- Hi, I'm Scott Benjamin.
- And I'm Ben Bowlin.
- And today we have a
very special addition
of CarStuff for you.
- That's right, Scott,
today we are looking
at the 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt.
(upbeat music)
- We're standing in front of
the 1941 Chrysler Thunderbolt,
and Ben, this vehicle
was touted by Chrysler
as being the car of the future.
- Yeah and that's not just some snake oil
because this car really did
have futuristic features
that a lot of people wouldn't
see in production cars
until years afterward.
Scott, it's got these
disappearing headlights,
I mean, you might not see them
because they're currently disappeared
It also has a pushbutton retractable top.
- That's right and this car
used a lot of modern materials,
or modern for 1941, anyway.
This car had an aluminum body,
with the exception of the
hood and the deck lid,
which were made out of steel,
and it also had one other feature
that was pretty interesting,
it had a chromium band
that went around the entire
lower part of the body.
- Yeah, and this is probably
the part where you say,
"Why would someone do that?"
- That chromium band that
you were asking about, Ben,
is at the bottom of the car there,
and that is meant to enhance
the appearance of speed.
- Right, because the Thunderbolt
was conceived as a vehicle
that would tour around the United States
teaching the general
public about the importance
of form and aerodynamic
design in automobiles.
- That's right, and
you'll notice as you look
at the body of the Thunderbolt
that it has almost no
unnecessary ornamentation
except for one item,
and that's that jagged
thunderbolt that's on both the doors.
- Right, iconic, recognizable,
if you are a car enthusiast,
then you probably
already know about this vehicle.
And you already know that we
have a pretty small chance
of seeing these in the wild, right?
- I'd say a very small
chance, because Ben,
you can't count this down if you want,
but there were eight cars planned,
only five of them were actually built,
and of those five, only four
are known to exist today,
so again, it's very rare
that you're gonna see
one of these in the wild.
- And for us to even have
a chance to stand next to
one of these legends of automotive design,
we have to thank the private collectors
who were kind of playing the
long game of car collecting.
Back when the Thunderbolts
were originally made,
they had a chance to
purchase one for $6,000.
- $6,000, now that doesn't
sound like a lot now
but in 1940 and 1941, that
was an awful lot of stretch.
- Yeah, that was a lot of cheese, or cash,
what did they call it back then?
- Cabbage.
- Cabbage, it was a lot of cabbage.
You guys, thank you so much for watching,
we hope that you enjoyed this video
on the Thunderbolt.
Check us out at our
website, carstuffshow.com.
You can also find us on
Facebook, iTunes, and Twitter,
and please stay tuned because
we have more dream cars
from the High Museum of
Art in our next episode.
