<VV> What Dave Newell says re: that "Futura" thing on eBay

[Ad Dijkstra]

I knew I saw that car before.....

Last hour spent some time rereading my stack of Collectible Automobile. I
remembered I saw the car in a picture with a letter.
And yes indeed, there it was in the Collectible Comments section of CA,
august 2000.

The letter was short, so I'll give you the text:

"Your article on Rhys Miller in the April 2000 issue was of great interest
to me because I pulled some of the Kaiser Aluminium ads of cars in the
future in the Sixties and threw them in a file. One of those ads is the
Waimea, shown in your article on page 77. Five years ago, after restoring
five cars, I decided to do something different. I dug out the old file,
retrieved the sketch of the Waimea and decided to try to build it. Because
the driver sits in the middle up front, there is no room for an engine op
there, so I started with a Corvair Lakewood wagon. It attracts a lot of
attention wherever I drive it."
Signed "Henry Larson, New Brighton, Minnesota".

The picture that accompanied the letter was shot in the same driveway as the
pictures on ebay.

greetings from the Netherlands,

Ad Dijkstra

1964 Monza Spyder cvt
1975 Fiat 130 3200 Berlina

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org]Namens Wrsssatty at aol.com
Verzonden: zondag 18 maart 2007 17:24
Aan: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Onderwerp: <VV> What Dave Newell says re: that "Futura" thing on eBay


With Dave Newell's permission, I am passing along what he told me about that
"Futura" thing on eBay.

~Bill Stanley

<It's basically just a customized Lakewood, although very well done. It was
built by an individual, but inspired by a Kaiser design. I'd love to own it
but
it looks like it would be pretty uncomfortable to drive and hard to contort
into the driver's seat!


In the early to mid sixties, Kaiser, US Steel, McLouth Steel, Copper & Brass
Industry Assn, etc all were showing concept vehicles at shows or at least
sketches of them in their ads. The idea was to promote the use of their
metal in
production cars. Kaiser's concepts were just renderings that ran in their
ads...they were never built. One of them was the "Waimea" designed by
Miller, which
looked something like this custom. The builder must have based this car on
the Waimea, although the Kaiser ads said nothing about a Corvair (or any)
powerplant or any chassis type for the car.

This job, the "Futura", was built after the '60s. Relatively recently as I
recall. Note the 63 Grand Prix headlamp assemblies and parking lights, and
the
Nash "Uniscope" speedo/gauge assy! The Lakewood front door hinge posts look
like they're in the stock location but with coupe doors. And an early sedan
rear
window.

A very nice job by an individual, but no commercial heritage or history.


Thanks,
Dave>




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