Benutzer:Chief tin cloud/Howard A. Darrin

Howard A. Darrin war ein US-amerikanischer Mann.

Jugend

Darrins Vater war Ingenieur bei Westinghouse Electric; Verwandte waren Teilhaber an der Automatic Switch Company (ASCO) in Florham Park (New Jersey). Das 1888 gegründete Unternehmen war innovativ und brachte Magnetventile auf den Markt, die hier erstmals entwickelt worden waren. Anwendungen fanden sich in Aufzüge, Kompressoren und und Generatoren. Das Unternehmen existiert bis heute als Division der Emerson Electric Company.^[1]

Mit 10 Jahren kam Howard in Kontakt mit Motorfahrzeugen, als er bei Frank Roach, dem Herausgeber des Fachmagazin Automobile Topics, aushelfen durfte und „half“ Howard einem Freund

Enter Howard R. “Dutch” Darrin (1897-1982). Darrin was a multi-talented athlete, inventor and entrepreneur from Cranford, New Jersey, who joined the staff of Automobile Topics at the tender age of 10. The magazine was run by a friend of his father’s named Frank Roach, and Howard was allowed to help out by cutting out newspaper clippings for its editors.

Darrin also developed an appetite for football and even attended the Carlisle, Pennsylvania football camp run by the legendary en:Glenn Scobey Warner Glenn “Pop” Warner (1871–1954), most commonly known as Pop Warner, was an American football coach at various institutions who is responsible for several key aspects of the modern game.

Although he never played professionally, he played lots of Army football while serving in France during WWI.

^[1]

http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/f/fernandez_darrin/fernandez_darrin.htm

Elektrisches Autogetriebe

Howard Darrin beabsichtigte zunächst, Elektroingenieur zu werden und fand eine Stelle in der Entwicklungsabteilung von Westinghouse. Aus einen Kontakt mit

Darrin had assumed that he would be an electrical engineer, and as an intern found employment with Westinghouse's engineering dept. In 1916, just prior to his Army service, Howard had been approached by John North Willys, who asked him to see if he could come up with an electric gearshift. According to Darrin "It was Mr. Willys farsighted belief that a simple automatic gearshift could be installed in an automobile. At this time he was building 1,500 Willys cars a day, but the greatest sales obstacle was the new customer who had never driven a car before."

^[2]

Prior to his Army service, Howard had designed an electric gear-shift for John North Willys, using two small motors supplied by his father, a Westinghouse engineer. ^[1]

Armeedienst

1917 Willys, but for a number of reasons, no automatic Willys were produced using his dual motor arrangement. Soon afterward, Darrin enrolled in the Aviation Division of the U.S. Signal Corps., and after a few short weeks of training was dispatched to France where he served for the next two years. Although he never played professionally, he played lots of Army football while serving in France during WWI.

1919 wurde er aus dem Militärdienst entlassen und kehrte in die USA zurück. ^[1]

Aero Limited

While in the service, he developed a fondness for airplanes and after his discharge in 1919, used the money he had saved to help found Aero Limited, one of the nation’s first scheduled airline carriers. Using surplus Curtis HS-2L sea planes, Darrin and his partners offered air mail and passenger service between Atlantic City, New Jersey, Nassau (Bahamas) and three Florida cities, Palm Beach, Miami and Key West. The airline was successful until four of their pilots perished when the plane ferrying them between Palm Beach and Miami crashed at sea. Darrin and his partners sold the entire operation to another operator

^[1]

== Handel mit Aktien, Anteile, Gebrauchtwagen ==t and Dutch returned to New York in 1921 and tried his hand at selling stocks, bonds and pre-enjoyed luxury cars.

