The American Sports Car Co.

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The American Sports Car Co. , TASCO for short , was an American automobile manufacturer.

description

The company was based in Hartford , Connecticut . In 1948 it presented an automobile . The project ended in the same year.

The vehicle

The Tasco has a Mercury chassis and an unusual body that is largely made of aluminum . The narrow, slim structure is clearly reminiscent of an aircraft fuselage. There is a separate fender for each wheel; the front ones rotate with the steering. At least they're made of fiberglass . A chrome-plated "nose" is used in the radiator grille, which acts as an energy-absorbing element and is intended to absorb minor parking damage. The Ford Group introduced a similar system in series for the first time in 1958 with the Edsel . Another innovation, the car has a two-part, removable glass roof, which also makes the first ever with a two Targa roof . The design of the vehicle is generally attributed to the former chief designer of Duesenberg and Cord , Gordon Buehrig . However, he distanced himself from it and called it unsuccessful . His actual part in the design is not clear, but at least he made contact with the bodybuilder Derham Body Company in Rosemont ( Pennsylvania ), who was commissioned to carry out the work. He also received a patent for the glass roof. In 1968 he sued General Motors for infringement , when the Chevrolet Corvette first went into series production with such a "T-bar Roof", a glass roof. He had to put up with a small amount of compensation. “T-bar roofs” were then offered by numerous manufacturers, some of them to this day.

One of the reasons for the fancy design of the Tasco seems to have been to arouse the interest of manufacturers outside of traditional automobile construction. So they tried unsuccessfully to win the Beech Aircraft Corporation for the project. Initially, Tasco was also to take part in sports car races in Watkins Glen , New York .

Tasco was one of several attempts to establish new automobile brands in the United States after World War II . These include Kaiser - Frazer , Playboy , Tucker or Muntz , among others . Like most of them, Tasco failed because of a lack of investment.

Only one prototype was built. This vehicle was donated to the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn, Indiana, where it can still be seen today.

The Tasco is the second and final collaboration between Buehrig and the Derham Body Company; the first was the Tourster Phaeton, which Buehrig had designed as chief designer of Duesenberg for their Duesenberg model J and of which Derham made some copies.

literature

  • Georgano, GN (Ed.): Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present ; Dutton Press, New York, 2nd edition (hardcover) 1973, ISBN 0-525-08351-0 (English)
  • Consumer's Guide (editor): Encyclopedia of American Cars from 1930 , Publications International (1993), ISBN 0-7853-0175-5 (English)
  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The International Automobile Encyclopedia . United Soft Media Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8032-9876-8 , chapter Tasco.
  • George Nick Georgano (Editor-in-Chief): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. Volume 3: P – Z. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , p. 1570. (English)
  • Ron Kowalke: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975. Krause Publications, Iola 1997, ISBN 0-87341-521-3 , p. 869. (English)
  • Marián Šuman-Hreblay: Automobile Manufacturers Worldwide Registry. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, London 2000, ISBN 0-7864-0972-X , p. 279. (English)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d G. N. Georgano: Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars , p. 667.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f conceptcarz.com: Tasco-Prototype
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h coachbuilt.com: Derham Body Co