Dream cars at the Petersen Museum

The author recently had the opportunity to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles and we will feature a number of features from that visit in the coming weeks. Today we look at the ‘Dream Cars’ exhibit which displayed three dream cars built in the decade of the nineteen fifties.

Mercury D-528

First up is the Mercury D-528, built in 1955 as a test vehicle for advanced concepts that included air conditioning, “safety seating” and suspension. It was radical for its time as its original design used a cantilevered roof with no front "A" pillars and four headlights. The car rode on coil spring suspension cloaked in a fiberglass body built in house at Ford Motor Company. The unusual name came from it being the 528th Ford experimental design. Apparently the pillar less top was a problem as eventually the car was rebuilt with thin “A” pillars.   

 

Auto manufacturer foresaw air conditioning as becoming a popular option in the future, but in 1955 because the required evaporators were so large they had to be located in the trunk. This affected the design – in order to provide adequate luggage room, the characteristic hinged rear humps were added on the rear fenders, with the gas tank access on one side and the spare tire in the other. The hooded reversed retractable back window became a design cue used in 1963 Mercury production cars

In the early sixties the D-528 was sold to Paramount Pictures and sent to Hollywood where it was remodeled by George Barris, who painted the car red and removed the name "D-528" from the front fenders and replaced it with "Beldone" – a name selected by its new owners. The “Beldone” fitted with a number of remote-controlled features was used in the 1964 Jerry Lewis movie, The Patsy, (a loose sequel of his 1960 film The Bellhop) and appeared later in several other movies and television shows.  

The Zeder Storm

Fred Zeder Jr. the son of famed Chrysler engineer wanted to develop an American powered dual-purpose sports car with a “swappable” body which could be partially for racing. Zeder partnered with Eugene Cassaroll, owner of Auto Shippers Incorporated which delivered Chrysler products around the country and Indianapolis car owner and the pair formed the Sports Car Development Corporation.

While on vacation in Europe, Zeder visited the custom Italian body builder Bertone and struck an agreement to build the body for Zeder’s creation. Although the body took six months longer than agreed, the finished car was shipped to New York via the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria and when Zeder drove it on the streets on New York City it reportedly caused a sensation.

 

 

The car, called the Zeder Storm Z-250, was taken to Chrysler's design headquarters in Hamtramck in April of 1954 in the car of his uncle, who was Chrysler’s Chief Engineer. The Chrysler Corporation kept the car powered by a 260 horsepower Dodge ‘Red Ram’ Hemi V-8 with other MoPar components that included the brakes, radiators, clutch, fuel tank, rear axle, and steering system for two years, but ultimately decided the car was too expensive to manufacture and returned it to Fred Zeder who drove it for many years.

 

 

 

The Storm Z-250 concept of American power and Italian bodywork was later still pursued by Cassaroll who later financed the 315-cubic inch Chrysler V-8 powered Dual Ghia with bodywork fabricated by the Italian coach builder Ghia. The Dual Ghia passenger car debuted in 1954, but although it a number of Hollywood actors Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden Desi Arnaz and Ronald Reagan each owned, the Dual Ghia ceased production in 1958 with just over 100 cars built which proved Chrysler’s decision on viability of the Zeder Z-250 Storm as correct.

Plymouth Explorer

 

 

Beginning in 1950 and continuing through the nineteen fifties, the Chrysler Corporation paired with Turin body builder Ghia to create two dozen drivable dream cars with hand built custom bodies.  The 1954 Plymouth Explorer coupe rides on a 114 inch wheelbase 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook chassis powered by a “Powerflow Six” a 110-horsepower 230-cubic inch 6-cylinder engine coupled to a HyDrive semi-automatic transmission; the driver only used the clutch to put the car in gear.

 

 

 

The attractive two-seat Explorer is finished in a brilliant metallic green paint with the bucket seat interior was covered with white leather with fitted luggage behind the seats. The “spear” on the sides of the car is not chrome; rather it is painted white to match the interior.  The last of the Italian bodied specials was the Chrysler “Norseman” was a four-seat fastback coupe built by Ghia. The concept car was lost (ironically) during the sinking of the ocean liner SS Andrea Doria in July 1956.

Due to cost, concept cars have lost favor among automotive manufacturers, but concept cars are still alive in the minds of dreamers, such as this radical futuristic race car model displayed in the Auto Center College of Design workshop inside the Petersen Automotive Museum. Could we see something like this car on race tracks in the near future?    

 

 

All photos by the author