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1003 Darrin history

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324darrin:
Gentlemen and Women, have to share some exciting news that we received a few weeks ago about the early days of our Darrin. A fellow from the midwest by the name of Bill, who's father was a Kaiser dealer, contacted Phil Jelinek, our Darrin registry manager, to inquire as to the current owner of Darrin #3 if it still exsisted. Phil forwarded the email to us and, to our utter joy, discovered that Bill's father took delivery of the Darrin on December 24th 1953 and kept the car for nearly a year to use in TV and print advertising for the dealership. The dealer was Cliff Nordeen Kaiser, Fraser, Willys of Green Bay , Wisconsin. Bill had some memorabilia from the car that he sent, including a dealer sticker that was standard practice to adhere to the cars they sold, a great photo of the car in front of the dealership's sign and the coolest thing is a plexiglass license plate that is white with large red letters displaying KAISER DARRIN. According to Bill, the plate was provided by Kaiser Corp. to use for display. Have any of you readers ever seen or heard mentioned a plate like this? There can't be too many around. Anyway, I thought some of you might find this interesting. Now all I have to do is find out how and when it made it's way to Southern California before 1963 LOL. It's been in the family since then. Steve and Adella 

G.B. (All Vinyl Dragon):
It is Part of The Fun , Finding the History of Your Vintage Vehicle.   
Plus a Number One Club to Share the Fun.
Congratulations !!!

kaiserfrazerlibrary:
Cliff Nardeen was the Kaiser-Willys distributor for Northern Wisconsin, signing on during the summer of 1953.  Less than 10 (if that many) of the special plates were made to be used for special events showing at auto shows, etc. 

While month-by-month production counts are not known at present, the car may well be the oldest surviving Kaiser-Darrin sports car known to exist.  Phil should be able to provide you with more information on this.

324darrin:
I read an article some time ago that Darrin 1001 was well documented and had been restored. Am I mistaken? I remember that it set a sales record of 200K. Steve

joefrazer:
According to the documentation I have, the whereabouts and owners of cars one and two have been known for some time.

The plexiglass plates are indeed rare and in the 50+ years of playing with Kaisers I've only ever seen one in person.

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