Kaiser Darrin
The Kaiser Darrin, also known as the Kaiser Darrin 161 or in short as the Darrin, was an American sports car designed by Howard "Dutch" Darrin and built by Kaiser Motors for the 1954 model year. Essentially a revamp of Kaiser's Henry J compact, the Kaiser Darrin was one of its designer's final achievements and was noted for being the second American car equipped with a fiberglass body, and for doors that slid on tracks into the front fender wells. The car was named both for Henry J. Kaiser, head of Kaiser Motors, and Darrin.
The Darrin was conceived as part of a movement in Detroit to compete head-to-head with European roadsters being imported to and sold in the United States in the post–World War II period. Among other products developed were the Ford Thunderbird in its initial two-seat form and Chevrolet Corvette. While the Darrin was designed attractively, it was also underpowered and, while a good performer overall, did not measure up to foreign vehicles such as the Nash-Healey or Triumph TR2. The Darrin's high price tag, lack of consumer confidence in Kaiser's viability and practical challenges with the car's design resulted in low sales, though sports cars at the time were generally not fast sellers.
Only 435 production Darrins and six prototypes were built. Crumbling corporate finances, pending loss of assembly facilities and a freak snowstorm that reportedly ruined 50 of the cars all conspired to terminate the program. Darrin bought those 50 vehicles and whatever others Kaiser had left in storage and sold those from his Hollywood, California showroom. Many of the cars' engines were retrofitted with superchargers and multiple carburation to improve performance. Six were rumored to have been re-engined with Cadillac Eldorado V-8 units, however, none have survived subjecting the story to some skepticism. There was one V8 engined Darrin raced at Tory Pines in November 1954 and a wrecked Darrin rebuilt into a drag racer by Lee and Gary Abrahams of Tucson, Arizona in the early 1960s.
Background
Kaiser
By the end of his life, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser had built a personal empire which included more than 100 various companies that ranged from construction and manufacturing to health care. He had begun with a cement business in Vancouver, British Columbia. A contract to build roads in Cuba in 1927 was followed with work on the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams. In 1939, he entered the shipbuilding industry. Even though he had never built a ship before then, by 1943 he had more than 300,000 employees in seven shipyards and ultimately built 1,490 Liberty Ships during World War II. An exceptional organizer and with a penchant for lateral thinking, Kaiser tended to bulldoze his way through a problem. In areas that lacked infrastructure to support his work force, Kaiser and his son Edgar built entire cities within months. If there was a shortage of steel, he built a foundry or found a way to substitute aluminum. All that Kaiser tended to lack, according to writer Aaron Severson, was a sense of his own limitations.Kaiser had begun to consider entering the automobile business in 1942, when the United States government halted production of civilian vehicles to focus on military ones due to the country's entry into World War II. With an eye toward postwar needs, Kaiser assembled a team of "idea men" to conceive a compact, lightweight car that the average working man could afford. By 1945, efforts had reached the prototype stage with the K-85, not a compact car but one with several advanced features, which included front wheel drive, unibody construction and a combination of torsion-bar springs and a torsion-beam rear axle called "Torsionetic Suspension." In partnership with automotive executive Joseph W. Frazer, Kaiser formed Kaiser-Frazer Corporation on July 25, 1945. Late that year, Kaiser-Frazer leased the Ford factory complex in Willow Run, near Detroit, Michigan as its manufacturing base.
Building new cars soon proved more problematic than designing them. While postwar demand for new cars meant robust sales, an ongoing shortage of capital at Kaiser-Frazer led to a split between its two founders. Kaiser wanted to expand production; Frazer wanted to retrench and economize, especially with the view that as the Big Three—Ford, Chrysler and General Motors—brought out newly designed cars, Kaiser-Frazer sales would drop. In early 1949, Frazer stepped down as president of Kaiser-Frazer. He was replaced by Kaiser's son Edgar and the company renamed Kaiser Motors. Frazer's concerns proved accurate. Sales slumped in 1949. Henry and Edgar Kaiser contemplated liquidation but decided against it in the hope that a new Kaiser for 1951, the Henry J, would help turn sales around.
