The Spirit of Tomorrow

This is The Spirit of Tomorrow, a handbuilt Streamliner from the late 1930s

The inventor built the house in the background. It rotates 360 degrees. His name was Barney Oldfield, born in the early 1900s, lived until 1977.

This is the car at the service shop he built in the mid-30s. His nephew still runs it.

The shape was formed by using a local creek and wooden models to test flow theory.

The car was originally equipped with a flathead Ford V8, but was later swapped to Mustang 289 power in the 1960s. It's over eighty years old, but rips.

Of course, there is an altimeter as he was a pilot.

It still belongs to the Oldfield family, and they use it regularly.

Among other details, these are very early handmade turn signals, perhaps some of the earliest in North America.

One-offs like this are pretty cool, but this one is unique in that it still gets plenty of use and is in the same family. A mid-engined V8 built in the early days of WWII is pretty nuts. But it still works.