Wagons in vintage Street scenes

When successful car salesman Glenn Gordon Davis saw the “Californian”, a Ford V-8 “60″powered three wheeler designed by race car builder Frank Kurtis for millionaire sportsman Joel Thorne in 1941, he was so impressed that he eventually acquired it in 1945. It inspired him to design and produce a larger version and join the makers of such cars as Keller, King Midget, Playboy, Crosley and Tucker to try to get a piece of the booming postwar market. By one count, seventeen of these unconventional seven passenger coupés were built between 1947 and 1949. He called the result the Davis Divan and we present it here today.

The prototype was powered by a front mounted forty-seven horsepower Hercules flathead four cylinder engine coupled to a Borg-Warner three speed transmission while later examples used a similar Continental four with slightly more power. It’s aerodynamic shape and lightweight aluminum body lend some credibility to the claims of 35 to 50 miles per gallon and top speed of nearly 100 miles per hour in the original sales literature. Other unusual features include retractable headlight doors and built-in jacks at each wheel that employed military surplus hydraulic cylinders.

Promotional material gives you a good idea of the size of Davis’ dream car. Schematic shows removable hardtop and aircraft-type front suspension. A station wagon was considered, but never got off the drawing board. A pickup was also contemplated.

 

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Although smog had been an ever increasing problem in Los Angeles since before World War Two, and a concerted effort to deal with the issue didn’t begin until 1947 when the first air pollution control board in the nation, the Los Angeles Air Pollution Control District, was formed. It would be 13 more years before UCLA researchers Richard D. Hopa, and Hiroshi Kimura (L to R, above) unveiled their new device developed to control tailpipe emissions of oxides of nitrogen. Today, we know it as the common exhaust gas recirculation valve, but on May 23, 1960, when this photo was published, it was cutting edge stuff.



It doesn’t look anything like the more compact parts that were eventually installed on most engines in the early 1970′s, but the basic function was established. In a contemporary article in the Los Angeles Times, Louis J. Fuller, the enforcement director of the Air Pollution Control District, explained, “The device consists of a narrow tube to carry the exhaust gas forward from the tailpipe to the carburetor. At the intake manifold a valve is installed to meter the flow of exhaust gases so that these can mix with the regular air-fuel mixture.”

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Dodger Stadium 1962

 

Below is a cute 1949 De Franceschi micro-car crafted in Torrington, Connecticut, it is parked at some type of an event in the fifties, wearing Connecticut plates on a caricature of a front bumper.

 

Only bad part about going to a game at Dodger Stadium - having to leave Dodger Stadium. For most, it took an hour to get out of the parking lot.

 

Retro Pic

Some pics of " Mom and Dad" The two actors from the Viper commercial the 64 was used in.

 

The blizzard of 78

 

Not wagons, just some winter beaters.

 

God, I remember all that, as well as the big, big snows in the Upper Midwest, where the Twin Cities had so much snow in a two or three-day period, cars were buried. I saw a pic of a guy shoveling out his car in NatGeo magazine, and he had to go at least a foot to get to the roof! WE in the Pacific Northwest were dealing with low rainfall and almost no snowfall in the Cascade Mountains. On the up side, I walked to and from school (3-mile round trip every day) in less rain....

 

UCONN, 1970s