Found: The Tear Drop Car

Found: The Tear Drop Car

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Geoff Hacker isn’t all that different than me or you. He’s a car guy, albeit one with a tad more eccentric aspirations. See, Geoff has suffered through a life long obsession with all things streamlined. It started early. One of his parent’s professors at SIU was none other than Buckminster Fuller (creator of the Dymaxion) and at the age of 5 or 6, Geoff even got to meet the aerodynamic wizard. I’m guessing that started it all really…

Since that early age, Geoff has been doing what a lot of us have – collecting cars and just generally being a car guy. A few years back he was able to quench a bit of his streamlined thirst when he got his hands on a Covington Shark, but it’s always been his dream to find an original tear drop.

Geoff’s time has come… Just this past week, he located and bought the tear drop pictured in the lead spot of this post. It was originally built in 1935 by a family in Michigan, but not much else is known about the history as of yet. Research will be part of the journey of restoration and that process is already well on its way.

Mechanically, the little car features a mid-mounted flathead Ford and 3-speed tranny. The package seems to be brilliantly engineered and wrapped in a shape that’s hard not to love. The body is actually cantilevered three feet over the front axle and features a very early example of a wrap around windshield. 1935 folks… This was one hell of an accomplishment.

In any case, Geoff is going to keep us updated on his progress and let us know about any developments on the research side. This one should be a nice of change of pace for sure.

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