Kaiser-Darrin a U.S. automotive miracle
One of the rarest and most attractive American sports cars almost didn’t come to be. It was not originally authorized by the manufacturer, appeared almost at the end of their car business, and was created by a talented stylist after he left the company.
This was the Kaiser-Darrin, first shown by Kaiser-Frazer in Los Angeles in 1952 and put into production in 1954.
Kaiser-Frazer Corp. had been formed in 1945 by Henry Kaiser, of construction and wartime Liberty shipbuilding fame, and Joseph Frazer, experienced automotive executive and president of Graham-Paige Motors.
K-F’s first 1947 Kaisers and Frazers were orthodox frontengine, rear drive, slab-sided sedans. Their modern pontoontype bodies were all-new at a time when established companies, except Studebaker and Crosley, were still building prewar designs.
K-F stylist Howard (Dutch) Darrin had worked in Europe styling cars such as Rolls-Royces and Hispano-Suizas, and returned to the United States in 1938. He later joined K-F, but left because they used his design for their new car before he felt it was finalized.
He was lured back to create the 1951 Kaiser Manhattan, whose large windows, sharply canted windshield and low beltline made it one of North America’s most handsome sedans.
When K-F disagreed with the styling theme Darrin proposed for their new compact Henry J, he left again. But the parting was amicable and Darrin retained a spiritual connection to KaiserFrazer.
As a personal project, Darrin began working on a sports car in his Hollywood studio based on the Henry J chassis. The body was a relatively new material called glass-reinforced fibre, generically known as fibreglass. It was lighter than steel, making it more suitable for low-volume cars because it required no expensive stamping dies.
By mid-1952, the prototype was ready. It had a 2,540-millimetre wheelbase and weighed just 987 kilograms. Its Henry J 2.6-litre, 80-horsepower sidevalve six drove though a threespeed manual transmission.
Darrin had wrought styling magic with the beautifully styled open two-seater. It had a long, low body, small V-shaped grille and a front fender line that sloped gently down to the doors before curving up over stylish rear fenders.
The deck lid ran clean and unbroken from the cockpit to the Henry J bumper, although this was later altered. Slightly modified 1951 Kaiser tail lights dominated the rear end, and it had a jaunty three-position folding top complete with landau irons.
The pièce de résistance was doors that glided forward on rollers and almost disappeared inside the front fenders, drawing on a design Darrin had patented in the 1940s. Since they didn’t disappear totally, the narrower opening made entry and exit a little awkward.
When his car was ready, Darrin invited Henry Kaiser to come and view it. Kaiser was initially cool, but his new wife’s enthusiasm won him over.
It was decided to build the car and call it the Kaiser-Darrin. Production got underway in January 1954 in a K-F plant in Jackson, Michigan.
There were some changes made from the original prototype, such as placing the instruments, including a tachometer, in front of the driver rather than in a line across the dash. Separate lids were used for the trunk and folding top storage well, and there was a one-piece windshield. Tiny V-shaped parking lights echoed the shape of the grille.
It now had a 90-horsepower F-head version (inlet valves in the head, exhausts in the block) of the Willys 2.6-litre six. It also offered optional seatbelts, only the second American manufacturer after Nash to do so.
Unfortunately for the KaiserDarrin, it had several strikes against it. The first was a price close to $3,700, higher than a Cadillac 62 or Lincoln Capri. Another was that Willys Motors Inc.’s dealership network (Kaiser had acquired Willys in 1953) that would sell K-Ds was shrinking, as many customers believed the company was failing. And considering its price, the performance was mediocre.
Auto Age tested a Kaiser-Darrin prototype in October 1953 and recorded zero-to-100 km/h acceleration in 13.2 seconds and top speed of 161 km/h. The Chevrolet Corvette, in spite of being hobbled by a two-speed “Powerglide” automatic transmission, could sprint to 100 in 11.0 seconds and top 171 km/h. And it cost less.
When Willys Motors left the car business in 1955, there were about 100 unfinished K-Ds that nobody seemed to care about. Dutch Darrin acquired 50 of them, which he completed, fitting some with Cadillac engines that made them into high-performance machines.
It is estimated that 435 KaiserDarrins were built, of which a large percentage still exist. They are now favoured collectibles.