounted on vertical tracks and can be pulled up to the proper height to meet specs. Pretty ingenious, I thought.
Jeff

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"Minimum HEADLIGHT height restrictions" implemented between the time of the prototype and production...

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I've heard & read about various minimum headlight height restrictions being implemented during the fifties but I've never seen anything concrete. Do you suppose this was a state mandated thing? States like New York and California would get the attention of car manufacturers by themselves.

I'm puzzled because a few car manufacturers seemed to just go nutso with their headlights. For example, a few early Berkeleys had their headlights on removable stalks. After about 6 months they went to headlights mounted above the fenders in add-on fairings for cars sent to the US. (This was probably mid to late '57). They explained that they were meeting US height restrictions. Then they dropped all that and went to headlights mounted much lower within the fenders behind Plexiglas covers - except in some states where the covers weren't allowed.

I've done a few google searches looking for info on fiftes and sixties federal & state mandates relating to car fittings etc with no luck (until the Nader & EPA era started).

Anybody know of an authoritative source?