Phantom Corsair

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Phantom Corsair

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The

Phantom Corsair

is anautomobile prototype from 1938. Itisa six

passengercoupethat was designed byRust Heinz, a member of theH. J. Heinz family, and Maurice Schwartz of thePasadena,

California

basedBohman & Schwartzcoachbuildingcompany. The design was a departure fromcontemporary car design and it did away with manyfeatures, common at the time, that were eventuallyabandoned by mainstream designers.

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Production

Heinz planned to put the Phantom Corsair, whichcostapproximately $24,000 to produce in1938 (approximately $300,000 in 2005 dollars) into limited production at an estimated selling price of $12,500. However,Heinz's death, shortly after the car was completed, ended those plans.The completely unique 1938 PhantomCorsair now resides in theNational Automobile Museum

(The

Harrah Collection) in

Reno, Nevada

.The full story of this car, as well as studio pictures, appears in the October 2006 edition of

Classic and Sports Car

magazine.

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Design

With a height of only 147 cm (58 in.), the steel and aluminum body had no running boards, fenders ordoor handles. Instead, the doors could be opened using buttons located on the outside and on theinstrument panel. To match the advanced design, Heinz chose the most advanced chassis available inthe United States at that time, the

Cord810. The

V8 engine

equipped Cord also featuredfront wheel

drive

and an electrically operated four

speed gearbox, as well as a fullyindependent suspension

and

adjustableshock absorbers. Toaccommodate the large body,various changes were carried through on the chassis. The car's lower frame was made ofchromoly steel andthe upper frame was constructed ofelectrically welded aviation steel tubing. Power for the 2

ton / 4500 lb. (2000 kg) Phantom Corsair came

from a modified Cord 810 Lycoming 8

cylinder unit, supercharged to produce about 190 hp. TheThis article may contain wording that

promotes the subject in asubjective mannerwithout imparting real information

. Please

remove or replace such wording or find

sourceswhich back theclaims.

Phantom Corsair

Manufacturer

Rust Heinz

Production

1938