Alex Tremulis' Chrysler Thunderbolt: upcoming auction

[john]

Streamliner,
What a great post and a very good story by Alex.
He was truly an inspiring and creative designer.

I have requested a Club member to post a few pictures of a special streamlined futuristic automobile that we do believe inspired Alex in his youthfull years while at Cord, Auburn and Duesenberg.


The builder/designer completely broke away from all street car designs, sizes, equipment and weights, the rest is history.
A little more about the car is briefed on page one of this post.
John

[TUCKER]

Photo being posted for John

[TUCKER]

Another photo posted for John.
Front shot of the 1935 Harris FWD Streamlined Speciale

[john]

Photo being posted for John

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE.

[Tatra Man]

For those Tucker Club members and Guests fortunate to have known Alex Tremulis, especially in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's you already know that he was a man of great character and integrity. He was a student of streamlining in his teens and twenties but soon became the master at applying aerodynamics to automobile design. Although he constantly looked into the future, somehow he knew that with each airbrush stroke he was creating history and with each typewriter keystroke his adoring wife, Chrissie, was recording the stories to go with it. Together, they kept an incredibly detailed account of streamlining covering six decades.

Dear Streamliner,

Thank you for bringing that Tremulis account of the Newport and Thunderbolt to light. Do you happen to know if Ralph Roberts made his own account of the same two projects? I would be very interested in hearing his version of things. I have some notes in my file that one of the Chrysler Thunderbolt owners, Don Appel, interviewed Ralph Roberts about the design. Does anyone here know Mr. Appel? I would be very interested if his research into the design of the Thunderbolt substantiates what Tremulis wrote.

Not having known Tremulis, my research on him comes directly from primary sources, such as personal letters he wrote (many to Phil Egan and the Cermaks), his SEC Trial Testimony, his original artwork, articles he wrote, and other forms of documentation. I have researched Tremulis' involvement in the Tucker's design quite heavily, and have found that Tremulis gave contradictory accounts for many of his well-known Tucker stories. This is not an opinion, but a fact that comes directly from comparison of primary sources.

About your opinion that Tremulis was a "master of applying aerodynamics to automobiles", I haven't seen much of his 1930s work, but is 1940s & 1950s can rarely be defined as "clean" or "streamlined". It is often quite extravagant, dripping with ornamentation, which would contradict the notion that he was a supporter of aerodynamics or even streamlining. His later design work from the 1960s-on seems to fit this description better. I think it would be interesting to have a professional Aerodynamicist evaluate Tremulis' work and give an opinion on it.

Speaking of aerodynamics, does anyone know if a Tucker '48 has ever been tested in a wind tunnel? If so, is there a possibility of getting a copy of the report?

[Tuckerfan1053]

I seem to recall reading somewhere that they did a few wind tunnel tests with a small model of the car, but I might be mistaken. If we had blueprints of the car in an electronic form, they could be loaded into any of a number of programs which simulate wind tunnels and we could get an idea of what the drag coefficient of the car would be. I suspect that because of the rear mounted radiator which exhausted air out the back that the car would have a pretty low coefficient. Would have made "drafting" in NASCAR pretty difficult for someone behind a Tucker.

[Tuckeroo]

From "Tucker Performance..as I saw and Lived It" by Alex Tremulis, Milestone Car Spring 1975:

"In our coasting tests in Chicago our C/D was estimated at .28. I have always considered this estimate a bit too low, as I have the figures to prove it, and prefer to write it off as .30"

So it's an estimate. I would love to see a Tucker go into the wind tunnel but not sure if any owners would be ready or willing. Motor Trend Classic recently put a 1959 Chevrolet to put some of the myths about that car to the test. I agree though that the rear-engine and pusher fan would have had a very positive effect, in the same way that was beneficially for the Chapparal "Fan Car."

[Tuckeroo]

The Harris FWD Speciale was posted and solved already on Autopuzzles, otherwise would've posted it myself:

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=4151.0

A truly fascinating car! I had read that the Cord 810's retractable lights were an adaptation of retractable aircraft landing lights (E. L. Cord had also acquired Lycoming, after all). The first 810 prototype of 1935 had them open outward from the inner sides of the fenders. With Harris coming out that same year and also featuring retractable lights, it raises a few more chicken & egg questions, though.