Darrin had purchased two Delage chassis from Walter P. Chrysler - who at that time was experimenting with imported chassis in the Elizabeth, New Jersey Willys plant - and made the rounds of New York’s body builders looking for suitable bodies to complete the vehicles. It was in this capacity that he was introduced to Thomas L. Hibbard by his friend “Tiny”, another car broker/dealer who frequented the LeBaron office. Hibbard was impressed by the entrepreneur’s impeccable taste and intuition for all things esthetic and the pair soon became friends. It’s not known whether Darrin commissioned those bodies from LeBaron, but both were sold, one to Al Jolson who was starring in Bombo at the time. Although Darrin was supposedly married in 1919, he rarely mentioned it, and in fact, enjoyed quite a reputation as a ladies man through most of his life. The shy and reserved Thomas L. Hibbard fully expected to have a very good time in Europe with his more outgoing companion.

^[1]

Hibbard & Darrin

http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/h/hibbard_darrin/hibbard_darrin.htm

After surveying the wealth of business opportunities available in Europe, the pair (Hibbard / Darrin) decided to stay in Europe to form a partnership to sell luxury motorcars in Paris. Hibbard & Darrin, not LeBaron, would open up a design office in Paris and design bodies to be built in Brussels, and then offer them to wealthy Europeans in their Minerva showroom.

^[1] ^[2]

Fernandez & Darrin (1932-1937)

Carrosserie Fernandez et Darrin, 1932-1937; Boulogne-sur-Seine, Paris, France

Fernandez & Darrin lieferte in den sieben Jahren ihres Bestehens rund 300 Karosserien aus. Wie schon bei Hibbard & Darrin waren dies vor allem Limousinen und Coupé de Ville , gedacht zum Betrieb mit Chauffeur. Nur wenige sind erhalten geblieben, weil der in der zweiten Häfte des 20. Jahrhunderts aufkommende Markt für Veteranenfahrzeuge vor allem nach offenen Fahrzeugen verlangte. Die sehr aufwendig zu restaurierenden Limousinen dienten daher oft als Ersatzteilträger für solche Fahrzeuge.^[2]

Darrin of Paris 1937-1942

Packard One-Twenty Darrin Convertible Victoria Modell 1801-700 (18. Serie, Radstand 122 in., 1940)

According to the Washington Post (Jul 21, 1935 issue), Twenty-five thousand Americans were engaged in professional activities in Paris in the boom years of 1927 and 1928, but by 1925 that colony has dwindled to a mere 7,000. The deteriorating situation in Germany, combined with the fact that many of Fernandez & Darrin’s customers were of Jewish decent, began to put a severe damper on their business, so Darrin made the prudent decision to move to Hollywood midway through 1937.

Darrin was not without friends in the movie making capital of the world, and chief among them was Hollywood mogul, Darryl F. Zanuck. Darrin had met him on one of the film executive’s trips to Paris, and the two avid polo players became good friends. By 1937, the former Warner Bros, executive had become vice-president of Twentieth Century Fox Studios and was in a good position to introduce his old friend Dutch to Hollywood’s celebrities.

Once he got to Hollywood, Darrin wasted no time, and started making the rounds of the Hollywood nightspots and restaurants where he was introduced as Howard Darrin of Paris. Darrin became friends with Los Angeles restaurateur and Jensen importer Percy Morgan, who offered to help finance his new business.

Darrin had the ability to turn off and on an authentic-sounding French accent if the situation warranted. Consequently many of his Hollywood customers were convinced he had spent his entire life on the Continent, unaware of the fact he had been born and raised in New Jersey. Darrin jokingly attributed a large part of his success on his suave ‘Darrin of Paris’ persona, rationalizing that it was a more useful sales tool than portfolios of his previous work.

Darrin’s first customer was Dick Powell, one of Warner Bros. top stars, who commissioned Darrin to customize his 1937 Ford sport phaeton. The resulting European looking roadster was built under the direction of Crown Coach’s Charles Rotzenberger at Crown’s East Los Angles factory as Darrin hadn’t yet hired any staff nor found a suitable location for business.

Finding qualified coachbuilders was not a problem in Los Angles and within a few short weeks, Paul Erdos was hired as Darrin’s first employee. He served as shop foreman until Rudy Stoessel was hired away from Standard Auto Body at the beginning of 1938.

