Brooklin's Phantom Corsair of 1938

Background: 

  The Phantom Corsair is a prototype automobile built in 1938, a six-passenger 2-door sedan that was designed by Rust Heinz and Maurice Schwartz of  Bohman & Schwartz  coachbuilding company in Pasadena, California. Staff member Harley Earl was also involved.  Although sometimes dismissed as a failure because it never entered production, the Corsair is regarded as ahead of its time because of its futuristic features and styling cues such as faired-in fenders and low profile.

The Phantom Corsair's steel-and-aluminum body measured just 57 in (140 cm) in height and incorporated fully skirted wheels and completely flush fender while forgoing running boards. The car also lacked door handles, as the doors were instead opened electrically using push-buttons located on the exterior and the instrument panel. The Corsair's body was mated to the "most advanced chassis available in the United States" at that time, the Cord 810, with its V8 and front-wheel drive. The Cord chassis was modified to accommodate the Corsair's large body.

     Rust Heinz planned to put the Phantom Corsair, which cost approximately $24,000 to produce in 1938 (equivalent to about $370,000 in 2010), into limited production at an estimated selling price of $12,500. However, Heinz's death in a car accident in July 1939, not in this car, ended those plans, leaving the prototype Corsair as the only one ever built.

The Phantom Corsair now resides in the National Automobile Museum (also known as The Harrah Collection) in Reno, Nevada. (edited from WIKIPEDIA)

This 1/43 scale model is by Brooklin (England), No. 33.  This is a fine model of a somewhat unknown automobile.