# Automotive Oddities **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 22, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583 "2004-10-22T12:45:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/21 "2004-10-23T20:22:36Z")
Actually, the Breezeway rear window survived on Mercuries through 1966, not '64 and Lincolns hadit on the '60 model as well as '58 and '59. I owned a '66 Montclair Breezeway and the amount of air you could move through that car at 60mph with just the vent wings and kick-panel vents open up front and the rear window halfway down was phenomenal. Hybrid cars , which have to switch to gasoline power whenever the A/C is on should have Breezeway to cut gasoline engine use and improve economy. As for more modern oddities, I’m looking into a 2-year-old Aztek. ---
**Author:** ![mambocrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc348/32.png) [@mambocrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mambocrow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/22 "2004-10-24T04:46:05Z")
The Metropolitan. [http://www.allpar.com/cars/adopted/nash-metropolitan.html](http://www.allpar.com/cars/adopted/nash-metropolitan.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/23 "2004-10-24T05:14:01Z")
[The Ford Nucleon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon). Zero emissions, not fueled by petroleum, 5000 miles between fuel-ups, and doubtless to be built in the U.S.A. by union labor. What’s not to like? Failing that…the [Italdesign Aspid.](http://www.maximum-cars.com/Cars/CarPicDisplay.php?carnumber=166&pictureID=1) Purdy. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/24 "2004-10-24T18:07:32Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > [The Ford Nucleon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon). Zero emissions, not fueled by petroleum, 5000 miles between fuel-ups, and doubtless to be built in the U.S.A. by union labor. What’s not to like? Along the same lines, though not the same fuel, is the [Dodge Deora](http://www.bonediggers.com/1-2/deora/deora.html). [picture](http://www.hotrodsonline.com/Content/Autorama50th/slides/0064.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/25 "2004-10-25T00:52:34Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > This car actually looked the same front to back. The front and rear windshields were interchangable as were the doors. The left front door was exactly the same as the right rear and visa versa. The car also featured a large “safety well” located if front of the front seat passenger. In case of impending doom, the passenger could curl up in the well to protect themselves. I don’t know where you heard that, but it’s totally wrong. The front windshield was comprised of two seperate pieces of **flat** glass, while the backlight (AKA rear windshield) was slightly curved. Today, car restorers needing to replace the backlight simply use part of a Pinto ( :eek: ) windshield. There’s some irony in that, I think. AFAIK, the first use of a rolldown rear window on a sedan was the [on the 1955 Packard Predictor showcar](http://www.conceptcarz.com/folder/vehicle.asp?car_id=715&printAllPictures=t&whichPage=&pagesize=&autoshowID=&vehicleTypeID=0). Had Packard (which by then had merged with Studebaker) built the car it would have been one of the prettiest models they ever built. There was a combination of things which finally killed off Studebaker-Packard. The first was that Studebaker had the highest labor costs of _any_ US carmaker of the era. Nance was eventually able to get the costs of building a car down, but the company had to weather a long strike by assembly line workers before it was able to do so. The second was George Romney becoming president of American Motors. The original plan was for Nash and Hudson to merge, while Studebaker and Packard merged, the two newly created companies would then merge together to create American Motors. Romney didn’t like Nance, so he called off the merger between the two companies. The third, and most damaging thing, IMHO, was Eisenhower’s selection of Charles E. Wilson (President of GM) to be Secretary of Defense that did the company in. Wilson’s first act was to cancel _all_ current Defense contracts, and then immediately hand them over to GM. Packard, which was struggling at this point, had been counting on those contracts to carry Packard over until it could come out with some completely restyled models. Without those contracts, Packard didn’t have the necessary capital to do much of anything, and the company soon died. Nance was