Phantom Corsair

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Phantom Corsair

Manufacturer	Rust Heinz
Production	1938
Class	Mid-size
Body style	2-door coupé
Platform	Cord 810
Engine	Lycoming (Cord) L-Head V-8 4.7L

One of the most amazing automobile prototypes of the 1930's was the 1938 Phantom Corsair. This very unusual six-passenger coupe was jointly designed by Rust Heinz, a member of the H. J. Heinz (57 Varieties) family, and Maurice Schwartz of the Pasadena, California based Bohman & Schwartz coachbuilding company. The design was quite a departure from contemporary car design and it did away with many stylistic features that were also eventually abandoned by mainstream designers.

[edit] Design

With a height of only 147 cm (58 in.), the steel and aluminum body had no running boards, fenders or door handles. Instead, the doors opened at the touch of buttons located on the outside and on the instrument panel. To match the advanced design, Heinz chose the most advanced chassis available in the United States at that time to fit the body onto, the Cord 810. The V8-engined Cord was equipped with front wheel drive and an electrically operated four-speed gearbox, as well as a fully independent suspension and adjustable shock absorbers. To accommodate the large body, various changes were carried through on the chassis. The car's lower frame was made of chromoly steel and the upper frame was constructed of electrically welded aviation steel tubing. Power for the 2-ton / 4500 lb. (2000 kg) Phantom Corsair came from a modified Cord 810 Lycoming 8-cylinder unit, supercharged by Andy Granatelli to produce about 190 hp. The slippery body enabled the car to reach speeds of up to 115 miles per hour (185 km/h).

Apart from these features, many other innovations were showcased on the vehicle, including some highly uncommon ones such as a combustion efficiency gauge, oil temperature, manifold vacuum and fuel economizer gauges, battery charge level indicator, altimeter, barometer, compass, oil level gauge, tinted glass, and an all-wave radio. The Phantom Corsair was a very roomy and comfortable automobile, seating six passengers on two benches made of sponge and rubber with four persons sitting across the front seat and two in the back seat, facing the rear. It had a thermostatically controlled climate control system and was heavily insulated to control wind and road noise. It was also built to be safe, with a padded leather dashboard, a shatter-proof (tri-laminate) windshield, indirectly illuminated gauges, and powerful headlights and fog lamps.

[edit] Production

Heinz planned to put the Phantom Corsair (which cost approximately $24,000 to produce in 1938 - approximately $300,000 in 2005 dollars) into limited production at an estimated selling price of $12,500. His death, however, shortly after the car was completed, ended those plans. The automobile was featured as the Flying Wombat in the 1938 film, "The Young In Heart," starring Paulette Goddard, Janet Gaynor, Billie Burke and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. The completely unique 1938 Phantom Corsair now resides in the National Automobile Museum (The Harrah Collection) in Reno, Nevada.