Howard “Dutch” Darrin was anything but a conventional car designer.  Born in Crawford, New Jersey, Darrin was a fighter pilot for France in World War I and ended up as a part owner of a custom automobile design house in the same country.  He returned home to become a freelance designer in the United States, and his gifted hands are partially responsible for the Packard Darrin, many of Kaiser-Frazer’s designs, and a most curious sports car as his culminating achievement.  This 1954 Kaiser Darrin for sale on eBay in Anoka, Minnesota is the 8th out of the 435 sports cars Kaiser produced based on Darrin’s design.  From its “kissing grille” to its unconventional sliding doors, this automotive masterpiece is as close as the designer ever got to having his way in getting one of his designs on the road.  Is the $94,980 Buy it Now price too much to pay for one of the most beautiful sports cars ever built?  Would you rather take your chances with a bid, with the current offering sitting at $30,088?

Like many artists, Kaiser was gifted with an incredible eye for design and a reputation for being somewhat difficult to deal with.  He spent his life working to put his designs into motion.  In France, his custom house, Hibbart & Darrin, was responsible for producing bodies for upper end makes such as Duesenberg.  When that venture folded, he opened another design house with the name of Carrosserie Fernandez et Darrin in Paris, France.  With war clouds on the horizon, Darrin returned to the United States in 1937 and landed in Hollywood, California doing much the same thing as he was in France.  A joint project with Packard produced the famed Packard Darrin, with his characteristic dip in the door as its major styling standout.

When World War II ceased, Darrin was engaged in freelance work.  One of his clients was the Kaiser-Frazer.  While friendly with both Joseph Frazer and Henry J. Kaiser, Darrin was a bit stressful to work with.  The 1946 Kaiser and Frazer sedans were largely Darrin designs, as was the 1951 Kaiser.  The problem was that by the time the company’s designers, derisively nicknamed “orange juicers” by Darrin, got through with his designs they didn’t meet his high standards for beauty.  He would repeatedly quit working for the company in protest, only to return later.

His design for what would be the Henry J was rejected, causing him to become even more enraged.  Feeling that he had to prove something to Kaiser, he secured a Henry J chassis to design and build a sports car body upon.  When finished, he invited Henry J. Kaiser to his Hollywood studio to view the car.  Thinking that his company had paid for the work, Kaiser exploded.  Darrin stopped his rant and informed him that he had paid for all the work out of his pocket.  However, Kaiser also had his new wife with him.  This much younger lady promptly informed her husband that it was the most beautiful car she had ever seen and questioned why her new husband wasn’t in the business of making sports cars.  It was at that point that Darrin had achieved his goal.

Seventy years later, this magnificent but somewhat impractical manifestation of Howard “Dutch” Darrin’s design talents is one of the most sought-after postwar American automobiles.  The car you see here appears to be completely and meticulously restored.  Powered by a Kaiser inline six-cylinder engine with a three-speed manual transmission, Kaiser Darrins weren’t exactly fast sports cars.  They did constitute, along with Chevrolet’s Corvette, a solid start in that market for domestic automakers.  Sadly, the end was near for Kaiser’s automaking days.  Just 435 of these cars were built, with 50 of them having been damaged in a freak snowstorm.  Darrin purchased all 50 and sold them through his Hollywood showroom.  Some were rumored to be repowered with Cadillac engines.  Others had McCullough superchargers bolted on.

This car was the 8th across the assembly line and is now in excellent condition.  The odometer reads 3,586 miles and is likely the mileage driven since the car was restored.  A previous owner has modified the car so that a taller person can drive it comfortably.  It is said to be a fun car to drive, and we can derive from that statement that the car is fully functional.  While it would be nice to have more information and pictures of both the engine and the interior, details beyond the multitude of exterior pictures are scant.  Perhaps the design speaks for itself.

Darrin ended up designing just one more car before he left the automobile business.  Yet it was the Kaiser Darrin that seemed to be his greatest achievement.  It must have brought him some satisfaction that these unorthodox sports cars had become quite collectible before his passing in 1982.  Sometimes your passions pay off.