The 1959 Charles Townabout concept car was anelectric automobilethat turn out to be better in concept – no wordplay intended – than in world . cable car buyers were n’t quite quick to shell out the manufacturer ’s asking price for a pocket-size motorcar , and engineering science was n’t advanced enough to work out the Townabout ’s quirks .
Electric cars have long been swelled news show in melodic line - polluted California , where lawmaker told automakers to deal 40,000 " zero - emissions " vehicle set out in 1998 and some 200,000 by 2003 . It was rather draconian edict apparently inspired by the movieField of dreaming : If you tell apart them to build galvanizing cars , they will , never mind the monetary value , expert problem , and other unsolved matters .
Of course , in accession to being the smog capital of the mankind , Southern California has never been a hotbed of automotive conception , so it is no real surprise that various outspoken locals try set off public interest in " volts wagons " long before legislator did .
San Diego , for lesson , was home to one very hard-nosed galvanising motorcar way back in 1959 – the Charles Townabout conception car . Just as interesting , the Townabout originated in the region ’s 2d well - have it away industry after filmmaking , the then - boom aircraft field .
Even its name had the quaintly memorable lineament of a movieland character : Charles Townabout . Townabout also suggested the car ’s intended driving use .
The first part of that name honour Dr. Charles Graves , executive frailty - President of the United States at Stinson Aircraft Tool & Engineering Corporation , the postwar descendent of the famed Stinson Aircraft Company . He assisted Dean Van Noy with engineering task , but he was not your average embodied bigwig .
Besides being a dentist , Graves had certification as both physicist and electronics engineer . As such , he occupy due billet of recent anticipation that " crack " storage battery were just around the corner , followed soon perhaps by fuel prison cell that could make electrical energy by means other than combustion .
Graves was also aware of galvanising - car experiments going on at places like the Cleveland Vehicle Company in Ohio and , closer to dwelling house , thePioneer concept carat the Nic - L - Silver Battery Company up in Santa Ana , California .
With the right technology and a little fortune , he reasoned , Stinson might just beat everyone else to what loomed as a huge and lucrative fresh marketplace for electrical cars that could carry the firm through the ups and downs of its aircraft business . Accordingly , Graves put Dean Van Noy in charge of mastermind an adenosine monophosphate - power car , assisted by Dick Bardsley and Graves himself .
Go to the next page to find out what this team come up with .
For more on concept cars and the production models they forecast, check out:
1959 Charles Townabout Concept Car Styling
The 1959 Charles Townabout conception car styling resemble a mildly custom-make Volkswagen Karmann - Ghia coupe – which essentially it was . The car ’s high - quality body was molded in fibreglass from a contemporary VW Karmann - Ghia coupe , hence the obvious visual resemblance . There was even a standardised torsion - barsuspension .
Still , the Townabout had plenty of differences . Most by nature necessitate need , which comprised four 12 - volt car - typebatterieslinked in serial to twinelectric motorsthat were couple directly to the K - G ’s rearward halfshafts – one motor to drive each wheel .
Gearswere cut for a 6:1 rpm step-down and bevel for quiet operation . The motors , supplied by Baldor of St. Louis , rise 3.2 shafthorsepowerapiece , close to adequate to 11 horses from an internal - combustion engine .
To keep weightiness down , the VW ’s steel " backbone " frame of reference was put back by a especial box - section atomic number 13 chassis with a welded - on political platform to service as both floorpan and consistency carrier . Curb system of weights ended up at about 1,800 pound .
The light weight , sprightly gear , and 22 total horsepower produced acceleration along the lines of pop period economy cars – like the Karmann - Ghia . course , there was no top executive lose to atransmissionordifferentialbecause they were n’t need and were thus omitted .
Also missing was the K - G ’s tokenish back hindquarters / parcel ledge , the space being used instead to stow the bulky barrage fire large number . The motors and allied components lived farther behind , in what had been the VW ’s engine true laurel .
seasoned car diarist Joe Wherry later write that , appearances notwithstanding , the Charles Townabout organic structure was made completely of fibreglass molded from a stock Karmann - Ghia . However , bulkheads , floorpan , ceiling , windshield pillars , and the battery deck were formed as a exclusive unit for intensity , match that of the lightweight chassis .
To keep the Charles Townabout from being flurry with Wolfsburg ’s elevator car , Graves and society recast the nose a bit and etched in a below - the - bash " character line " that make a saucy dip before kick back up into trendy tailfins .
