In 1941 Chrysler built 5 Newport Dual Cowl Phaetons, ostensibly as concept cars, however the intended future for the beautifully designed autos was never really made clear by Chrysler due to America’s somewhat sudden involvement in World War 2.
Shortly after Pearl Harbour, Chrysler sold off 4 of the Dual Cowl Phaetons to private owners and kept the one you see pictured above and below as a demonstration model.
In the same year but shortly before America joined the war Chrysler’s last remaining Dual Cowl Phaeton was the official pace car of the Indianapolis 500 motor race (a picture of the car at the race is available below) and wowed both the motoring press and the tens of thousands of spectators who attended the race. It’s been said that if it wasn’t for the war, this car may have had significantly more impact on mid-century American car design than it otherwise did.
As Chrysler geared up for wartime production the Dual Cowl became little more than a dust gathering curiosity and it essentially disappeared from history before resurfacing in the 1960’s as a member of the legendary Paul Stern automobile collection. Over the following decades the car moved through series of impressive collections, even belonging to famed car auctioneer, Tom Barrett of Scottsdale, Arizona for a short while.
It seems that the time has once again come for the Dual Cowl to change hands, RM Auctions will be selling the car at the Amelia Island auction on the 10th March this year, check out the listing for the Dual Cowl Phaeton here.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
