As I had mentioned in one of the other posts, Alex Tremulis was both a student and master of streamlining throughout his 50+ year styling career. He was fearless in approaching the world’s finest designers in his quest to share ideas and advance the art. If he hadn’t personally met the top designers, he definitely knew their cars and their design philosophy.
With that said, there’s no doubt that Alex was a fan of Jacques Saoutchik. You can’t look at any of Saoutchik’s designs and not be amazed at his vision. When O’Quinn’s Tucker #1045 sold at Monterey in 2010, the Saoutchik Delahaye sold for $3.3 million! Truly a work of art! There may be references in letters or other documents, but so far I haven’t found any direct links between Alex Tremulis and Jacques Saoutchik.
As far as designers go, Alex was much more intertwined with Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky. They both designed for Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, LaSalle, Packard, American Bantam, Tucker and others, I’m sure. In the 1930’s the Count was impressed with Alex’s renderings and had favorable remarks and encouragement for the young Alex. I’m under the impression that when Preston Tucker approached Tremulis for the Carioca design, it was Tremulis, then a Ford employee and unable to freelance, who recommended the Count.
In the 1970's and early '80's Tremulis worked a bit with Ray Kinney on several projects. One of the projects was a Hispano-Suiza inspired car called the “Phariance”. Alex’s styling and Kinney’s fabrication resulted in what must have been an amazing mahogany-bodied sportscar. Alex’s Phariance rendering was incredible with every brass rivet painted to perfection. The original painting must still be with one of the principals, I’m sure. There was an article in the February 1985 issue of Popular Mechanics, but Alex was given no credit. It's the closest reference to Hispano-Suiza that I've seen in Alex's files. No doubt the car still exists, but where is it today???
