23 During the 1940s, a limited number of innovative designs were built and shown to manufacturers – but these were shown privately and were rarely shown to the public. Examples of such include: • The 1945 Cadillac Interceptor – an in-house design project • Edward Macauley’s Packard Phantom in 1941, 1944 and 1946 - also known as the “Brown Bomber”. (Macauley had a long career at Packard as the director of the new styling department). • Kaiser’ fiberglass prototypes and test cars developed in 1944 and 1945. • Separately, Howard “Dutch” Darrin’s who was a consultant to Kaiser developed a fiberglass car which was the 1946 Darrin. The design of this car strongly predicted the styling of the first Kaiser and Frazer automobiles in 1947 and the later use of fiberglass in the 1954 Kaiser Darrin. The limited number of cars discussed above demonstrate that show cars of the 1940s, as we know them today, were in their infancy. What’s missing from the list above is the work of Henney Motor Company and their designer – Richard Arbib – the 1949 Packard Monte Carlos. 1951 GM LeSabre 1951 Buick XP-300
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