friend’s with Eisenhower, and managed to squeeze a little help from the government out of Ike, but it wasn’t enough. Nor was the Congressional investigation into the awarding of Defense contracts which confirmed the impropriety of Wilson’s actions. The Tucker wasn’t the first car to have a moving center headlight, they were available as an aftermarket option on Packards in the late 1920s. Preston Tucker, it should be noted, was a Packard salesman at the time period. Nor was the Tucker the first car to be built with three headlights at the factory. The [Tatra](http://www.team.net/www/ktud/Tatra_photos.html) had had them since the late 1930s. If you think that the Tatra looks familiar, it should. Hitler conned the designer of the car out of a copy of the plans and then gave the plans to Ferdinand Porsche who used them to design the VW Beetle. After WW II, VW was forced to pay Tatra and undisclosed some of money to settle a patent infringement suit. The winner of the “ugliest car” contest has to be [Sir Vival!](http://home.comcast.net/~tuckerfan/pagetres.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/26 "2004-10-25T01:00:24Z")
I’ve always wanted a [Stout Scarab](http://www.aaca.org/wisconsin/images/Schneider_Scarab.jpg). It looks better in person. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/27 "2004-10-25T02:07:10Z")
Oh yeah, I’ve always liked [Bucky Fuller’s Dymaxion Car.](http://www.thirteen.org/bucky/car.html) It seated 11, got something like 30 MPG, and would do 120 MPH. A fatal crash, wrongly blamed on the steering instead of the other car involved, was also fatal to investors, and the project failed. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/28 "2004-11-19T03:18:20Z")
Hey, **Tuck** , check this out! [There’s a '72 Riviera somwhere under all that](http://www.buick-riviera.com/pictures/customs/0602/72custom.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/29 "2004-11-19T03:24:14Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Hey, **Tuck** , check this out! [There’s a '72 Riviera somwhere under all that](http://www.buick-riviera.com/pictures/customs/0602/72custom.jpg). AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! The goggles! They do nothing!!! What would possess someone to do that to a car? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/30 "2004-11-19T05:19:06Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Hey, **Tuck** , check this out! [There’s a '72 Riviera somwhere under all that](http://www.buick-riviera.com/pictures/customs/0602/72custom.jpg). Sigh, would you like to hear the gory details behind that car? It’s actually sadder than you think. In 1946, when Preston Tucker first announced his car (this isn’t exactly covered in the film, BTW), it was going to be called the “Tucker Torpedo” and the original design looked something like [this](http://www.oldtimersweb.be/jansartikelen/tucker_bestanden/image008.jpg) and [this.](http://www.oldtimersweb.be/jansartikelen/tucker_bestanden/image009.jpg) As the design evolved (Tucker hired Alex Tremulis and J. Gordon Lippincott & Company to work on the design.) the name “Torpedo” was dropped and replaced with “48” (the year the car was to have gone into production), since it was thought that calling the car “Torpedo” would give the car an “unsafe” image :rolleyes: . Fast forward to about 5 years ago, Tucker’s grandson decided to actually build the original prototype, and thus you have the abortion (and, yes, most of the members of the Tucker Club are **not** happy that a Riveria was, well, raped, to make that thing) you linked to. But wait, it gets **worse**. You see, it’s _not_ like there was only the Torpedo and 48 designs to choose from, to build a car that Tucker wanted to create, but never got the chance to. Nope. While Tucker was alive, and before the Tucker corporation got shut down, Phil Egan (of J. Gordon Lippincott) had designed the 1950 two door model called [Talisman.](http://usera.imagecave.com/tuckerfan/egantalisman.jpg) After the company had folded, when Tucker was first looking to restart the company, he commission Alex Tremulis to come up with a new model, which was _also_ to be called [Talisman.](http://usera.imagecave.com/tuckerfan/tremtalisman.jpg) Now, I don’t know who designed the [Rivierea](http://www.westernbuicks.org/Buick%20Riviera%20Photo%20003%20220903.jpg), but as you can see, Tremulis’s Talisman looks a helluva lot like it, and predates it by a couple of decades. Following that, Tucker tried yet again to build a car. This one was going to be called [Carioca](http://www.darcyvieira.com/imagens/tucker_w1.jpg) (another view of the car can be found [here](http://www.darcyvieira.com/imagens/tucker_w2.jpg)). Why Tucker’s grandson _didn’t_ pick any of those, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/31 "2004-11-19T08:41:32Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Hey, **Tuck** , check this out! [There’s a '72 Riviera somwhere under all that](http://www.buick-riviera.com/pictures/customs/0602/72custom.jpg). Y’know, aside from the ugly roof, I kinda _like_ it. Of course, I also thought [Cugnot’s steam carriage](http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nicholas-Joseph%20Cugnot) had a certain dashing elegance about it. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/32 "2004-11-19T11:11:45Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > [The Ford Nucleon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon). Zero emissions, not fueled by petroleum, 5000 miles between fuel-ups, and doubtless to be built in the U.S.A. by union labor. What’s not to like? the fact that’s it’s a _NUCLEAR_ powered car, made by _FORD_? am i the only one that’s terrified by the idea of a ford built nuclear reactor? aside from the (lack of) reliability problems, imagine the issues in an accident, you’d need a hazmat team there to clean up the radioactive residue, no i don’t think we’d be dealing with a miniature mushroom cloud in the event of an accident, there wouldn’t be enough kinetic energy released in a collision to push the reactor to critical mass, but there’d bound to be some reactor leakage in an accident ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/33 "2004-11-19T13:57:46Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! > > The goggles! They do nothing!!! > What would possess someone to do that to a car? It’s like an “art car” on crack. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/34 "2004-11-19T16:32:09Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > Sigh, would you like to hear the gory details behind that car? It’s actually sadder than you think. > > In 1946, when Preston Tucker first announced his car (this isn’t exactly covered in the film, BTW), it was going to be called the “Tucker Torpedo” and the original design looked something like [this](http://www.oldtimersweb.be/jansartikelen/tucker_bestanden/image008.jpg) and [this.](http://www.oldtimersweb.be/jansartikelen/tucker_bestanden/image009.jpg) As the design evolved (Tucker hired Alex Tremulis and J. Gordon Lippincott & Company to work on the design.) the name “Torpedo” was dropped and replaced with “48” (the year the car was to have gone into production), since it was thought that calling the car “Torpedo” would give the car an “unsafe” image :rolleyes: . Fast forward to about 5 years ago, Tucker’s grandson decided to actually build the original prototype, and thus you have the abortion (and, yes, most of the members of the Tucker Club are **not** happy that a Riveria was, well, raped, to make that thing) you linked to. Damn! I had heard of the Talisman but not _this_. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/35 "2004-11-19T16:37:27Z")
BTW: the boattail Riviera was designed by Bill Mitchell, the man who succeeded Harley Earl. He’s also responsible for the '63 Corvette Sting Ray. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/36 "2004-11-20T04:02:45Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > the fact that’s it’s a _NUCLEAR_ powered car, made by _FORD_? Oh, gee, y’know, I thought the sentiment was implied in my post. I’ll remember to include a big honkin’ smiley next time. > [@](#): > > am i the only one that’s terrified by the idea of a ford built nuclear reactor? Agreed…I’m holding out for _Volvo’s_ nuclear powered car, thank you very much. (Or at least a German-engineered nuclear car.) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583/37 "2004-11-20T05:15:14Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Oh, gee, y’know, I thought the sentiment was implied in my post. I’ll remember to include a big honkin’ smiley next time. > > Agreed…I’m holding out for _Volvo’s_ nuclear powered car, thank you very much. (Or at least a German-engineered nuclear car.) 😃 I’d wait for the German version if I were you. Seems Ford’s busy stripping all the individuality out of the brands they’ve recently acquired, so by the time they actually get around to letting Volvo build one, it’ll be little more than a rebadged Escort. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automotive-oddities/270583.md?page=1)