1938 Phantom Corsair Prototype

Phantom Corsair Protoye was a 2 door, six passenger sedan built in 1938. Designed by Rust Heinz of the H.J. Heinz family and Maurice Schwartz, Bohman & Schwartz coach building company located in Pasadena, California. Because the Phantom Corsair was never made it to production it was sometimes thought of as a failure in-spite of it futuristic features like, its aerodynamic shape, low body height (57in.), fully skirted wheels, flush fenders and no running boards, electrically activated doors (with a push of a button located on the instrument panel and on exterior of the cars the doors would open), an instrument panel with an altimeter, compass and above the windshield a separate console that would let the driver know the lights were on or the door was ajar or when the radio was on.

The Phantom Corsair was front wheel drive with an electrically operated four speed pre-selector gearbox, independent suspension, adjustable shock absorbers. The chasis was a Cord chasis, the chasis was modified to accommodate the Phantom's large size body. Including making the chasis wider to accommodate four people sitting in a row in the front seat including one person sitting on the left of the driver, however the rear seat only had enough room for two people. The reason for this was that the space was used up by the on board beverage cabinets. The Phantom Corsair reached speeds in access of 115 mph in-spite of its heavy weight of 4,600. The Phantom Corair engine was a naturally aspirated 125 bhp Lycoming engine.

In 1938 the cost to produce the Phantom was $24,000 (in 2016 the cost $394,208.33). Rust Heinz planned to produce the Phantom with a limited production run with a selling price of $12,500 (2016 price $205,316.84). Unfortunately Rust Heinz was killed in a car accident in 1939 and the car was never produced, leaving this prototype as the only one to have ever been built.