The sleek, unadorned shape of the 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt was the work of two famous designers, Ralph Roberts and Alex Tremulis.
In 1940, Alex Tremulis of later Tucker and Ford fame was a 25 year-old designer at Briggs Manufacturing, but he already had a passion for streamlined, aerodynamic design. Ralph Roberts, head of the LeBaron coachbuilding division was so impressed with the young man’s ideas that he arranged a meeting with K.T. Keller, president of Chrysler, Briggs’ best customer, and vice-president David Wallace.
While Chrysler’s Airflow project of 1934-37 had been less than a success, management was proud of the advanced car’s low-drag engineering, and they liked what they heard. They approved the limited production of two streamlined LeBaron idea cars: the Newport, a dual-cowl phaeton originally called the Golden Arrow, and the Thunderbolt, a two-place roadster with a disappearing top. The Thunderbolt took its name and its aerodynamic inspiration from Captain George E.T. Eyston’s land speed record racer.
While Roberts concentrated on the Newport, Tremulis took over the Thunderbolt project at mid-point. Built by the LeBaron coachbuilding crew on a production New Yorker 127-in wheelbase chassis, it shared the New Yorker’s 323.5 CID straight eight and Fluid Drive, too. Much of the body was fabricated in sheet aluminum over an oak framework, while the one-piece clamshell hood and deck lid were steel. We can guess the hidden headlamps might be influenced by Cord, where Tremulis briefly worked. The novel feature would soon appear on Chrysler’s production 1942 DeSoto (see our feature here).
While it’s an obvious idea, the disappearing all-metal top could have been inspired by the similar Partout-bodied Peugeot Eclipses of a few years earlier. The complicated electric-hydraulic operating mechanism was contolled with a single button, while the doors were push-button as well. Naturally, the top and mechanism took up much of the trunk. On each exterior door was a small slash of bright metal in the form of a lightning bolt.
Finished just in time for the New York Auto Show in October of 1940, the Thunderbolt was “the hit of the New York Show,” Chrysler declared. Exactly how many were built is unclear. Chrysler records indicate six, but Roberts later said that while six were ordered, there was time to build only five. Each one was painted and trimmed in a different combination, and all were sold to private buyers for around $6000 each. (At the time, a standard New Yorker convertible was $1,375.) Four are known to exist today. The silver example shown in the color photos here belongs to the Chrysler historical collection of Stellantis, and it often appears at classic car events around the Detroit area.
Please forgive my negative opinion, but I found this car to at least ten times more ugly than 1940s era Chrysler Corporation’s regular production coupes with their fourteen and a half mile long rear decks…and I am a fan of Chrysler products.
Thanks for this! They’re very Buck Rogers-y. I had never noticed the bulge in the rear quarters before, nor did I have any idea that more than one each was built.
Sometimes an idea, even going aero, can be too extreme.
This was one of those times.
I like the Thunderbolt and Newport. They were quite revolutionary for 1940. Kaiser and Frazer used the rear end styling on their post-war cars. Pinin Farina took the front and rear wheel spats and brought them into the mainstream on the cars he designed for Nash. I certainly did not know that LeBaron built more than just the single cars. I wonder where they are now.
Known as “the push button car” when displayed in crowded Chrysler dealer showrooms during 1941, the Thunderbolt used push buttons to actuate everything from the doors to lights to the power top. This car marks the end of a special era in American history.
Mr. Tremulis never had any formal art or technical training. He was more than just a designer, he was a futurist. His novel 1946 concept of attaining orbital velocity is used by Boeing, SpaceX and Elon Musk today.