Designers will occasionally develop flights of fancy which would never in the wildest business models reach the showroom floor. Come on, you remember 'em. The Toyota i-Real, the Ford Nucleon. Batshit-crazy doesn't always get axed in the process of money making. Behold, the 1974 Fascination 2DR. Five of these beauties made it out into the real world and all still exist under the care of two different madmen owners. Not only was the Fascination fascinating (sorry) to look at, but its construction technique and powertrain were as novel as it's shape.
The history of this vehicle is hazy at best, but the main source resides in the chronicles of its planned powertrain. Called the EMA, it was an electric motor which promised the world: low energy consumption manageable power, easy to maintain, excellent range. The EMA is a motor of incredible (and perhaps impossible) features, based on physics which would confound most plenty of physicists. It's inventor claims to have "split the positive," introducing a "new manifestation of electricity." Whatever. Suffice it to say, this was an electric savior for the malaise era automotive world that never completed. Something to do with black helicopters and the oil mafia.
The rest of the car is at least as interesting as the dubious engine. Set up in the dynamically unstable one-wheel-in-front, two-in-back pattern, the Dymaxion inspired body also featured elements of the jet age—and what we think is the vannin' craze. You know, chrome, baubles, wicked luggage rack, velour interior... all the standard fare of 70s. We're diggin' the all-the-way-around bumper and the bitchin' front wheel dually action. There's some mumbo jumbo about it possibly having a space aged rubber body, but we'd wager that's as real as the EMA motor under the trunk (which is actually a four cylinder and looks like it may be a Corvair engine). That being said, this is one weird car from a couple of kooky fellows. You can see it yourself at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, NV. [via Conceptcarzcom]