The 1948 Tasco makes an on-road appearance here, but just don’t ask what that giant control lever that its designer Gordon Buehrig’s hand is on.
CC Time Warp Theater: The Cars of Tomorrow, 1948 – “If You’re Looking For A 1960 Model This May Well Be It”
– Posted on October 2, 2013
Since it’s a pretend fighter plane that handle must be for the forward machine guns.
I’m guessing it’s the parking brake, despite the fact he’s using it while driving forward in a straight line – there’s a sort of release button on it in some pics I’ve found, and I can’t think what else it might possibly be.
The second car looks like Flash Gordon’s minivan. But it was rumored to be a prototype of the 1960 Tatra.
Gordon Behhrig’s Tasco was the first car with a T-top. In 1968 he sued GM and won.
Albert Drake’s book, “The Age of Hot Rods,” tells a slightly different story:
“…(Buehrig) picked up a copy of Road & Track, and saw on the cover a new Corvette using his top. Since the patent would not expire for another year, Buehrig contacted GM about this infringement. Eventually they offered him a sum of money for the rights to the T-Top, and since he knew he would not be able to sue GM, he accepted the offer.”
Wayne Carini of “Chasing Classic Cars” fame owns a Davis. Neat to see a period video of the car in action. His was purple IIRC. Don’t think it was an original color though.
What is the name of the second car in the video?
The Davis was a rather practical idea. As usual, the problem was financing to get into production. Along with the Tucker, I’ve always regarded them as the two unfortunate failures of the post-WWII forties. I think the car industry would have been better off had they made production.
I’d like to see if it corners any better than a Robin Reliant.
Easy solution on the Davis: Just bolt a pair of chair casters to bottom of the hydraulic jacks 😀
Put it in “H”!
http://www.dula.tv/watch.php?file=homer-buys-car-from-crazy-vaclavs.flv
“She’ll go three hundred hectares on a single tank of kerosene.”