A car that rolls without intervention by the driver, it has become common. But in this case, this peculiarity applies to an automobile created in 1954. A car that even has translucent tires! It is the Golden Sahara, an imposing discoverable car that has toured the major Statesunian exhibitions until the late 1960s to then fall into oblivion.
Reappeared in 2018, during an auction from Mecum in Indianapolis, she again became the darling of exhibition organizers, fairs and automotive museums. Here it is featured again as part of an auction of the same company, but this time in Chicago, in September.
Creation of Kustoms Barris
This fanciful car is signed Barris Kustoms. For three decades, from the 1960s to the late 90s, this Californian company founded by George Barris (1925-2015) specialized in the processing and personalization of cars.
She has designed four -wheel stars for the productions of many Hollywood producers. Think, for example, of the Koach of the television series The Munsters (1964-1966), at the Batmobile de Batman (1966-1968), at La Black Beauty de Green Hornet (1966-1967), at the AMX 400 of Banacek (1972-1974) and Kitt de Knight Rider (1982-1986). It is without forgetting the Ford Explorer and Jeep Wrangler that we saw in the film Jurassic Park, in 1993.
Born of an damaged Lincoln
The story of the Golden Sahara begins with an accident. Because it was after having embedded a brand new Lincoln Capri 1953 under a truck, following a false maneuver, that George Barris decides to make it his most impressive creation.
With the help of Bill Decarr, his bodybuilder, he produced this car with a removable bubble -shaped roof for James Skonzakes, a businessman from Ohio who is passionate about modified cars and that people in the middle nickname Jim Street.
The 24 -carat gold trim that adorn the rear sides of the body and the white broken white paint sparkling are at the origin of its name. The interior wants to be also sumptuous with a white mowing floor covering and an endowment that has everything to make you dream since it includes a TV (black and white), a telephone, a tape recorder, two radios and massage seats at the front. For this palace on wheels, we also planned a module housed in the center of the rear seat that acts as a… bar-living room! Unveiled at the Motorama Petersen show in Los Angeles, in November 1954, she caused a sensation with the general public.
Expensive project
The construction of the Golden Sahara will be rather expensive. Valued at more than US $ 25,000, the magazine Motor Trend In fact the front page of its May 1955 edition.
To alleviate this financial burden, Jim Street succeeds in obtaining a commanditis of the SEIBERLING tire manufacturer, which uses the Golden Sahara in an advertising campaign.
Autonomous driving
In 1956, Street decided to develop the concept of his car, a “natural” trend in modified fans and manufacturers. He then turned to the Delphos Machine and Tool company in Dayton, in Ohio.
These specialists modify the pavilion, considerably thin the frame of the windshield and accentuate the shape of the air intake in front of the hood. The two original headlights, rather banal, are also replaced by elongated optical blocks each incorporating two projectors under a frosted lens. In addition, new gold -plated trim is added to the bottom of the front wings, while the end of the rear wings adopts a V -shaped shape. Finally, to accentuate the pearl effect of the new paint, we mix real fish scales!
Due to all these changes, the car is now presented under the name of Golden Sahara II. It is also at this stage of its history that she has remote control opening doors, a removable steering wheel doubled by a ” joystick Large format used to drive it, without forgetting certain accessories with voice control.
It also has a remote engine start and stop command, but also a driving system by remote control. It can, in fact, be moved using a cable remote control or gently sliding the finger on one or the other of the two rheostats placed on the dashboard, facing the front passengers. These two orders had been planned to allow the passenger to drive, if he wished!
Automatic braking and light tires
Two antennas fixed at the ends of the front bumper, which emitted ultrasound, must also allow an assisted braking system to enter into action automatically in an emergency, as an obstacle approaches.
In this overhaul, Jim Street swaps seiberling tires for bright goodyear. Developed by Goodyear from neothane, a type of transparent synthetic rubber, its tires contained interior lighting allowing them to be illuminated by giving them different colors. This concept was part of wider research carried out by Goodyear at the time, in order to assess the possibility of increasing the lighting of a vehicle to improve its visibility in case of bad weather. Also thought he could take advantage of this attribute to illuminate tires at the time of braking. We probably thought we could thus warn the motorist who would be behind, who knows?
In short, this transformation increases the total cost of the project around US $ 75,000 (a sum which would equally equally equally equally fascinating the Golden Sahara II in the exhibitions.
Stroke alongside Jerry Lewis
At its peak, the Golden Sahara II has toured the United States. We saw it in a host of exhibitions, but also on television and cinema.
A skilful promoter, Jim Street succeeds in bringing his futuristic car to Hollywood, which employs him in some scenes from the film Cinderfella (Cinderella with big feet in French version). This film launched in December 1960 featured the great actor Jerry Lewis alongside the Italian singer and actress Anna Maria Alberghetti.
We will also see it on TV in several reports and in varieties programs such as I’ve Got a Secret de CBS, in June 1962.
Then, over the 1960s, its popularity stretched and gradually caused it to be forgotten. It remains the property of Jim Street until his death, which occurs on November 29, 2017.
Featured again
After spending almost 50 years in a garage, in May 2018, she was bought by Larry Mr. Klairmont for the sum of US $ 385,000, during an auction organized by Mecum Auctions in Indianapolis, in Ohio.
Klairmont, who made a fortune in real estate in Chicago, his hometown, is passionate about collector vehicles. In 2018, he opened a museum in this city to share his passion with the general public. Called Klairmont Kollections, it brings together nearly 300 vehicles, including several unique and rare models, as well as thousands of artifacts from what can be described as “road art”.
The Golden Sahara II which he has just bought becomes one of the central parts of this collection. He will also be restored by the Speakeasy Customs and Classics workshop in Chicago, and then exhibit it in several major events. We will see it, among other things, at the Geneva Salon in 2019, run by four new Goodyear tires in neothane made by Kelsey Tire, a specialist in old car tires. Then, in July 2021, Larry Klairmont died at the venerable age of 94 years.
On September 20 and 21, the pieces constituting its imposing collection will be offered during an auction presented by Mecum in the museum he had created. The Golden Sahara will naturally be a star of this sale and will be offered without reservation. However, since it was restored in 2018, the experts agree that it will no doubt be sold for a significantly larger sum than at the time!
Photos : Mecum
About the author
His parents say that the first three words he pronounced were: mom, dad and … Volvo. It is unknown in what order he said them, but everything suggests that he was predestined for a career in the large world of the automobile. It was through the media that he approached it. Since the 1980s, he has directed various periodicals, from the Magazine de l’Auto Ancienne du VAQ (Son “School”) to Automag, including the Bilingual Magazine Formula 2000, without forgetting the world of car and car newspaper. At the beginning of the 21st century, he wrote for the duty, as well as for Auto123.com, Autofocus.ca, Auto.Vtélé.ca and the excellent site dedicated to the Automedia.ca industry. Currently, it can be read in the pages of Annilauto.ca and in the annual automotive, a book which he helped to launch in 2001.