Camping Car: September 1947

Just a couple of decades after W.K. Kellogg unveiled his motorized Ark, Roy Hunt, a Hollywood cameraman, showed off his own take on the live-in car concept. In addition to his own supplies, Hunt used a Ford Model-A transmission and a four-cylinder, 90-horsepower, air-cooled Franklin engine from an old war plane. He installed the engine in the rear, stuffed some kitchen and dining equipment within the front hood and tweaked the seats so they could be converted into beds. As you can see in the pictures, his car held a remarkable number of amenities. The shotgun seat could unfold into a full-sized bed, while the kitchen set held an icebox, a sink and a GI gasoline stove At four feet eight inches high, and sixteen feet long, his car wasn't especially spacious, so he made the doors just an inch thick to increase the vehicle's volume.

This lovely little vehicle wasn't built by an engineer, but by an artist by the name of Paul Arzens. His insistence that "the mechanism must be a means and not the end" motivated him to built a car that defied conventional car designs. He began using a frame with steering gear similar to that of a Model T Ford. Next, he added a body of aluminum tubing to the steel frame and installed an air-cooled rear engine that could provide 5 horsepower at 5,300 r.p.m. Next, he added a small seat slightly wider than the ones in typical French cars. To maximize visibility, he made the top third of the car all Plexiglass windows. Finally, a canvas pull-over top gave his "Little Town Car" some shade. Capable of traveling just 50 miles per hour, Arzens' car wasn't the fastest thing in the world, but you can't deny that it looks nice.