The Powell Sport Wagon — Petersen Automotive Museum

Seen in retrospect, the Powell also mirrored a exclusive point of view on publish-war automotive design. Crafted amongst the retreating shadow of Earth War II and the dawn of the American put up-war economy, the pickup represented a combine of pre- and put up-war economic realities. In the usually means of its construction, the household-grown car or truck, constructed out of present parts, spoke to an era of wartime rationing and elements shortages, in which things like metals utilized in car building were scarce and citizens were being compelled to craft their have merchandise in place of these they would routinely obtain on retail outlet shelves.

In its design, and the very point that their business experienced endeavored to market a new automobile to the public, even so, the Powell brothers’ company mirrored the optimistic mindset of the burgeoning mid-century American economy. Even though Europe would continue on to experience the financial devastation of Environment War II prolonged after its summary, by the mid-1950s when the Powell Sport Wagon was introduced, the American overall economy would expertise a interval of fast growth, in which the Gross National Product (GNP) would expand to nearly 250% its pre-war dimensions. A concurrent, and insatiable, consumer desire for new autos would push the creation of new, thrilling vehicles like the Chevrolet Corvette, which was, by the way, highlighted on the pretty go over of the February 1956 situation of Motor Pattern in which Woron would chronicle his sights of the humble Sport Wagon.

With these two perspectives as context, Channing and Hayward Powell set out to generate a exceptional and, as Woron would explain, fairly legendary motor vehicle that would offer for beneath the “magical one-grand figure.” Unfortunately for the business, like most manufacturers who sought to create these types of a auto from scratch, “costs mounted upward like a mushroom pushing its way thru the cracking earth.” While the Powell brothers projected in Motor Trend that amplified manufacturing figures would lower the charge of their Wagon, at a price tag of a mere $95 in excess of their concentrate on, the Powell Sport Wagon was very a noble attempt.

By Kristin Feay

Photography by Bob D’Olivo and Walt Woron