In their quest to build the world's finest
  sports car, brothers Jim and Ed Gaylord
  hired famed Milwaukee industrial          
  designer Brooks Stevens to style a two-
  seater for them on a relatively short 100-
  inch wheelbase. The resulting car was     
  strikingly modern on the one hand, yet
  carried overtones of classic-era cars on
  the other. The entire front end <top) was
  thrust rakishly forward at the top for an
  illusion of speed. It featured a narrow
  vertical grille opening reminiscent of the
  Classics of the Thirties. The grille was
  flanked by two huge headlights of the sort
  one would expect to see on a prewar       
  Rolls-Royce. The rear end <above left)
  was topped by moderately tall fins, which
  were coming into fashion when the car     
  was designed. Taillights were nestled into
  chrome bezels that capped the ends of the
  fins. Vertically ridged bright trim       
  suggested rear grillwork, which housed
  additional rear lights. Dual exhausts     
  exited just above the narrow rear bumper.
  Seven chrome strips rode on top of the
  rear deck, a feature DeSoto would adopt
  later for its hot Adventurer. Extremely
  deep side sculpturing <above right)
  allowed for fully exposed front wheels
  and tires. This was made even more      
  striking with additional bodyside       
  sculpturing that created a sort of      
  "Deusenberg-sweep" two-tone paint       
  scheme, which Stevens preferred to call
  the "Washington Coach Door Line."       
  Large wheelwells left the back wheels
  exposed as well. Knock-off hubs with
  twin "G" lettering highlighted the      
  wheels, which sported a "vane" design.
  This first Gaylord, which was introduced
  in 1955, differed somewhat style-vise
  from what was to follow.               
    The first Gaylord had made its mark, but
  styling changes seen on the second car
  made the newcomer look a bit more         
  conventional. This one (top), licensed as
  a 1957 model, lights the way with then-
  fashionable quad headlights, housed in
  this case within oval bezels. The eggcrate
  grille looked less fussy than the punched-
  full-of-round-holes texture used on the
  first Gaylord, and the chrome grille      
  surround was bolder. A dual-stack front
  bumper allowed the parking lights to be
  moved from the fender tops downward       
  between the bumper bars, and because the     
  bumper was split, onlookers could see the
  entire grille opening. From the rear         
  (above left), the revised Gaylord looked     
  familiar, although the rear bumper had       
  disappeared. In its place was a two-piece
  bumper that housed the exhaust outlets       
  and left the entire center section of the car
  vulnerable. The biggest design change        
  brought about more conventional front        
  fenders <top and above right). No            
  longer did they wrap far inward to           
  completely expose the wheels; instead, the
  fenders flowed more smoothly into the
  other bodyside panels. Interestingly     
  enough, the front wheel cutouts were     
  almost square, seemingly at odds with the
  round opening that nearly radiused the
  shape of the rear tires. This was done to
  accommodate the Washington Coach         
  Door Line two-toning, which itself had to
  be modified up front to be compatible
  with the new front fenders. But despite
  all the changes, there was no mistaking
  that the car was still very much a       
  Gaylord.                                 
    The revised Gaylord kept its fins <top),
  hardly surprising in the 1956-56 era, not
  to mention its wraparound windshield,
  another styling device very much in      
  vogue when the car was designed. One     
  Gaylord feature, however, which had      
  actually been seen on a Citroen way back
  in the late Thirties, was a retractable
  hardtop roof <center left). Citroen had
  been unable to capitalize on it, but     
  Gaylord perhaps figured it could. And
  well it should have, for it could boast
  about a recessed rear window and         
  integral air-extractor vent, a pioneering
  version of "flow-through" ventilation. At
  a touch of a button, the rear deck lifted
  and a chain drive pulled the top down      
  into the trunk. In this, the Gaylord was a
  full year ahead of Ford's 1957-59          
  Skyliner retractable, which was            
  considerably more complicated. Inside      
  <center right), the Gaylord went top       
  drawer in the finest British tradition with
  a wood-faced instrument panel and fine     
  leathers. The chassis <above) was of Jim
  Gaylord's own design, a strong chrome-     
  moly tube type with coil springs and A-
  arms in front and a beam axle on leaf     
  springs at the rear. The first prototype
  carried a Chrysler 331-rid Hemi V-S, but
  two later cars, such as this one, ran with
  a Cadillac V-8. A modified Hydra-Matic
  made full-throttle upshifts at peak revs.
  Unfortunately, a $17,500 list price --     
  $14,035 more than a base Corvette! --      
  virtually guaranteed that the Gaylord     
  would fail to attract enough buyers to
  make the car a commercial success.