Darrin’s next customer was RKO leading man Chester Morris, who ordered a roadster very similar to Powell’s Ford although he wanted it built on the new Packard one-twenty chassis. Darrin’s crew had outworn their welcome at Crown Coach, so the moved operations to A1 Auto Body, a small Los Angeles collision shop and auto re-builder. Morris’ car became the prototype Packard-Darrin.

Darrin’s next commission would turn out to be his last on a Classic-era European chassis.

A pair of streamlined Coupe Chauffer Limousine bodies built by Fernandez & Darrin in 1934-1935 served as a major inspiration for a more conservatively-styled Sedanca Deville that Darrin constructed for the socialite-spy Countess Carlo Dentice di Frasso (née Dorothy Caldwell Taylor).

The car was started at Crown Coach during the fall of 1937, and replaced an existing limousine body on her 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II chassis.

Darrin had met Dorothy Di Frasso while attending a Hollywood party thrown by Clark Gable. She engaged Darrin to come up with a new body for her Rolls-Royce that would attract more attention than the Brewster-bodied Phantom II Town Car recently purchased by her good friend Constance Bennett.

Midway during construction, Darrin moved operations into a leased building at 8660 W. Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, and that’s where the car was completed. Darrin delivered to the Countess one of the most striking Town Car coachwork ever built for the British manufacturer, and considered it one of his finest designs.

The Di Frasso Rolls-Royce closely resembled another Fernandez & Darrin Town Car built on a 1938 Buick chassis. The car was commissioned during the summer of 1937 and was reportedly finished at Franay as the Fernandez & Darrin works shut down before it was completed.

Soon after Dick Powell’s Ford was completed he ordered a Packard One-Twenty roadster for his wife actress Joan Blondell. The vehicle was mentioned by gossip columnist May Mann in a December 20, 1937 story in the Ogden (Utah) Standard Examiner.

“Special Car Built

“Dick Powell is having a special cut-down car built – so he says –for Joan Blondell’s Christmas present. But on examination the car is entirely un-feminine – and one suspects that Mr. Powell will do most of the driving. It is a two bucket seat affair on a 120-inch Packard chassis. Howard Darrin, of Paris, designed it and has been hard at work on it for six months.”

By early 1938 the former Sunset Blvd. bottle factory had been transformed into “Darrin of Paris”.

In an interview with automotive historian Richard M Langworth, Darrin recalled:

“After fixing the place up I didn't have money to spend on plate glass windows," he said, "so we placed a plywood partition 10 feet behind the store front and displayed our new cars in the open. You could stand there at night and hear the screech of brakes and see cars backing up and people getting out to examine our wares."

By this time, Darrin’s staff had grown substantially and now included Rudy Stoessel, Paul Erdos, Joe Mechelli and Carl Korn - all former employees of Walter M. Murphy and/or J. Gerard Kirchoff, two old-school coachbuilders that were formerly located in Pasadena, California.

Stoessel was one of the best millwrights/body framers in the business and Erdos was equally proficient at metal fabrication. They were also joined by Crown Coach’s Charles Rotzenberger, Harry Fels, a former Auburn/Central Manufacturing body man and Oscar Haskey, a talented metal fabricator who had worked with Stoessel at O.R. Fuller’s Wilshire Blvd. Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg dealership.

The front office and sales department was headed by super-salesman Burton K. Chalmers. Burt, as he preferred to called, had been selling custom-bodied cars – Cadillac, Citroen, Renault, Cord, Auburn, Duesenberg - in and around Los Angles for many years and had good connections within the film community. He came highly recommended and had previously worked with Rudy Stoessel and Oscar Haskey at O.R. Fuller/Auburn-Fuller.

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Packard Darrin (1937-1942)

In a 1987 interview with automotive historian/photographer Dennis Adler, Darrin of Paris’ shop foreman, Rudy Stoessel recalled his former employer:

“The man didn't draw, but he certainly knew what he liked. He would say, 'Rudy, I want something that looks like this,' he would describe it, and then I would make it."

