terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

The Darrin has a fascinating (to me, at least) history. It was intended to be the first real American sports car, but fell a bit short, especially in the power department, and after production delays, was ultimately beaten to the market by the Corvette. It was reportedly first disapproved by Henry J. Kaiser, who wanted to make "family cars," but his younger wife convinced him to put the car into production because she thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. It didn't last long, and neither did Kaiser. From an article I found by Googling:

"Kaiser-Willys decided to stop producing passenger cars in 1955, to focus exclusively on utility vehicles. The company would be renamed the Kaiser Jeep Corporation in 1963, which in 1970 was sold to American Motors Corporation (AMC, itself the result of a merger between the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and the Hudson Motor Company in 1954), and in turn in the 1980s AMC would be bailed out by Renault, which then sold AMC to Chrysler, which is how Chrysler came to own the Jeep brand."

If you can keep up with all of that, you're better at this than I am..

I am limited to the car shows for this kind of image, and so I apologize for the cluttered compostions.

1954 Kaiser Darrin

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Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Beautiful car nicely shot

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

An oldie, but goodie!

black mamba

Nice shots and interesting background info. Those of us who shoot a lot of car shows know very well the difficulty in getting nice, clean shots. No apology needed on your part.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Nice find, and thanx for the history. Have you any idea what the beige convertible is to the Rapid Red Roadster's left?

NMGal Loc: NE NM

From what I can see, that is a nice looking car, but not very aerodynamic with that front end.

AviRoad Loc: Westchester County, NY

That door!!!

AviRoad Loc: Westchester County, NY

That door!

AviRoad Loc: Westchester County, NY

(oops!)

Ava'sPapa Loc: Cheshire, Ct.

And made of fiberglass like the Corvette. The disappearing door was the only one in a production car. It had a tiny engine. Something like 90 horsepower. No competition for the Corvette which was not really a screamer, but had a 150 horsepower power plant. It was the same "Blue Flame" 235.5 ci that I had in my '53 Belair.

terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

I think you might be referring the other Darrin...?

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terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

Thank you, but my dream has been to get some of these classics in better locations. Maybe it will still happen some day...

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

My parents and my brother owned a Kaiser or two when I was growing up. I was rather impressed with them and later wished they had continued production. But, like many things, the majority of people do not like them and they lose status. There have been a good number of automobiles that did not survive despite their advanced design and safety features.

bcheary Loc: Jacksonville, FL

Interesting info and a good set of photos.

mr spock Loc: Fairfield CT

No need to apologize. Great car, great images. And thanks for the narrative