CRAMER COMET CUSTOM ROADSTER

If your name was Ed Cramer and it was 1954 you added "more inches" in the form of an aircraft engine. Not just any aircraft engine, mind you, but a 1,710ci Allison V-12 once used to power iconic American World War II fighter planes like the P-38 Lightning and P-40 Tomahawk. Cramer's creation was recently auctioned in the USA, as part of Bonhams' USA's inaugural 'Scottsdale Sale'.

Aircraft engines are nothing new in cars, initially seen in the record-setting machines from the dawn of the Twentieth Century, and more recently in custom builds like Rod Hadfield's awesome 'Final Objective' 1955 Chevy. Ed Cramer's creation, dubbed the 'Cramer Comet', is notable in that the proprietor of a towing and repair business from Omaha, Nebraska not only used the big V-12, and wrapped it in a heavily-customised body, but made it all work without any formal engineering training.

Of course, fitting an engine like the 12 cylinder Allison 'V-1710' was no easy task, and Cramer had to think "outside the square" to fit the engine and make it run in a way it wasn't originally intended to do. After acquiring the engine - unused in its shipping crate - Cramer started by building a bespoke chassis from 4-inch diameter tubing. This not only provided the required strength, but was also cleverly modified to serve as a carrier for the aircraft-grade "Zerex" (like anti-freeze) coolant. From the rear-mounted radiator, coolant was pumped through the right hand side chassis rail to the engine, with the left side frame rail carrying it back to a surge tank in the boot. The frame's front cross member was sealed off from the cooling system, serving as a vacuum booster tank for the fuel system.

Given the amount of power generated by the V-12, conventional passenger car components simply wouldn't be strong enough, so wherever possible, Cramer used heavy duty truck components to handle the high power and torque the engine would deliver. As mentioned, the heavy duty truck radiator was mounted in the boot, and laid almost horizontally, so it wouldn't spoil the external lines of the car. Custom vents and twin blower fans served to keep the temperature down in traffic. Also fitted into the boot area was the four-speed (all synchro) manual transmission, flywheel and clutch, all of which were truck components. The boot also held twin 12-volt batteries, twin 30 gallon (113 litre) fuel tanks, fuel pump, and huge oil filter to strain the 32 gallons (121 litres) of oil required for the big V-12.

The batteries were required not just for the engine, but also for the array of power-operated features Cramer added to the car, like electric door releases, lighting and boot release. In the cabin - more accurately described as a cockpit - the dash featured no fewer than 32 aircraft-style switches, controls and gauges! Starting the big beast was also similar to an aircraft, involving the right sequence of setting the fuel mixture, throttle, magnetos and so on to turn over the 1,350 horsepower engine.

Despite the specialised cooling that Cramer had engineered into the build, the engine, by its nature, still generated a lot of heat, requiring special exhaust manifold insulation and under-bonnet insulation, too. The insulated headers flowed into mufflers derived from a diesel truck, with the tips exiting ahead of the rear wheels. All up, the Comet weighed 5,200 pounds (2,358 kg), the engine itself accounting for 1,380 pounds (625 kg) of that. For all that weight, Cramer had built the car so that it handled well and stopped - the truck-spec brakes were able to pull the Comet up effectively

Truck spec items were also used for much of the suspension and running gear, too, with the '36 Chrysler-derived front axle supported by Chrysler coil springs and truck radius rod ball joints. At the back, coil springs from a '49 Plymouth were linked to rear wheels, hubs, and brakes off a Ford truck from the same year. The 'underhung' placement of the suspension meant there was little body roll under acceleration or cornering. Interestingly, the rear track on the Comet was four inches wider than the front, something not immediately apparent in photos of the car.

On the outside, the Comet bore a definite resemblance to the GM 'Le Sabre' concept car. The two-piece angled front bumper, open top and circular front end opening all evoked the vehicle originally created by GM's Harley Earl in 1951. Cramer's creation is arguably more subtle than Earl's and, aside from the bumpers, featured little ornamentation. The lack of a traditional grille seems unusual, but makes sense when you remember the radiator's in the back. The small lights on the outer edges of the front end were aircraft-spec landing lights. The central, circular opening was designed to feed air into the front-mounted carburettor, but if required, a powerful searchlight could be swung into that opening (via another electric motor) for additional illumination.

The Cramer Comet's body was an amalgam of numerous makes, but was blended together rather well. Most of the body from the doors back is based on an early 1950s Buick Riviera. At the front, the guards were modified Dodge items, while the bonnet uses Oldsmobile metal, with additional sections from Buicks and Studebakers. At the back, the lower, circular tail lights are Ford, as are part of the rear guards. Atop these sit sections of Lincoln rear guards, with accompanying tail lights. There's Cadillac metal in there somewhere, too! The windscreen is actually a rear 'screen from a 1953 De Soto.

By late 1954, after more than ten months of work, the Cramer Comet was close to completion when it was featured in Hot Rod magazine in the US. The achilles heel of the project back then was the clutch. Despite fitting the heaviest-duty truck clutch available, the Comet's V-12 required a delicate use of the throttle. That said, the Comet was drivable and comfortable, even in traffic, but couldn't really be tested in a flat out, dragstrip-style speed run without destroying the clutch. With the right clutch, Cramer estimated the Allison V-12 could propel the Comet to a top speed of around 400kph. All up, the finished Comet was believed to boast more than four times the horsepower of the most potent American production car of the time!

After finishing the Comet in early 1955, Cramer continued to tweak the design, and rebuilt the car later in the decade. After originally being painted in metallic blue, the car was repainted black at one stage, before being returned to its original colour. It stayed with the Cramer family until 1980, when it was passed on to a US-based collector, who consigned it for the Bonhams Scottsdale auction. While in that owner's possession, the side-hinged bonnet was modified into a tilt-forward design, which made for easier access to the big V-12, plus the electrical relay boxes, fuel filters, starter motor and other components that filled the engine bay.

Give its one-off nature, Bonhams valued the Cramer Comet at US$100,000 - US$150,000 ahead of the January 19 Scottsdale auction. At the fall of the hammer, this unique machine sold for US$122,500.