The Paxton Phoenix was a rear-engine

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...

prototype developed in 1953 by

Robert P. McCulloch Robert Paxton McCulloch (May 11, 1911 – February 25, 1977) was an American entrepreneur from Missouri, best known for McCulloch chainsaws and purchasing the "New" London Bridge (Lake Havasu City), London Bridge, which he moved to Lake Havasu Ci ...

Paxton Automotive {{Third-party, date=March 2021 Paxton Automotive is a United States-based manufacturer of superchargers for automotive use. The company is the major proponent of the centrifugal type supercharger. Early products were offered under the McCulloch n ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, a division of his chainsaw business. The car was styled by

Brooks Stevens Clifford Brooks Stevens (June 7, 1911 – January 4, 1995) was an American industrial designer of home furnishings, appliances, automobiles, and motorcycles, as well as a graphic designer and stylist. Stevens founded Brooks Stevens, Inc., head ...

and featured a cable driven mechanical hardtop that retracted and covered the trunk. Engine options that were considered included an

alternative fuel Alternative fuel, known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels like; '' fossil fuels'' (petroleum (oil), coal, and natural gas), as well as nuclear mat ...

steam engine, based on earlier designs by

Abner Doble Abner Doble (March 26, 1890 – July 16, 1961) was an American mechanical engineer who built and sold steam-powered automobiles as Doble Steam Cars. His steam engine design was used in various automobiles from the early 1900s, including a 1969 ...

, or a

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being comple ...

gasoline engine with a McCulloch/Paxton supercharger. The prototype was powered by a

Porsche 356 The Porsche 356 is a sports car that was first produced by Austrian company Porsche Konstruktionen GesmbH (1948–1949), and then by German company Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH (1950–1965). It was Porsche's first production automobile. E ...

engine for demonstration purposes. The Phoenix never went into production. The prototype was sold at the Paxton liquidation auction in Santa Monica, California in 1977. It remained in a private collection until mechanically restored in the early 1990s, retaining the factory paint, trim, and interior. It was then sold to the Brooks Stevens (museum) shortly before Stevens died. The Stevens family sold the car to a private collector in Ohio who regularly exhibits it as part of his collection of unusual and unique cars.

External links

Paxton Phoenix
at conceptcarz.com

at coachbuilt.com One-off cars Cars of the United States {{Classicpow-auto-stub Rear-engined cars