[john]

Tuckeroo,
Thanks for the help on the Harris even though somebody else posted it !!!!!
Going to create an account there and go check it out.

Don't really know who posted it for identification, guess more people know about it than I thought.
Over the past 22 years I have had to send pictures out of the car for help in reseaching its History.
Guess somebody latched onto the pictures and posted them tuckeroo.

Bens renderings were complete in 1934, clay model in late 34- early 35, licensed in birdcage form and test driving in birdcage form in mid 1935>> soooooo I guess Harris's chicken layed the egg and Gordon hatched the egg for use on the Cord.

For the record; seatbelts, pop open gas caps, hood and headlights, independant rear suspension, V-8 with twin cams, twin ignition and dual carbs, Spicer-Dana's first fwd half shaft, Duponts first ever Duco Lacquer chrome metallic, the list goes on and on, 14 chapters in all.

Thank you for the compliment on the car Tuckeroo, he was an amazing person, truly believe that Gordon and others thought he was crazy, that was until it became the hit of the shows for many years.
A Pebble Beach Senior Class Judge told us it will steal the shows at invitationals, let alone is eligable for two classes.

Ben stopped driving it because people would follow him and drive him crazy about the car, Good thing he could get away most of the time, bet he had a blast taking it to the limit at 110 mph with the 150lb V-8 engine singing its tune at 6000 rpms!!!!
Wonder how it would fair in a wind tunnel, probably would cut the air quite well, what do you think guys????

Steamliner, many others agree with your opinion you sent me, we truly believe, as we stated, that the youthful Alex and others were inspired by Ben unknowingly creating the future to come.

We consider ourselves ""the caretaker of the car"", and the ones picked, by a fluke, to find and research it so the Historians and writers can find its significant place in automobile history.

There is so much more about the building of the car, its disaster in 1964 together with 12 very important other cars, its general history, publized specs in 1936, all of its first's incorporated in its construction and so much more,

If ever a "singular car deserved its own book," we believe it to be,
'"The 1935 Harris FWD Streamlined Speciale."

John

[Dooch]

Bens renderings were complete in 1934, clay model in late 34- early 35, licensed in birdcage form and test driving in birdcage form in mid 1935>> soooooo I guess Harris's chicken layed the egg and Gordon hatched the egg for use on the Cord.

I can remember drooling over photos of Ben Harris's Streamliner in car magazines in the 1950s. But any claim that the Cord's retractable headlights were influenced by Harris has no basis in fact.

The design for Gordon Buehrig's "baby Duesenberg", including retractable headlights, was complete by the end of 1933. Plans went to the coachbuilder in January 1934 and the finished body was delivered in April 1934. Buehrig's design patent for this body, including the retractable headlights, was filed in May 1934.

This style of retractable headlight was later used on the prototype Cord 810s, but its first appearance on a real car was a year before the Streamliner. Ben Harris was a genuine genius, John, but it seems like the egg was Gordon's.

[john]

Dooch,
Good of you to drop a reply.
You must remember that these guys were best of friends until their deaths.

Ben chummed with Gordon all of the time, he was even Gordons best man at his wedding.
A vehicle such as Ben built, was not designed once in renderings, he did do some work on it in 1933.
His work then went to clay in 34,its cloudy but we will correct our research.

We concede to your observation.
Historical research revolves around just that, research and writting what you believe is correct and then waiting to see if contradictions arise.
We are men, that if proven wrong, are big enough to admit it,

Thank you so much for the compliments on the Harris Car, we are sure Ben is smiling wherever he may be,
It is on another site at this time, they have dug up some remarkable information and old 1936 articles on the car.

The article you reference was probably Road & Track, may have been Hot Rod also, both did articles on it after it hit the news again in 1951.

Still searching for the magazine article with E Cord and the Pres of Perfect Circle with the car, a Better Homes and Garden magazine and 4 others, also need the others I think were mentioned herein, especially the NY International Show Brochure, any help would be greatly appreciated

These articles (3), revealed on the other site, have evaded us for years.
We do appreciate what you brought forth, the story is still being researched and we are fully attempting to provide the public with every (correct) accounting of what Ben built.