Darrin
American designer Howard "Dutch" Darrin began coach building in Paris in partnership with fellow American designer Thomas L. Hibbard under the name Hibbard & Darrin in 1923. While they became noted over the following years for the innovatively-styled bodies they designed for many of Europe's most prestigious chassis, the Great Depression and resultant loss of customers hit Hibbard & Darrin hard. The partnership ended in 1931 when Hibbard accepted a position in General Motors's design department under Harley Earl. While Darrin remained in France initially and formed the coach building firm of Fernandez & Darrin with a wealthy South American banker, he returned to the United States in 1937. He set up his own coachworks on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood and worked with Packard on some of the most attractive models built by that company in the 1930s and 40s. These included the Packard 120 and Packard Clipper. One of his trademarks became a sweeping fender line which descended gently along the side of the car until it reached a "dip" at the head of the rear fender.Darrin began work with Kaiser-Frazer as a freelance consultant at the end of World War II, after a plan to manufacture and sell an advanced automobile of his own design failed to materialize due to an immediate postwar shortage of raw materials. Investment banker Charles Schwartz, a friend of Darrin's who had helped arrange the financing for his plan, introduced him to Joseph Frazer. Frazer commissioned Darrin to design a car that he planned to market through the Graham-Paige automotive firm. Once Kaiser-Frazer had been incorporated, Darrin's design became the first 1947 Frazer. By 1946, Darrin had been contracted as a Kaiser-Frazer consultant.
Darrin's relationship with the company and Kaiser was stormy. Darrin's designs were generally discarded for more conventional, less attractive designs. He resigned from Kaiser-Frazer in 1946 after its "orange juicers," as he called the company's designers, had altered his design for the 1946 K-F sedan. Although Henry and Edgar Kaiser had gotten along with Darrin personally and had hired him based on his reputation in automotive circles, neither was sorry to see him go. Darrin could be mercurial, temperamental and cantankerous. He left with the impression that Kaiser-Frazer had been excluding him, especially as Joseph Frazer's influence in the company had waned. However, when Frazer asked Darrin to return two years later to work on the 1951 Kaiser, Darrin accepted. When it chose a more staid design for its Henry J compact than the one he had provided, Darrin once again resigned.
Reclothing the Henry J
The Henry J had been its namesake's pet project, the result of both Kaiser and Frazer's desire to provide an affordable car to the average working man. It was also the basis for a $44 million loan from the federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation in 1948, with the condition that the car was to go to market no later than the summer of 1950. Its wheelbase, at, had been sectioned from the company's 1951 sedan which, while conventional, had proved a sound design. Moreover, the 1951 sedan had a low center of gravity and, with an uncommonly good ride, rivaled the Hudson step-down models as among the best-handling cars of its class. Contemporary testers of the Henry J such as Tom McCahill of Mechanix Illustrated and Floyd Clymer of Popular Mechanics pointed out the car's poor quality of assembly but praised the Henry J's performance. Automotive writer Aaron Severson, in his article "Dressed to Kill: The 1954 Kaiser Darrin," called the Henry J's roadability an "agreeable blend of ride comfort and maneuverability" and its engine "sprightly, if not particularly fast."Darrin felt that the Henry J deserved better than the boxy design with which it had been outfitted and set out to prove it. Using his own funds and without notifying Kaiser, Darrin produced a 2-seat roadster design. After he had completed a clay model in the first half of 1952, Darrin contacted Bill Tritt, who had pioneered the use of glass-reinforced plastic in sports car bodies to have him produce a prototype. This body was shipped to Darrin's design shop in Santa Monica, California, and mated to a Henry J chassis. Once the prototype was finished, Darrin invited Kaiser to see the car.
Kaiser, predictably, became upset at the sight of the new car. He roared, "We are not in the business of selling sports cars," he chastised Darrin for proceeding with the project without his knowledge. Darrin answered that the car had not been built on company time and that he had funded it himself. "Furthermore," he added, "if you don't build the car under the Kaiser banner, I'll build it myself." At this point, Kaiser's new, younger wife, who had accompanied him to the shop, told her husband, "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. I don't think there will be many automobile companies that won't go into the sports car business after seeing this car." Those words changed Kaiser's mind. By the end of the viewing, he had not only embraced the building of the car but also green-lighted development of a four-door version. Months later, Kaiser showed his appreciation by having the new sports car named the Kaiser Darrin.
As it turned out, there was actually a rush in progress among American car manufacturers to produce a two-seat roadster that would rival British imports. Ford Motor Company was developing the initial version of its Thunderbird and General Motors was working on the Chevrolet Corvette. Darrin's work predated both these projects.