"He was a brilliant, energetic young man… "He had big ideas, and he wanted to have the best people working in the shop. We hired (Paul) Erdos, who had been with Murphy; Charles Rotzenberger from Crown Coach; Harry Fels who had left Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg; Joe Mechelli and Carl Korn, also from Murphy; and Oscar Haskey, a former Auburn- Fuller, Inc., metalworker. We were Darrin of Paris."

"He was what you would call a playboy. He was as much a celebrity as the people he sold the cars to, although I think Dutch gave away almost as many as he sold!"

Only sixteen Packard-Darrins were built by Darrin in California, fourteen Victorias, one four-door sedan and one sedanca coupe. Twelve of the fourteen Victorias were built on the one-twenty chassis, two on the super-eight. Over half of the cars were sold to well-known celebrities who included Clark Gable, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, Chester Morris, Al Jolson, Rosalind Russell, Ruby Keeler (Mrs. Al Jolson), Preston Foster, Ann Sheridan, Constance Bennett and Gene Krupa.

Although the Packard-Darrin’s looked custom built, they actually used quite a few stock Packard parts as the donor cars were off the lot Packard one-twenty business coupes purchased from a dealer in Texas for $1,100. A completed Packard-Darrin wholesaled to regional Packard dealers for around $3,200-$3,300. When they finally got up to speed, Darrin’s crew could turn a stock Packard coupe into a Packard Darrin in two weeks time.

When the coupes arrived at Darrin of Paris, the tops were cut off, the doors removed, the cowl, windshield and both running boards discarded. The rear fenders were removed, slightly modified and reattached so that they slanted slightly forward. The front fenders were also patched so that no traces of the running boards remained.

The rear package shelf and deck panel were removed and an ash frame was inserted to support the convertible top mechanism, then new sheet-metal was welded in place to cover the bracing. A six inch sill was also welded below the door openings to strengthen the body.

A San Francisco foundry supplied Darrin with the distinctive Stoessel-engineered cast aluminum window frames and three-piece cowls which gave the car a distinctive appearance. Stoessel also fabricated the cut-down door frames which were then covered in doors skins fabricated by California Metal Shaping. The new cowl necessitated lengthening the hood by nine inches, and the radiator shell and hood were sectioned by three giving the car a long and low European stance. As profits accrued, Darrin was able to purchase a used power hammer, and all sheet metal work was built in the Wilshire Blvd, factory thereafter.

The seats were re-mounted on substantially shortened seat frames and recovered in leather in order to match the padded dash which was continued onto the tops of the doors. During inclement weather, the occupants were protected by a lightweight fabric top which was raised using an awkward convertible top mechanism that resided behind the occasional rear seat. Packard enthusiast Robert F. Mehl describes it:

“The convertible top of this car was unlike any other convertible sedan before or since. The outer skin of the top snapped off, leaving the bows and pads. The front and two rear bows and the pads folded down into the top well, pretty well filling the trunk which of course contained the spare. The center top bow and the center posts came out separately. The large center top bow had to be worked into the trunk sort of diagonally, and when this was accomplished there was little room for anything else, making this car somewhat less than desirable for trips with top down. Nor was this a convertible to close in a hurry in a sudden downpour.”

The Packard-Darrins built for Clark Gable, Errol Flynn and Rosalind Russell utilized the chrome-finished hides that debuted on Greta Garbo’s Fernandez & Darrin-bodied Duesenberg. The swept-down doors, called the “Darrin Dip” in the trade, were the car’s most eye-catching feature. The car’s dash utilized the aircraft style crash pads Darrin had developed in France, which was another one of the vehicle’s strong selling points. Retail prices ranged from $4200-$5200 per vehicle, roughly three times the price of a standard, and more structurally sound, Packard 120 Convertible.

The first two examples, built at A1 Auto Body and sold to Chester Morris and Clark Gable, were structurally different from the remaining fourteen cars built at the Sunset Blvd. plant. They both included running boards and a standard coachbuilt cowl assembly (ash framed, aluminum covered) as Stoessel had not yet developed the thee-piece aluminum cowl.