Dooch, if there is anything else you know of, or leads that we can follow, please let us know.
Thank You buddy,
John

[streamliner]

John, I’ve found no direct links to the 1935 Harris FWD Streamlined Speciale so far, but a few interesting tidbits:

As far as Alex Tremulis’ early influences and the possible exposure to the Harris Speciale, here’s a letter he wrote to Gordon Buehrig on October 15, 1975 in which he references Buehrig’s guided tour through his 1935 design studio. It’s conceivable that there may have been something on your Harris Speciale in Buehrig’s studio at that point (also note how Tremulis points out the politics involved with the auto industry – some things never change…). Certainly when Tremulis was made Chief Stylist at Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg in 1936 he had access to all the A-C-D dreamworks.



As part of the Chrysler Newport/Thunderbolt article that was published in 1975 Special Interest Autos, Tremulis goes into much greater detail on the designers of the day. This account was edited out because it was considered non-sequitur to the Newport story, but offers more insight into the stylist’s world of that era. I’ve thrown in some pix of some of the referenced cars. It’s pretty clear that the 25 year old Tremulis was well aware of the aerodynamic designs that were going around in the 1920’s and 1930’s as well as the stylists that were credited with the designs. Here’s Tremulis’ unedited introduction to the Newport/Thunderbolt story of the time while he was at Briggs:

What a violent transition it must have been for, as an example, Edsel Ford to leave the River Rouge Dearborn area where executives like Ernest Kanzler and Fred Rockelman were committing political suicide trying to convince the senior Henry Ford that the models T and A were visions of the past, best looked at through a rear view mirror and that a sleeping giant was emerging on the horizon called General Motors who was putting all their eggs in one big basket called the Art and Colour Section headed by Harley Earl. Here they could express their philosophies and, on occasion, we stylists would be assigned to them to work out some of their creative ideas.

On several occasions I was privileged to work on Edsel Ford’s concepts. I remember one particular design that Mr. Ford called the New Era. After some 35 years his design has certainly survived the acid test of time. He had insisted on the first of the thin roofs and a curved glass windshield that radiused into the windshield header which was to have the thinnest windshield pillar ever. And get this: a horizontal crease line on the door which was to generate two planes of light with the reflected plane creating an illusion of light which was to exaggerate the length of the car. He demonstrated this facet by folding a sheet of cardboard and then by lighting a match demonstrating the light and shadow qualities thusly expressing his design philosophy most eloquently. I recall one of my colleagues exclaiming; “Where in hell did Mr. Ford get that match?!?” as in that frame of time smoking at the Ford Motor Company was strictly forbidden. Smoking in the inner sanctum of the men’s washroom was a calculated risk. Those suspect behind the closed doors were simply drenched with a bucket of water which descended upon the sitting offender with the fury of a roaring Niagara. Then the doors were literally pulled off the hinges and the offenders badge was ripped off by one or two of the secret police, who numbered some eight or nine hundred men and who also masqueraded as workers at the Ford Motor Company. This act, the removal of the badge, equaled the finality of the ripping off of an officer’s epaulettes in a military court martial. I recently read of an automotive buff who was the proud possessor of a company badge that bore the name of Henry Ford II. I have often wondered how in hell Henry the II ever managed to get back into the Ford Motor Company and eventually take over the reigns of the company that was rightfully his without that badge. Getting back to Edsel Ford. Mr. Ford also insisted that the car need be no higher than 50 inches, about a foot and a half lower than existing motor cars of that time, since the sins of the drive shaft were now eliminated by the rear engine placement. As to the front fender height Mr. Ford expressed a desire to make the hood, if possible, actually lower than the fenders themselves. Mr. Ford was a man of great design sensitivity, tremendously inspiring and he could actually sketch. He would pick up sweeps and would say “let’s try this one and see what happens”. As to his enthusiasm for rear engine philosophy he had been brainwashed by John Tjaarda as early as 1933 when he displayed the rear-engined Ford Briggs Body Special at the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair.