Townabout prototypes wear a phoney grille and rather contrive bumper . Later versions were spared the former , get small Ford - like round tail - lamps in the V , and carried elementary bumpers represent two wraparound chrome tube connect by a third tube curved into an inverted U.
interpret about the pros and cons of the 1959 Charles Townabout conception car in the next segment .
1959 Charles Townabout Concept Car Positives and Negatives
As one of the few journalists covering the galvanising - car tantrum in the late fifties , Joe Wherry was able-bodied to provide an overview of the 1959 Charles Townabout concept cable car positives and negative .
Wherry gravel to get a pre - production 1959 Charles Townabout concept car and do aside impressed . Stinson ’s workmanship was high lineament all the way and was particularly in effect on the fibreglass oeuvre .
functioning was at least adequate . Though the Townabout was gear - limited to a top speed of only 55 miles per hour , Wherry report that carrying out was comparable to that of conventional small import cars of the day and that mental test in San Francisco demo Benny Hill - mounting ability adequate to that of large - translation Walter Piston - engine cars .
Wherry also liked drive electric , finding it easier than a ceremonious motorcar . All you did was reverse a key , choice " Forward " or " Reverse " motor mathematical operation , and step on the " gas . " No fracture orclutchto bother with , no haphazardness to speak of – and no engine braking , though just allow off the " throttle " slowed thing down quite fast , as anyone who ’s driven an electric golf cart can bear witness .
The Townabout ’s interior was starkly functional . Inside were a pair of sporty bucketful seats and just three instruments : speedometer , the all - significant ammeter , and a " battery condition " standard of measurement showing the amount of charge remaining .
Stinson also jibe conventionalwindshield wipersandturn signalsbut noradio , which was " not commend " for the Townabout or most other budding electrics . Perhaps the firm had nightmare of masses leaving their radios on too long and hopelessly draining the batteries .
On that point , Wherry cover Stinson ’s title that using the headlight continuously lessen driving range less than 10 pct . But then , the Townabout ’s total range was quoted only at " over 80 miles , " and that presumptively meant using full great power very seldom .
There were other drawbacks too , all long associate with electric car . The included onboard battery charger , for illustration , worked off standard 110 - V current , which was convenient but required a lengthy eight time of day to restore depleted batteries . And put back those cell was a big expense in 1959 at about $ 260 for the four , yet they were assure for only two years .
See our final incision to find out if the 1959 Charles Townabout concept car made it into production .
Fate of the 1959 Charles Townabout Concept Car
The fate of the 1959 Charles Townabout concept car rested in the main in how much Stinson needed to sell the gondola for in gild to make a profit .
By mid - summer 1959 , Stinson had set retail terms at $ 2,895 FOB San Diego , but that was way too much for what otherwise looked like an ordinary economy car with just two seats . After all , Studebakerwas selling new six - rider six - piston chamber Larks at $ 1,000 less , and a 1959 Rambler American DeLuxe price as slight as $ 1,821 .
So after about a dozen prototypes and about 200 production models , it was good-bye to this Charlie . Intended volume was much higher than this , but Stinson stake out due to special potential sales and a necessarily unconscionable retail terms . Stinson railroad engineer went back to work on aircraft full - sentence .
The Townabout was n’t the only electric concept car at the clock time . Also nearing completion in 1959 was the Pioneer , a fiberglass - corporal three - seat electric car backed by the Nic - L - Silver Battery Company in Santa Ana , California .
Engineering , mainly by Frank Kurtis of raceway - car fame , featured a unique torsion - measure reprieve and twin 8 - H.P. motors drive the rear wheels by chain . cut-rate sale were close at hand by autumn 1959 , when a Pioneer Wain was announced along with a detachable hardtop selection for the roadster , which was nail down at about $ 2,000 retail .
Like the Townabout , though , Pioneer was doomed by likely gross sales volume that was just too small to offset huge production start - up price .
In retrospect , the 1959 Charles Townabout construct railcar was just a bit of California stargaze for which there was obvious want but no great public demand as yet – nor , indeed , the engineering to puzzle out inherent problems that might have have need given time and proper furtherance .
The Golden State itself sample to summon the future by mandate electrics , even though engineering in the 1990s still could n’t adjudicate some of the deficits that plagued the Townabout and its ilk in the 1950s .
Hybrid carsfrom Toyota and Honda have in many room satisfy the hope of the Charles Townabout with much success , and others seem to be rapidly following in their footsteps .
