National Automobile Museum (The Harrah Collection) Reno, Nev. The Phantom Corsair was built in the 1930s on a Cord 810 chassis.The Phantom Corsair, one of the boldest custom cars of the 1930s, will be making a sojourn from its home at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nev., to star at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, to be held March 13-15 at the Golf Club of Amelia Island, Fla.
Built by the relish heir Rust Heinz, who died at age 25, the Corsair was built on a Cord 810 chassis by the coach builder Bohman & Schwartz. Heinz hoped to begin small-scale production of the car. It resembles a cross between a Cord 810 and a killer whale.
Heinz established himself as an auto designer in California. He began by designing a delivery vehicle for the Heinz company called the Comet and then created his dream car, the Phantom Corsair. He died in an auto accident in 1939.
The car was shown at the New York World’s Fair and featured in Popular Science in 1940 under the headline “Is This the Motor Car of Tomorrow?”
The car appeared in the 1938 film comedy “The Young in Heart,” with Paulette Goddard and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., as the “Flying Wombat,” a hot new model resembling an over-the-top Chrysler Airflow. I rented the movie the other day out of curiosity. The film includes footage of the Corsair dashing along country roads and dodging slower vehicles. The film also had shots of cool-looking, streamlined Flying Wombat showrooms, but the movie didn’t have much in the way of plot or humor.
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