Last 50 Darrins?

[Kenn Evans II]

I was reading an artical about the Darrins and it said when production ended there were 50 bodies left and Dutch took them and put cadillac v-8s in them and sold them as Darrins as his own car co.  What has happend to the last 50 cars and what is the performance specs with a cadillac 8 banger in such a light car.

[joefrazer]

That story has gone around for some time now. In reality, the number of refitted cars was probably no more than a handful. I know where one of the cars is, it needs everything but does have the V8 tucked neatly under the hood.

[Gordie]

I once bought a Darrin with an Olds V-8 installed in it.  I sold it along with two Glasspar cars to a collector in Denver who said he had several Darrin's.  I never heard anything about any of the cars again.  That was about twenty years ago.  I'll bet more than a few Darrin's received engine transplants and I agree that Dutch Darrin converted only a handful with the Cadillac engines.  I'm not aware of any literature or advertising being done for the Darrin conversions.

[HJ-ETEX]

gordie: I think that guy in Denver got Hal Naumann's Darrin as well. While it may be rewarding to have a number of examples of a rare car, it doesn't seem very fulfilling if all of them are parts cars.

[HJ-ETEX]

It is all very nice to talk about Darrins with V8s, but you should remember they had extensively modified HJ frames - and the original configuration was only adequate for a HJ. Now while a Darrin has a big Kaiser Dana 44 rearend instead of the weak Dana 23 from a HJ, it still has HJ springs so getting any extreme increase in hp to the ground is a problem. I suspect any Darrins with Cadillac V8s were not very satisfying to drive. 

[Gordie]

If I remember correctly from the last Darrin meeting there is a guy in the Denver area that is not a club member and has many Darrin's and does not want to have his cars listed in the Darrin roster.  We have honored his request but that sure adds to the number of missing cars.  The fellow that I sold my car to was much older than me and that was twenty years ago so I don't know if he is the same guy who is still buying Darrin's.  I guess having one Darrin should be enough for anyone as there are so many other desirable cars out there that I would love to own.  I do know several collectors who have two almost identical collector cars so what do I know?  I guess I have some similar cars too but only until they get restored.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Lew Retzer (who does not have a computer) called me last night about a couple things and mentioned that a friend of his who is an appraiser by profession was called out to California to look at a V-8 equipped Darrin recently.  Lew indicated that the appraiser also saw paperwork that indicated Howard Darrin acquired 100 (not 50) of the cars from Kaiser-Willys Sales Corporation.  Lew is going to try to get back to the man to see if a copy of the document (or at least more details on the paperwork) can be obtained. 

Based on the dealer situation in 1954, I would not be that surprised if the number was 100 rather than 50.  I would also not be surprised if it turned out that Dutch got the cars as a final settlement for design work and royalities paid.  He did not turn the design over to his clients; he licensed them (Packard, K-F, etc) to use his work and they paid him so much a car.  He retained rights to license the design to any other company or build himself off the design (like the original 1947 Darrin automobile).

[Gordie]

Dutch Darrin may have received 100 of the left over Darrin's but I doubt that he converted many of them to Cadillac power.  I used to have a Darrin brochure that had Dutch Darrin's rubber stamp on it with the Sunset Blvd. address so he must have sold more than a few of them.  I don't think that there are many survivors with the Cadillac engines.