This exciting concept was the Tjaarda brainwashing technique that eventually inspired the Lincoln Zephyrs, the first truly aerodynamic cars that boasted of a lower coefficient of drag than the legendary Chrysler Airflows which introduced the philosophy of streamlining to this country.


1934 Chrysler Airflow


Source: http://www.fomoconews.com

Edsel Ford believed in low, streamlined cars. I remember an incident that occurred in the early 50’s when Gil Spear, chief stylist, was presenting a very low 48 inch high sedan called the Diplomat. About 30 of us in styling were at its unveiling and most everyone was wondering what Henry Ford II was going to say after he banged his head on the roof getting his 6 foot frame into the car. I remember saying “Don’t worry, he’s an Edsel. He’ll get in like an old pro.” He got in with the grace of a ballerina. I doubt if the legendary Sterling Moss, notorious for his flying entrance LeMans starts in a Cisitalia coupe could have ever beaten Henry II’s time in getting in and out of super low cars. We applauded his performance that day with enthusiasm for a styling victory. Now maybe we’ll get the go signal for some new exciting low cars. Not so with K. T. Keller of Chrysler whose cars always seemed to have the steering wheel a bit out of reach and while offering excellent entrance qualities always seemed to penalize the Chrysler stylists with a shorter hood length of 2 or 3 inches. Years later, when the legendary Virgil Exner designed the first of an illustrious line of dream cars, he dubbed his creation the K-310, not in tribute to the car’s alleged HP, but K. T. Keller’s vital statistic which was measured in poundage.


Source: http://www.automotivehistoryonline.com

The purpose of this lengthy introduction is dedicated to laying the ground work of the design climate of the times before introducing Ralph Roberts and his exciting contribution to the art, his legendary Newport double cowled phaeton…


1941 Chrysler Newport


1941 Chrysler Newport


1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt
These great shots are from RM Auctions http://www.rmauctions.com/index-ferrari.cfm

Now back to the Ben Harris topic, this Tremulis Bluebird II (1931)-inspired Thunderbolt sketch has some similar design elements to the Harris Speciale as well. John, you may want to research more of the LSR attempts of the 1920’s and 30’s, since design elements of these cars show up in one-offs of the era. The Harris Speciale looks a lot more like a miniature version of Campbell’s Bluebirds:


Tremulis Thunderbolt



Bluebird (1935) Photo from http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/



Bluebird II (1931) Photo from http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/


Finally, another possible link: Phil Derham and Herb Newport had worked with both Buehrig and Tremulis at Duesenberg when they went off to build the 1934/35 Aeronaut based on a Ford chassis. It’s possible that they were all exposed to the Harris Special if its design had ever been in the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg facilities. Tremulis assisted Derham and Newport with their car. Although their fabric-based body doesn’t look much like the Harris Special, 6 or 7 years later Tremulis sketched his version of an Aeronaut which does have some design similarities to both the Chrysler Thunderbolt and the Harris Special. Whether or not it was just reuse of the Aeronaut name or if it was part of a bigger project, I’m not sure at this point, but here’s the Tremulis rendering of a retractable drop-top bubble-top rear-engined Aeronaut, about 1943:



And here’s the Derham-Newport fabric-skinned 1935 Aeronaut:



From another great site http://www.coachbuilt.com/ :

In the Feb-Mar 1973 issue of Special Interest Auto (#15), Newport reflected on the Aeronaut project:

"Just before Phil left Duesenberg, we got to working on this Ford idea of building a light, fast V-8 chassis with a fabric body on it. We built it sort of like an airplane and made arrangements with the former Weymann Body Co., at that time managed by A.H. Walker, to make the bodies for us. We chose Walker for two reasons - he was familiar with fabric body construction, and the old Weymann plant in Indianapolis was very handy.
"But the bodies we built didn't use real Weymann flexible construction. Rather, our bodies used a solid wooden frame covered with wood strip paneling, like boat-strip planking-each strip being about 3/8 inch thick and half an inch wide to get the shape. When that was all sanded and smooth, we covered it with cotton padding and finally covered that with airplane linen. The linen was then painted with the same paint as the metal fenders, hood, etc., and you couldn't tell it was fabric unless you actually touched it.
"We built two different styles of cars. The first, based on the 1934 Ford, was immediately outdated when the 1935 Fords came out, so we had to make another car based on the '35 Ford. We built two of the 1935 model. The fellow who put up the money to build these cars was Harry S. Liebhart from Denver.”

