Art Center is well known for the transportation designers it has graduated over the years but also for the transportation design show it hosts. With a theme of "By Air, Land & Sea" we were treated to a great cross section of interesting and though-provoking vehicles.
 After taking a year's hiatus, the campus of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena again hosted a small but eclectic transportation show, the 2009 Art Center Car Classic. More than simply a car show, this year's event showcased some unusual vehicles including amphibious cars, cars powered by aircraft engines, and cutting-edge flying devices. The unique and intimate setting in the hills overlooking Pasadena might be small, but the organizers made every square inch count, presenting a broad spectrum of vehicles that combined state-of-the-art engineering, breathtaking design, as well as providing a bench marks from the past that might show future designers ways to design small city cars.
The Art Center Car Classic is more than a car show as this year, as in years past, noted speakers were part of the program. Burt Rutan--best known for the design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the sub-orbital space plane SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded spacecraft to enter the realm of space twice within a two week period--was the featured speaker. And local car guy extraordinaire and former "Tonight" show host Jay Leno made an appearance in his turbine-powered Eco Jet concept done in conjunction with General Motors.
 Selecting favorites among the vehicles on display is like choosing among your kids but as usual, there were some standouts among a truly spectacular field. If your interests run to fifties concept cars then the bright red 1955 DeSoto Adventurer II owned by Chuck Swimmer certainly would catch your eye. The second in a series of DeSoto Adventurers, it heralded the ascendancy of Virgin Exner as the chief stylist at Chrysler yet Exner attributed the majority of the design to Luigi Serge and Giovanni Savonuzzi at Ghia in Italy, where the car was constructed. It was sold first to the King of Morocco, subsequently sold to a member of the US State Department before moving into the realm of the collector car world. As spectacular as was the Adventurer II was, it wasn't the only Ghia special at the 2009 Art Center Car Classic.
 Indirectly related to the Adventurer II is the 1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic owned by David Sydorick, on display on the other side of the show field, another Ghia coach building effort. It is one of only eight aluminum-bodied examples built and features a 2-liter, 115-horsepower 70-degree Fiat V8 engine, (The car's next appearance will be one of the headliners in the sports car class at the 30th anniversary Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance on August 2, 2009 in Rochester, Michigan.) As the cars are so closely related in terms of era and coachbuilder, I just wished that the organizers would have positioned the two cars side-by-side for a more direct comparison of the design of each as both represent fifties high water marks of design for the House of Ghia.
 GM design chief Ed Welburn, a frequent visitor to the Art College campus, supported the event by sending the turbine-powered 1958 GM Firebird III Concept Car to Pasadena. It was the third in a series of GM gas turbine-powered experimentals, and was Harley Earl's final dream car before his retirement. "I envisioned an entirely different type of car which a person may drive to launching site of a rocket to the moon," said the legendary GM design director in a 1959 press release. Under twin bubble tops, Mr. Earl placed the first single-stick vehicle control system which eliminated the conventional steering wheel, brake pedal, and accelerator, an innovation engineered by the GM Research Laboratories and the precursor of today's "drive-by-wire" vehicle control systems. With nine fins, the Firebird III remains to this very day as the ultimate fin car.
 At first I wasn't sure what to make of the fact that the Batmobile was on display but standing between the it and the Firebird III, each featuring double bubble cockpits, it all made sense as it was based on the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. In its original concept car form, produced by Ghia the same year as the Adventurer II and just three years before the Firebird III, it represented an era when American stylists truly ruled the automotive design world, reflecting the boundless optimism of the time and where our cars would take us. In the guise of its subsequent reincarnation as the Batmobile for the sixties television series, the George Barris creation is arguably one of the most famous cars in the world, ranked right up there with James Bond's Aston Martin DB5.
 With design, engineering, and style that belies its age, one of the most interesting cars on display was the Czech-built Tatra T-87 owned by Peter and Merle Mullin. If you've seen photos or videos of early Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, there will be something immediately familiar in the Dr Hans Ledwinka-designed Tatra T-87. Although just over 3,000 units were produced starting in 1936, the wind-cheating T-87 has influenced car design for decades. Most notable is its 2.9-liter air-cooled 90-degree overhead cam V8. With its aerodynamic shape, just 85-horsepower could push it to nearly 100 miles per hour. These cars found favor with German officers during World War Two and many met their deaths while driving the rear-biased T-87, so much so that it became known as the Czech Secret Weapon. The car was so unforgiving that at one point the Wehrmacht issued orders forbidding German officers from driving Tatras.
 As a big fan of microcars, the 2009 Art Center Classic was a real treat if for nothing more than the sheer variety of the tiny cars on display. By definition, microcars are typically less than nine feet from bumper-to-bumper and powered by small single- or two-cylinder motorcycle-inspired engines of 700cc displacement or less. Typically capable of speeds up to 40 miles-per-hour, making them excellent city vehicles, some high performance models, such as the Messerschmitt TG500 could reach a top speed of 90 miles-per-hour with just 20-horsepower due to their excellent aerodynamics. Needless to say, fuel economy, often above 60 miles-per-gallon, making microcars excellent commuter cars, decades before the smart fortwo. The selection of microcars on display ranged from the US-built Crosley to the more familiar three-wheeled BMW Isetta bubble cars as well as an Italian Vespa and two Goggomobils.
 While there was a "conventional" two-door Goggomobil coupe on display, my favorite had to be the Creamsicle-inspired 1959 Goggomobil Dart owned by Greg and Kiki Hahs. Looking for all the world as a 5/8th scale Jaguar, the Goggomobil Dart was designed and built only in Australia by Buckle Motors on a chassis and running gear imported from Hans Glas of Dingolfing, Germany who designed and built Goggomobil sedans, coupes, and transporters panel vans. (Glas was eventually absorbed by BMW in 1966.) While the German-built cars were powered by a tiny 250cc two-cylinder motor, the cars manufactured in Australia featured either a 300cc or a 400cc engine.
For more photos from the event, including a hyper-valuable 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa, an ultra-rare 1959 Deutsch Bonnet HBR5 Coach race car, and our collection of microcars, visit the Automotive Traveler image gallery.
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