Name Needed...This time Hemmings needs our help! SOLVED!:Dan LaLee Streamliner

[Tuckeroo]

Mystery retractable hardtop...can anyone identify?



http://retractable.free.fr/uk/index.html

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/category/oddities/one-offs/

[grobmotorix]

That´s so remarkable that I found the two pics on my hard disc drive immediately:

I ´ve tried to find out more, too, but I wasn´t even able to retrace the pics myself.
When filing them I´ve added all information I had.

So I can just tell that the source said that it was built by a certain Dan Lalee or Dan La Lee and the pics were taken in or near Detroit.

Maybe I was able to help

[Tuckeroo]

That is amazing, and it's the best lead yet, thank you!   Unfortunately I too was unable to follow-up with the name Dan La Lee/Lalee, but I will ensure that you get credit!  Who knows, that may be all the info there is!

[Ultra]

That is amazing, and it's the best lead yet, thank you!   Unfortunately I too was unable to follow-up with the name Dan La Lee/Lalee, but I will ensure that you get credit!  Who knows, that may be all the info there is!

I would love to get Hemmings to talk to me about using this place as a resource for articles and other types of partnership ideas I have that I think would benefit both sites.  Any ideas on who I should try reaching out to there?

[grobmotorix]

Well, I set a hyperlink to this autopuzzle.com site at Hemmings.

So this is a first step, isn´t it?

[Ultra]

Well, I set a hyperlink to this autopuzzle.com site at Hemmings.

So this is a first step, isn´t it?

Helping us grow is what it is all about!

 

[Ultra]

Well, I set a hyperlink to this autopuzzle.com site at Hemmings.

So this is a first step, isn´t it?

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/category/oddities/one-offs/

 

[grobmotorix]

Cool, I hope this will bring some publictity to my favoured web-site....

[Otto Puzzell]

Thanks, grobmotorix - this is great!

[Ray B.]

It may not be the same, but here is a link showing a Daniel La Lee as manufacturer of a plane.
http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N20LL.html

[grobmotorix]

I ´ve seen another link talking about a plane builder Dan LaLee, too, before. So...

[Tifosi]

The aircraft in question was certified in 1984 and deregistered in 1991, so I doubt that it was the same person because of the time span.  The car was probably built prior to WW ll.  It might be his son, or it could be the same person...but that seems to be stretching things a little.   



Dan

[Allan L]

Looks like a home-built-from-kit job to me, so probably no relevance.

Like this:
http://www.mustangaero.com/Midget%20Mustang/Midget%20Mustang.html

[Ray B.]

Looks like a home-built-from-kit job to me, so probably no relevance.

Like this:
http://www.mustangaero.com/Midget%20Mustang/Midget%20Mustang.html

It's true. The link I found gave 1991 was the date of a crash, and the Mustang Midgets do seem to be sold as kits.

[SeaLion]

I found a thread at an Hungarian site about this car:
http://belsoseg.blog.hu/2007/05/06/mysterycar

[SeaLion]

The roof is very similar to that of Chrysler Thunderbolt from 1940/1941. Five Thunderbolts was built, maybe the mystery car was a test car?

[otto]

I think SeaLion is correct that this was a custom car. Note the wheels on upper picture. The size and rims are much smaller in cross section and bigger around then the 1940s cars. Looks like the wheels are of the early 1930 instead. Compare the pictures below with the ones above. I see several close details.

otto

[Ray B.]

You're not the first ones to think of those fantastic Chryslers and Alex Tremulis' work.
I have great admiration for Tremulis, who did the Tucker also, but here is an article from Popular Mechanix, year 1938, identifying the builder as a California airman. If it was the work of a design studio of one the Big Three, they would have sais so.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/08/08/flier-designs-streamline-push-button-car/

[Tuckeroo]

How did I miss that one??  I'm a regular viewer of the modern mechanix blog!  Thanks for posting that! 

[Tuckeroo]

...Oh, and being that I am Tuckeroo, I had also made the Tremulis comparison and ruled it out  But it does raise the whole chicken and egg question in my mind again...

[Motorace]

I found a thread at an Hungarian site about this car:
http://belsoseg.blog.hu/2007/05/06/mysterycar

The plate's a little fuzzy, but when I squint my eyes, it seems to read New Mexico.

[Motorace]

and the pics were taken in or near Detroit.

If near Detroit - the background reminds me a lot of the old Packard Proving Grounds track , though this does not appear to be a Packard.  If anything it reminds of all the custom cars I used to see in Popular Mechanics - built by returning servicemen who;d learned all kinds of metal-working and mechanical skills while in the service, and everyone was off to build the car of the future.  So, my guess is that it ws built in the early 1950's.   Packard folded in 1958, so maybe these were taken at their proving Grounds after the car was several years old.  Just guessin' here.

[grobmotorix]

Motorace:

As i´ve written before. I´m quite sure I had found this pics on the MMM-site (Making of modern Michigan). There was a big package of hundreds of old Packard works pics, too. So the Packard link may be absolutely right.

Strangely enough I wasn´t able to retrace the pics anymore...

[Ray B.]

and the pics were taken in or near Detroit.

If near Detroit - the background reminds me a lot of the old Packard Proving Grounds track , though this does not appear to be a Packard.  If anything it reminds of all the custom cars I used to see in Popular Mechanics - built by returning servicemen who;d learned all kinds of metal-working and mechanical skills while in the service, and everyone was off to build the car of the future.  So, my guess is that it ws built in the early 1950's.   Packard folded in 1958, so maybe these were taken at their proving Grounds after the car was several years old.  Just guessin' here.

If you check a few comments above and follow the link I've added to the Modern Mechanix blog, you'll see there were pics taken in 1938. So It cannot have been built in the early 50's.

[Tuckeroo]

Very belatedly, we shall consider this puzzle...SOLVED!