Alex Tremulis was also involved in the project and in the Apr-May 1973 issue of Special Interest Auto (#16), he told of his experience with the short-lived Derham project:

“The Weymann principle saved us 611 pounds and was very quiet. Bert Walker, founder of Weymann, used to tell me that fabric construction was cooler in summer and warmer in winter. I worked for Phil Derham in Indy for about three months. My job was to take cost-outs of the Aeronaut, which was to sell for $3,250. I recall designing around the 1935 Plymouth front end, too, to a price of $2,750. It looked like an order of 50 cars.
“We had at least 10 Aeronauts on the production line, I remember. We used to dope them daily with about 15 coats to shrink and stretch them. When painted, they were just like metal. For a while, an Aeronaut was being considered as a pace car for the Indy 500. Unfortunately Harry Liebhart, our angel, was bringing the one finished car back from Denver and sideswiped a taxicab just three blocks from the plant. He paid for it, cut off our financing, disappeared for two months, and the venture collapsed.
“Herb and Phil had done a magnificent job on this car’s styling and it had fantastic performance. I really think that there were three cars completed and maybe 10 bodies in various stages of construction. If we had paced the Indy 500, it would have meant success, as we had many interested prospects. It was a very low budget operation. I think I was being paid $35 a week, but the experience was fabulous.”

[Randy Earle]

The Airflow came out before that Zephyr.

[Tuckeroo]

The Airflow came out before that Zephyr.

...and the Zephyr was based on the Briggs Tjaarda Sterkenberg which came out before the Airflow...

Not apropos of that, here's a Tremulis design for DeSoto in 1942 you may find interesting:

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=4916.msg31223#msg31223

[john]

Streamliner,
Have you checked out the AutoPuzzle site?
Many great pics and serious information about steamlined vehicles, aero and tear drop cars.
These guys are as serious as a heart attack as to knowing every detail about every car ever made, totally amazing.

To the Harris;
The Harris car was not built at the Cord plant, had nothing to do with it.
Mr Cord and the pres/owner of Perfect Circle were pictured with the car in a magazine.
Buehrig was Bens best friend until their deaths, Ben was Gordon's best man at his wedding.
Tremulis around 20 yrs old, worked at Cord while the Harris car was being built and was first shown on pedestal by invitation at the Chicago Auto show.

The above was all taking place while all were together.
Lets face it, car guys are car guys, we love to carry on and show our work, especially ones that are talented enough to design inovation.
Case in point, history clearly displays, all had that special talent.
Coincidence in time, really quite coooool, huh?

In viewing some of Tremulis's designs, we do think that he was possibly inspired by what Ben built. Bens design, weight, incorporated inovations and much more all wrapped into one tidy futuristic car were never seen before.

Do so hope that this helps.
Bens Speciale was built in three locations that were in Chicago and Champaign Illinois for the most part.
Question, didn't Gordon Buehrigs pop up headlights first design mount on the side of the fenders?
Did Ben utilize a clean rendered/drawn front end streamlined design in 34 and then Gordon maybe changed ?
Do enjoy your posts Streamliner, and respect ya as a quality and knowledgable car guy !!

Tuckeroo and Randy Earle,
You guys have been great to correspond with on #57, that really has turned into something else, huh>>>>
Reagarding the topics here, please do Check out the Autopuzzle site, they have 33 aero, tear drop and streamlined cars from the 1900's thru the 40's that awakened me, they are all in one topic and post area.
The airflow and Zephyr were greats in design and aero/futuristic type attempts, my opinion now is that they were far from the first though.
As mentioned, check out the site, these guys are as serious as a heart attack and have covered just about every car ever made in the world, it's great, just like the guys here at the Tucker club that zero in on Prestons great creation in time.
till the next time,
John