Story of the
famous Lost Zippo Car
|
Original Zippo Car
|
Zippo Clone |
A 1947 Chrysler ,with lighters stretching above the roofline
and the word Zippo, emblazoned on the front grill. The lighters had removable
neon flames that lifted out and were set in the back seat for travel between
events .The lids of the lighters snapped shut. The car had a public address
system ,a radio and even a tape recorder to play music over the p.a. The
original cost of the car was estimated between $25,000 and $30,000
The Zippo car was a smash but not without problems .The weight of the huge roof
lighters put enormous pressure on the tires ,which blew out easily ,also the
armor-plated fenders made it impossible to jack the car up to change the tires
,which blew seemingly everywhere.
In the early 50's the car was sent in for a overhaul to a Pittsburg Ford dealer
,Toohey Motors .Zippo wanted to change the chassis to a truck's more durable
frame. The Pittsburg shop tore the Zippo Car apart to retool it, but they only
had bad news, the changes requested by Zippo would raise the car six inches over
the legal height for a vehicle of it's class and the $40,000 diden't include the
cost of eliminating those extra inches .Enthusisam for the Zippo car's
restoration waned.
A few years past, somehow, somewhere the Zippo car disappeared .Zippo looked
into the cars where abouts in the 70's,by than Toohey Motors was out of business
and all traces of the car vanished ,To this day ,the fate of the original Zippo
car remains a facinating riddle.
In late 1997,Zippo purchased and restored a second 1947 Chrysler Saratoga-New
Yorker, which now has over 180,000 miles
That's the story of the lost zippo car
Dj Back in the 60"s
Sally Photo
taken of us in the late 60's In San Luis Obispo, calif
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