Some questionable structural changes were made including the removal of the radiator cradle in order to relocate the stock radiator three inches lower in the frame. The first few cars passenger compartments were almost completely surrounded by wood – wood-framed doors, wood framed cowl and the integral wood-framed rear seat and convertible top crossmember – and the cars suffered from significant front-end vibration, door alignment problems (they sometimes flew open when rounding a corner at speed) and ‘leaked like a sieve’ whenever it rained.

Things improved somewhat when Stoessel’s cast aluminum cowl was introduced on cars built at the Sunset Blvd. workshop. Many surviving Darrin’s have had there cast aluminum cowls repaired as they have a tendency to crack due to the great strain placed upon them.

When production was shifted to Central Manufacturing Co. in Connersville, Indiana, the body was further strengthened and the bottom of the doors extended to meet the makeshift rocker panels. Other improvements included heavier body mounts and a front-end kit that provided additional bracing between the front fender brackets, frame and radiator support.

One Darrin of Paris employee who would go on to bigger things was Art M. Fitzpatrick. Fresh from a stint working at Briggs under John Tjaarda, Fitzpatrick was hired by Darrin in 1938 to serve as the firm’s in-house artist and delineator. Fitzpatrick (or Fitz to his friends) is credited with designing the striking and seldom-seen Packard-Darrin convertible sedans and 4-door hardtops that were built in Connersville. When the Darrin operations were taken over by Packard, Fitzpatrick went to work for Werner Gubitz, the automaker’s styling chief and had a hand in the design of the 1942 Packard Clipper.

Fitz also ran errands for his boss, and once drove a Packard-Darrin all the way to Detroit for exhibition at a Detroit Packard dealer council meeting at the Packard proving grounds. In his Automobile Quarterly article, ‘My American Safari’, Darrin recalled the event:

“He and a friend drove day and night to get there in time. They ran into a drunken driver who smashed one whole side of the car.”

The car was still drivable, so the pair continued on to the proving grounds and parked it against a wall with the unaltered side facing out. The vehicle was a major topic of discussion at the event although it further alienated Darrin with Packard management.

At that time Clark Gable was Hollywood’s number one star and he’d just been chosen to star in ‘Gone With the Wind’. Anything associated with the star was news and United Press’ Hollywood correspondent, Frederick C. Othman, wrote the following column on November 16, 1938.

With the Hollywood Reporter - Frederick C. Othman – UP Hollywood Correspondent

“Hollywood – The automobile shows may be full streamlined chariots, but mostly they look like 1922 models in comparison to the Darrin Eight, A Hollywood motor car so ultra-ultra that Clark Gable made the serious mistake of buying one.

“There wasn’t anything wrong with the car, except that it looked like something from Mars, with yellow leather upholstery, a hood nearly seven feet long and gadgets which did everything except freeze ice cubes. It was such an automobile as nobody, anywhere, ever saw before.

“And when the folks began seeing this vision of steel and cast aluminum, with Clark Gable, himself in person, behind the wheel, they couldn’t restrain themselves. Lady motorists formed parades behind Gable’s car; lady pedestrians climbed into it at every stoplight. Gable stood that for a month, and then sold his super-super-super eight at a tremendous loss. He now drives an $800 coupe, painted black.

“The Darrin factory is on Sunset Boulevard, near the Trocadero, and it usually has one display one or two automobiles so long, so low and so magnificent that they almost resemble trans-Atlantic ocean liners on wheels.

“We dropped in today, not to buy, but to learn from Howard Darrin something of the business of manufacturing automobiles deluxe for perhaps the flossiest trade in the world.

“Darrin used to manufacture custom bodies in Paris for Rolls-Royce automobiles during the lush twenties. He exported most of them to America, for such customers as Norma Shearer, Dietrich, Jack Warner and others in the big money.

