Chrysler’s Hottest Wheels
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Repop’d Zippomobile carries the torch for
the world-famous lighter maker.
Words and photos by Cliff Gromer
2/8/06
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folks, the vote is in—and it's official! We've totaled up all the
mail-in and email ballots asking for your choice of Chrysler's absolutely
hottest car of this past millennium (if you didn’t vote you have
only yourself to blame). 'Course it comes as no surprise to us that the
vote was almost unanimous. C'mon now, what could be hotter than the Chrysler...Zippomobile.
Sporting not one but two giant Zippo lighters that comprise the entire
midsection of the car—a '47 Chrysler Saratoga. The Zippomobile easily
beat out the runner-up Chrysler ME Four-Twelve which doesn’t even
sport a single Zippo lighter.
Before its mysterious disappearance, the original Zippomobile, a 4-door
model converted into a 2-dr. business coupe by Gardner Display, and which
cost almost $30,000 to build, appeared in expos, parades and fairs in
all 48 states during the late '40s and early '50s. But the car was not
without its problems. The weight of the huge roof lighters put enormous
pressure on the tires which, unlike the lighters, blew out seemingly everywhere.
 Original Zippomobile, along with the Air Training Command Headquarters, mysteriously disappeared sometime in the late '50s or early '60s. Anyone with information about either should contact the Zippo Company or the Federal Bureau of Investigation. |