Originally built for $25,000, the car with a Plexiglas body was the first
transparent car built in America, another was built the following year but its location in not known.
“This is the only one known to exist,” said Alain Squindo, a car specialist for RM Auctions, which held the auction for the “Ghost Car” and other specialty vehicles in Plymouth , Mich. “It’s a very original car.”
The Ghost Car was first displayed at the 1939/1940 New York World’s Fair, then toured a number of dealerships and was later displayed at the
Smithsonian in Washington , D.C. for a number of years.
Owned by the same family since the 1980s, “They were rather sad to see their beloved car go.”
The buyer was not disclosed.
The car has 86 miles on it, having been driven in and out of dealerships for display. A collaboration between GM and Rohm & Haas chemical company, the car was covered in Plexiglas, while the structural metal underneath was given a copper wash and all hardware, including the dashboard was chrome-plated.
This one of a kind 1939 motor is a Pontiac Deluxe Six was developed a few years earlier in 1933.
Billed as a vision of the future, it was made for the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, where it became a sensation at General Motors’ ‘Highways and Horizons” pavilion; and continues to cause a stir today. Only two were ever made and this model, with a three-speed manual transmission, is the last of its kind.
Seventy-two years of wear: The Plexiglas has some chips and cracks but is mostly in good condition, according to auction notes.
Not for touring: the collectible is unlikely to be seen on the road.
Transparent: wires and a spare wheel can be seen through the trunk of the car. A spokesman for RM Auctions said: “The car is in a remarkable state of preservation. It’s a testament to the longevity of Plexiglas in an era when automotive plastics tended to self-destruct within a few years.”
Although it has acquired some chips and cracks, it is structurally sound and cosmetically clear, showing off the Ghost Car’s innards as it did in 1939. This motor still turns heads as much as it ever did. It is not, obviously, suited for touring but as a unique artifact from automotive and cultural history.”
Mechanics: The model has an L-head six-cylinder engine, coil spring, independent front suspension, live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes.
Turning back the clock: the dial on the 1939 car shows the wear of its 72 years.
At the wheel: the steering wheel features rings of chrome-plated hardware and Pontiac’s insignia in red.
The material went on to be used in military planes during World War II and then expanded in to signs, lighting, fixtures, trains and other cars.
Rohm & Haas used drawings for the Pontiac four-door Touring Sedan to create an exact replica body out of the transparent acrylic. It was completed with structural metal underneath, which was given a copper wash, and chrome-plated hardware.
Sensation: billed as a vision of the future, the car was made for the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair in San Francisco .
Following a dealership tour, it went on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and was reportedly there until 1947.
It was later owned by a succession of Pennsylvania Pontiac dealers and appeared at the first annual meet of the new Pontiac-Oakland Club International in 1973. Purchased by Don Barlup of New Cumberland, Pennsylvania, Barlup commissioned a partial restoration from S&H Pontiac of Harrisburg and sold it to collector Leo Gephart in 1979.
The current owners' father purchased it from Gephart in the early 1980s, and it has remained in the same family ever since.
Not surprisingly, it has no conventional vehicle identification number and even the machined boss for the engine number is blank.
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