The 1960 DiDia 150 was a luxury, custom-designed iconic, handmade car also known as the "Dream Car" forever associated with its second owner, singer

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American musician and actor. He performed jazz, Pop music, pop, rock and roll, Folk music, folk, Swing music, swing, and country music. He started his car ...

. Built in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, clothing designer Andrew "Andy" Di Dia designed this "unrestrained and unconventional" automobile. Only one example was ever built.

Description

The car was originally powered by a 365 cubic inch Cadillac engine, later replaced by a 427 cubic inch high-performance Ford engine, and had 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 bodyline and ruby red hubcaps on

whitewall tire Whitewall tires or white sidewall (WSW) tires are tires having a stripe or entire sidewall of white rubber. These tires were most commonly used from the early 1900s to around the mid 1980s. Background The use of whitewall rubber for tire has be ...

s. 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 DiDia 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 ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. The body was hand-formed by Ron Clark and constructed by Bob Kaiser from Clark Kaiser Customs. Darin drove his wife,

Sandra Dee Sandra Dee (born Alexandra Zuck; April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005) was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials, and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénue ...

, in the car to the

34th Academy Awards The 34th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1961, were held on April 9, 1962, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California. They were hosted by Bob Hope; this was the 13th time Hope hosted the Oscars. Legendary ...

in 1961. Di Dia toured the car around the country, when Darin wasn't using it for public appearances. After publicity and film use, Darin donated his "Dream Car" to the

National Museum of Transportation The National Museum of Transportation (NMOT) is a private, 42-acre transportation museum in the Kirkwood suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1944, it restores, preserves, and displays a wide variety of vehicles spanning 15 decades of Americ ...

in 1970 where it remains. It was restored by Mike Manns of Manns Auto Body in

Festus, Missouri Festus is a city situated in Jefferson County, Missouri, United States, and is also a suburb of St. Louis. It had a population of 12,706 individuals as of the 2020 census. Festus and its adjacent neighbor Crystal City are often collectively know ...

before going on display.

Specifications

The gasoline-fueled

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...

(originally 365 cid, later upgraded to 427 cid) is located at the front. It is rear-wheel drive. The body and chassis are hand-formed from 064 aluminum with a unitized alloy tube frame. It has a glass cockpit in back, a squared steering wheel resembling a

superellipse A superellipse, also known as a Lamé curve after Gabriel Lamé, is a closed curve resembling the ellipse, retaining the geometric features of semi-major axis and semi-minor axis, and symmetry about them, but a different overall shape. In the ...

(with n = 3⁄2, a = b = 1) and thermostatically controlled air conditioning system. The interior is rust colored in contrast to the ruby

paintwork Paint is any pigmented liquid, liquefiable, or solid mastic composition that, after application to a substrate in a thin layer, converts to a solid film. It is most commonly used to protect, color, or provide texture. Paint can be made in many ...

. The design included the first backseat-mounted radio loudspeakers and hidden windshield wipers, which start themselves when it rains. Other features include retractable headlamps, rear turn signals which swivel as the car turns, 'floating' bumpers and a trunk that was hinged from the driver's side. Each of the four bucket seats have their own thermostatically controlled air conditioning, individual cigarette lighters and ashtrays, as well as a radio loudspeaker. The original engine, a Cadillac V8, was later replaced by a high-performance Ford engine when it was taken on the show circuit.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Legendary Collector Cars

Motor vehicles manufactured in the United States 1960s cars