The 1955 Ford La Tosca Concept Car

The Ford La Tosca Concept car was a remote controlled car designed by Alex Tremulis who at the age of 19 began his automotive design career in 1933 at Auburn.  During WWWII he worked on advance aircraft aerodynamics at Wright Field, he designed the Tucker 48 and in 1952 he was hired by Ford Motor Company as the head of the advanced design studio.

The La Tosca car concept car was a 3/8 scale model and was an experiment to show design students in the Advance Studio just how difficult it was to design a car. The car was radio controlled, with a system that was built by adapting 6 volt car batteries, Lincoln convertible top motors, a power seat unit and power window relays. In addition the car featured power turning and braking. Reportedly the radio system also operated the brake lights, turn signals and the headlights. Due to the canted fenders ( a radical design at the time) and the radio controlled chassis the project took four times as long to complete as was planned.

Apparently the little La Tosca R/C car had a radius of more than a mile and the design crew had a lot of fun terrorizing Oakwood Blvd and Village Road with the R/C car. The security guards would salute the little dream car as it passed by, however the upper executives were not too happy when the little car got in the way of one of Fords executives full size sedan and that was the end of the radio control experiments (according to Ford lore).

The La Tosca later became the inspiration for the 1958 Lincoln.