“’And then came 1929 and the custom body business simply disappeared,’ Darrin said. ‘Nobody in America even thought of importing a foreign car anymore. I grubbed for a living in the hope the business would revive, but it didn’t so I decided it would probably be a good stunt to go to Hollywood, my best market, and designing cars there on the spot and to order. It was a good stunt too. In the six months I’ve sold 15 automobiles, for $3,000 and up, mostly up.’

“Darrin buys the chassis of a medium-priced straight eight, as built in Detroit; then he installs upon it his stream-lined bodies. He makes them largely of solid aluminum castings, instead of sheet metal, and he equips the bodies as if they were being made for the Maharajah of Indore.

“’And why not?’ he asked. ‘I charge enough. I ought to make them good.’

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Packard Clipper (1941)

Kriegsjahre

Darrin hatte seit einigen Jahren der California State Guard’s Mounted Calvary angehört, eine eher gesellschaftliche Verpflichtung. Dem Verband gehörten viele Prominente an; seinen Sitz hatte er im Riviera Polo Club in Hollywood. Eine Beförderung zum Captain in dieser Organisation hatte vor allem einen Propaganda-Effekt. 1943 trat er als Ausbilder in das United States Army Air Corps ein und diente zunächst als Field Commander in Boulder )Colorado). Im gleichen Jahr heiratete er seine zweite Frau und ließ sich deshalb nach Las Vegas (Nevada) versetzen.^[2]

Neue Selbständigkeit

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Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg machte ich Darrin erneut selbständig. In Willows, ca. 120 km nordwestlich von Sacramento (Kalifornien) gründete ein kleines Unternehmen zur Ackerdüngung aus der Luft. Es operierte Boeing-Doppeldeckern aus ehemaligen Armee-Beständen von Willows Glen Airfield aus. Daneben zeichnete er wieder Entwürfe für Automobile, die er Joseph Frazer, Powell Crosley, dem Gründer von Crosley Motors und dem französischen Autobauer Mathis anbot.^[2]

1946 gründete er zwei Unternehmen, Darrin Automotive Design in Los Angeles und die Darrin Motor Car Company, die im Herbst an die Öffentlichkeit ging. Letztere hatte ihr Domizil an 8534 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.^[2]

He was also busy working on a fiberglass-bodied automobile to be built by the Darrin Motor Car Company. He established a business office at 8534 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood and sent out a large number of press releases during the fall of 1946.

The car would “compete with the most luxurious cars on the market” and be priced at $2,800 in its 123 ½” wheelbase edition. A shorter wheelbase (115”) 90hp version would be available at a later date. The project garnered lots of publicity and articles and renderings of the vehicle appeared in Autocar, Automotive & Aviation Industries, Esquire, Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines.

The Darrin Motor Car was prominently featured in the October 1946 issue of Popular Science:

“The new Darrin saves 600 pounds by novel design.

“For 20 years crack designer Howard Darrin engineered cars for the big manufacturers – and dreamed of producing his own. Now the dream has come true in a new superlight car of novel design, with a plastic body and hydraulically powered labor-saving gadgets.

“By careful design Darrin has cut the weight of his dream car from the usual 30 to 24 pounds per horsepower. Six inches trimmed from the normal height and width save pounds – and gasoline – while bringing the center of gravity down to mid-axle. To permit three to sit comfortably in front, the 60-inch seat is extended to the extreme outer edge of the car. The 115-inch wheelbase carries a 185-inch body.

“Hayes Manufacturing Company will build the body of unstressed removable panels of Fiberglas. Four stampings are used instead of the usual 15. The curved windshield is a single unit. The chassis is rectangular, its box-section siderails, which form part of the outside structure of the car, serving as car bumpers. The front wheels are individually sprung on torsions bars with wishbone upper arms and I-beam section lower arms. In the rear, the drive is carried through semi-elliptic springs.

“Hydraulic systems operate windows, erect top, lift hood, adjust front seat, and drop jacks to hoist the car for tire repairs.

“An outstanding feature is the use of standard parts and equipment. The power package, including a 100-hp, Continental engine, is a separate assembly. An L-head valve arrangement is used and the pistons are aluminum.

