Kaiser Darrin

Kaiser Darrin
Overview
Manufacturer	Kaiser Motors
Production	1954
Designer	Howard "Dutch" Darrin
Body and chassis
Class	Sports car
Body style	2-door roadster
Powertrain
Engine	161 cu in (2.6 L) F-head six cylinder, 90-hp
Transmission	Three-speed manual with overdrive
Dimensions
Wheelbase	100.0 in (2,540 mm)
Length	184.1 in (4,676 mm)

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 in 1954. 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 first American car equipped with a fiberglass body and 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 re-engined with Cadillac Eldorado V-8 units; one of these was reportedly raced.

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 Coolee 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 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 alumimum. All that Kaiser tended to lack, according to writer Aaron Severson, was a sense of his own limitations.

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Wikipedia