Ypsilanti_Automotive_Heritage_Museum_May_2015_103_(1954_Kaiser_Darrin).jpg

A 1954 Kaiser Darrin on display at the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum. (WIKIPEDIA PHOTO)

 

Mention a fiberglass American sports car, and most car enthusiasts will immediately conjure images of the Chevrolet Corvette — and they wouldn’t be wrong. Depending on the age of the audience, that car might be a classic Corvette roadster from the 1950s with sculpted sides; or it might be a sleek split-window coupe from the early 1960s; the long-nosed Stingray of the 1970s; or maybe the latest world-class super car the ‘Vette has become.

It is the rare classic car aficionado whose mind would wander to the obscure Kaiser Darrin. But indeed this last-ditch effort to put Kaiser Motors on the map was once in the same league as the Corvette, targeting the imported European sports cars that were finding their way to our shores at the time.

(1) comment

kfcarguy

nice article, mostly correct..one major exception..Kaiser Darrin was shown to the public at the 1952 Los Angeles Motorama, months before the Corvette...Additionally, the Kaiser Darrin beat the Corvette as the first down a production line by 2 months in 1954. 1953 Corvettes don't count as they were built in various garages at GM and were not for public sales, merely given to execs, et al.

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