“Darrin, who designed the Kaiser-Frazer bodies and the $6,000 Darrin Packard, expects his new car to sell for less than $2,000, hopes to build 30,000 in 1947.

“The hood and front fenders of the Darrin are in one piece. Hinged at the front instead of the rear, they are lifted by hydraulic power to permit motor inspection.

“The Fiberglas body is unusually low, improving riding qualities. The convertible model shown carries five passengers, three in front two in the rear. The turning radius is 20 feet.”

Darrin designed and patented a complex electric sliding door for the short-wheelbase Darrin coupe and continued to promote the vehicle into 1948.

Darrin Automotive Design

Howard A. Darrin gründete 1946 das Unternehmen in Los Angeles in Kalifornien. Zunächst entwarf er Fahrzeuge für Kaiser Motors. Nach deren Produktionsaufgabe in den USA 1955 setzte er die Produktion eines Modells auf eigenen Namen fort.^[3] Der Markenname lautete Darrin. 1958 endete die Produktion.^[4]^[3] Insgesamt entstanden je nach Quelle 50^[3] oder 100^[4] Fahrzeuge unter eigenem Namen.

The first iteration of the Darrin Motor Car never materialized, however many design elements of the proposed long wheelbase version showed up in the production 1947-1950 Kaiser and Frazer. Darrin’s original 1945 design proposal was further refined by Kaiser-Frazer stylists Robert Robillard and Herbert Weissinger. When John Maxwell Associates, a Detroit engineering consultancy, prepared the blueprints for the production bodies, some details of Darrin’s original design were further modified, however the car retained the large greenhouse, exceptionally wide seating and slab-sided fenders that were present in Darrin’s original renderings.

The cars included a small Darrin badge on the right decklid and period advertising made light of the fact that the vehicles featured “Body styling by Darrin”.

When Kaiser-Frazer began plans for their redesigned 1951 models, Darrin was once again called upon to assist Kaiser-Frazer’s Duncan McRae in its design. Darrin really delivered the goods this time, delivering one of the most memorable designs of the early fifties. The former model’s boxiness was replaced by a sensuous beltine and characteristic ‘Darrin Dip’ in the rear door (or quarter panel on the two-door versions).

The top of the windshield featured another ‘Darrin Dip’ or what would be more commonly called a widow’s peak. A limited edition of the Kaiser Deluxe called the Golden Dragon sported gold-plated trim and faux bamboo-vinyl roofs supplied by Ionia Manufacturing Co in Ionia, Michigan. The Dragon’s trim was designed by color and trim specialist Carleton Spencer, and Darrin had little to do with the project.

Darrin was called upon to try to make the firm’s budget-priced Henry J more attractive, which was a tall order. The far from attractive bodywork had been designed with economy in mind by one of Kaiser’s suppliers, the American Metal Products Co. of Detroit.

The Henry J was a 4-cylinder economy car built on a 100” wheelbase using a $44 million loan from the federal government’s Reconstruction Finance Corp. that stipulated that it cost no more than $1300. Consequently, early versions of the vehicle excluded common amenities such as a rear truck lid, glove box and passenger side sun visor.

Darrin gave the car a little “Darrin Dip”, and did his best to make the car more attractive, however the dimensions of the awkward car were already set in stone and not much could be done to make the foreshortened two-door economy car attractive.

Darrin was convinced that given a free hand, he could come up with an attractive body for the 100” Henry J’s chassis and he set about designing a fiberglass-boded sports car that incorporated ideas he had developed for use in the stillborn Darrin Motor Car.

He had been an early proponent of FRP (fiberglas-reinforced plastic) bodies and was well aware of the pioneering Glasspar G2 Sportscars built by Bill Tritt in his Santa Ana, California workshop. Using Tritt’s G2 body as a starting point, the final design included a three-position Victoria top and low-cut sliding doors that disappeared into the fenders. Mounted on a six-cylinder Henry J chassis, the body was finished off with taillights and other accessories taken from the Kaiser-Frazer parts bin.

