The Saint Louis Museum of Transportation
was our destination when we visited
our Missouri Son and Grandson.
Moving Heaven and Earth.
Can I say that FAMILY TIME
is necessary and needed?
Yes,
d
Bobby Darin's….The car is powered by a 427 high-performance Ford engine with a 125-inch wheelbase, with a tubular aluminum frame and a hand-fashioned soft aluminum body. The car has Batmanesque set of rear fins dominating the body line and ruby red hubcaps on whitewall tires. Writer Daniel Vaughan describes it as
...an exotic vehicle that is overdone in every detail and in every respect, an iconic dream car. Its metallic red paint was from 30 coats of paint with real ground diamonds for sparkle. The body is from hand-fashioned soft aluminum. There are hidden headlights and tail lights that swivel as the car turns. Inside, the seats each have their own ash tray, cigarette lighter, and radio speaker. On the dash are oversized levers that control the air conditioning, heater and defroster.
History The car was designed by Andrew Di Dia, a clothing designer, who Bobby Darin had met while on tour in Detroit in 1957. Darin telling Di Dia at the time that he would purchase the car if he ever "hit it big". For seven years, from 1953 to 1960 the Di Dia 150 was hand-built by four workers, at a cost of $93,647.29 but sold to Darin in 1961 at a cost of over $150,000 (1.5 million today). At the time the car was listed as most expensive "custom-made" car in the world by the Guinness Book of Records. The body was hand-formed by Ron Clark and constructed by Bob Kaiser from Clark Kaiser Customs.
Darin drove his wife, Sandra Dee, in the car to the 34th Academy Awards in 1961.
—Andrew Di DiaWhen Bobby drove the car to the Academy Awards, I and Steve Blauner followed behind him in a limousine. The car had two fans and a switch that you had to turn on. Bobby didn't realize, so it heated up. All the magazines said the car caught fire but it didn't.
Jay Leno has one of these.
