The original crossover
Jalopnik is delighting me today with a post on old car brochures (I guess brought on by their blurb on the Eldorado glovebox bar.) While flipping through the online gallery, I stumbled across the most fascinating classic car amongst the marketing fluff: the 1951 Kaiser Traveler.
Now, I am not normally, under any circumstances, a classic car guy. I can recognize why the greats are legendary and wouldn’t turn down a free vintage Ferrari or Bugatti. I’ll even watch Wayne Carini stumble through a barn on occasion. But I’m much more interested in technology of modern cars.
The Traveler challenges that, though, by offering the (I thought) uniquely contemporary blend of sleek, car-like design with functionality and utility more commonly associated with SUVs. In short, it was the mid-20th century equivalent of the crossovers I lust after today.
So, while I’ll more than likely trade my A3 for an Audi Q5 or BMW 3 Series GT when the time comes, it’s good to know that the car buying world was not as bleak in 1951 as I feared. And that a good idea is eternal.
Those old cars had plenty of little niceties: push button transmissions, automatic load levelers, record players in the dash, the Tucker had torque converters on each rear wheel instead of a transmission, a light in the center of the front end that would turn with the wheel to illuminate where you were turning towards, self-sealing tubeless tires, a roll cage built into the roof, side impact protection, and a laminated windshield designed to pop out in an accident. They were quite the innovators back then. Wonder why so many ideas disappeared? Probably cost to produce.
I suspect you might be right. Reminds me of the innovations of the Citroën DS or the out there designs of Luigi Colani. Ahead of their time…