Darrin oversaw production of the prototype body at Glasspar and completed it in his own Santa Monica workshop during 1952 and invited Henry J. Kaiser to see the completed vehicle.

Kaiser was not impressed, and accused Darrin of squandering the firm’s money stating:

“We are not in the business of building sports cars”.

Darrin produced evidence that the car was produced using his own (Darrin’s) resources and stated that he would produce the car on his own if Kaiser wasn’t interested. It was fortunate for everyone involved that Kaiser had been accompanied by his wife Alyce. She loved the car stating:

“This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, I don't see why you aren't in the business of building sports cars, Henry."

Kaiser had recently remarried (1951), and found it in his best interests to cede to his new wife’s wishes. He gave preliminary approval to Darrin for production of the sportscar and commissioned him to build a four-door prototype that incorporated the sliding doors.

The car entered into production in late 1953 powered by a 6-cyl, 161-cu.in. Willys F-head producing 90hp. The fiberglas body weighed 300 lbs. and the completed vehicle weighed in at 2,175 lbs. and sold for $3,668.

Glasspar built the body up using a front and rear casting that was fastened together at the A-pillar. The remaining 5 pieces were attached to the main body assembly using hardware jointly developed by Darrin and Kaiser’s body engineers.

The first twelve cars were built and assembled by Glasspar, then assembly transferred to a facility leased by Darrin in Santa Monica, California. Using FRP subassemblies supplied by Glasspar, approximately fifty cars were assembled by Darrin during 1953 before production was transferred to Kaiser’s Jackson, Michigan Trim plant.

The initial 62 Kaiser-Darrins built in California differed slightly from the 435 built in Michigan during 1954. Kaiser needed to raise the headlights to make the car legal in all 50 states, and replaced the former’s split windscreen with a one-piece curved windshield.

When Kaiser shut down their Jackson, Michigan trim plant in late 1954, approximately fifty unsold Kaiser-Darrin’s were transferred to Willys’ Toledo, Ohio assembly plant for storage. Unfortunately the cars were stored outside during a particularly harsh Ohio winter and when uncovered in early 1955, they were thought to be too water-damaged to be salable.

Darrin had a friend at the plant who alerted him to the vehicles’ predicament, and he offered to buy the lot for pennies on the dollar. By that time Willys management had little concern for anything with a Kaiser badge, so they accepted the offer and shipped the cars off to Darrin’s shop in Santa Monica, were his small crew refurbished them and sold them as new.

The car had been underpowered from day one, and a number of his customers requested upgraded power-plants. Darrin’s crew installed 270 hp Cadillac V-8s in at least six of the cars which were sold as Darrin-Cadillacs as the new powerplant required that the chassis be substantially upgraded to handle the increased power.

A number of the Cadillac-powered Darrins competed in southern California club racing during the mid-to-late 50s. Both Laura Maxine Elmer (the future wife of Briggs Cunningham) and Ray Sinatra Jr. (son of bandleader Ray Sinatra, who was a cousin of Frank Sinatra) entered Darrin-Cadillacs in the 1955 Palm Springs Road Race. Lance Reventlow is also known to have campaigned a Cadillac powered Darrin.

In the mid-to-late 50s Darrin contributed a few design proposals to Panhard, DKW, Willys and Kaiser of Argentina, He also designed a sports car for an Israeli automaker in 1960 and claims to have had had something to do with the Jeep Wagoneer although Brooks Stevens is normally credited with its design.

In the mid-sixties Darrin proposed the production of coachbuilt Rolls-Royce Silver Shadows that were to be marketed by Southern Californian Rolls-Royce dealers and in 1965 was honored by Syracuse University as one of the Twentieth Century’s top 15 industrial designers. He spent the rest of his life in Southern California and was a much in demand judge and guest speaker at various classic car events and Concours d’Elegance. He passed away in 1992.

Flintridge Flinridge-Darrin (1957-1958; DKW mit Darrin-Karosserie)

Kaiser-Darrin