by Ron Will

The Turbo Phantom posed in the desert during the filming of a Texaco commercial starring Bob Hope.

 

I think in the back of every car designer’s mind there is this desire to build a car entirely of their own design with no constraints from a studio chief, engineering package, or market survey to guide them. That itch for me was what got me into car design in the first place. As a kid I built Soap Box Racers, then as a young teen went on to design and build contest models for the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild. A win in the Guild helped me land that dream job at GM. Even after working in the fabulous Corvette studio for years, the itch was still there.

 

Ron’s original Phantom sketch that started it all.

 

I started to scratch that itch, innocently enough, by entering a Revell model motorcycle contest. I won the custom division with my 1/8 scale three-wheel design. This was back in 1973-74 when there were long gas lines and cars were only getting 12-15 mpg. I thought my sleek cycle car design would probably get double or even triple that in mileage. So the lure of possibly starting my own little car company became bigger than staying at GM Styling.

At that same time, I was working on the XP-898 experimental foam chassis car that Chevrolet Engineering was experimenting with. The concept was simple—basically build a top and bottom car sandwich chassis/body design like a surfboard and fill it with rigid foam. The Chevy prototype worked great and even had great crash protection. My light bulb went on, and I saw this as the method that a small manufacturer (me) could use to build cars without the multi-million dollar tooling costs. Chevrolet’s VP John Delorean’s light bulb also went on and he saw this same idea as a concept he could use for the car he was secretly planning. (Be sure to read a prior post on the XP-898, “Chevrolet XP-898: Inspiration for two unique designs.”)

I had also been working at the GM Tech Center’s Harrison Wind Tunnel on Chevy designs to lower their drag coefficients. So my next step was to do the same with my three wheel design. It was shaped like a wing, so I was a little afraid that it might try to fly at higher speeds. Also, I needed to find a place to locate a radiator. The first Honda Gold Wing water cooled 4-cylinder touring bike had just been introduced, so that was my engine of choice. I built a much larger 3/8 scale model this time. The guys running the tunnel were excited to run something different and ran it after hours. They even modified the tunnel base to accept a three wheel design. The results were all positive. It didn’t lift, the radiator would cool in the back of the fender, and our Cd was .31—not great, but not bad either.

At this point I made my big life change. After 10 years at GM design, I quit to follow my dream. I got married to Pat, someone who could put up with all of my car nonsense. I bought a duplex with a three-car garage in Costa Mesa, California and even convinced my brother and his wife to come out and help me. With the great help of my brother Lee, we applied almost every step that I had learned in the design process at GM to the three wheeler, that we now called The Phantom. This name must have stuck in my head for years, because later I saw a photo of me at about age 8 with a car I built with buggy wheels that looked like it came from a Little Rascals movie. On the side was painted a lightning bolt and the name Phantom Flash.

Using the 3/8 scale wind tunnel model as a guide, we scaled up full size drawings and made a full size three-dimensional buck to check entry, exit, vision, wheel turn and jounce, engine access, and basic appearance. Next came the buck for the full size clay model. For all these processes we used the identical rail and upright measuring systems used at GM for keeping accuracy from side to side. Costa Mesa was the perfect spot to do this project. There were race car builders, fiberglass shops, upholstery shops and classic car restoration businesses all within a few minutes of our three-car garage shop. It was easy to find people to help us make molds from the clay and cast our first body. This being a prototype, all the foam had to be fit into the body, shaped and then fiber-glassed to form the sandwich body design.

The fabrication included a widened VW suspension with disc brakes added and a 2-inch-thick sandwich steel firewall that separated the passenger compartment from engine, fuel, battery etc. This strong but lightweight wall also served as the roll bar. The steering wheel and instruments lifted up with the canopy top when it is raised. A heavy duty flex cable connected the steering wheel to the rack and pinion steering gear. Another unique feature was the covered headlights. The headlights were fixed in the body pointing straight up. The underside of the lids are mirrors, so when raised to 45 degrees they will project the beam forward. I also wanted skirts on the front wheels, but I also wanted as wide a track as possible. So, I put a Teflon strip inside the skirt bottom and hinges on the top. When the wheels turn, the tire lifts the skirt allowing the tire to turn outside the body width.

A great help came from Rich Straman, a fellow student from IIT (Institute of Design in Chicago). He graciously painted the Phantom Porsche Silver (twice) from his classic car restoration business in Newport Beach.

We first just made the body and painted it with no windows or engine—just a one piece body. This is what we took to the Chicago auto show. In Stage Two we opened the top and put in windows and interior. You could sit in it, but no engine yet. We showed this at the LA Auto show. Finally in Stage Three we put the engine in and all the mechanicals to make it a running vehicle. It still needs a Stage Four to make it more finished in many areas. The new heavy duty disc brakes were part of that. There is a Phantom II in Ann Arbor Michigan. I sold the original mold on eBay when I left New Jersey. Someone made a body and is putting it over a tube frame Chassis.

 

The Turbo Phantom during government skid pad tests.

 

The paint was barely dry when we were asked to participate in a government test of various three-wheel car designs. They wanted to know if these new lightweight efficient vehicles would be safe to drive on the road. The dynamic driving tests were held at the Edwards Air Force Base in California on the space shuttle landing strip. Against a dozen other cars, we came out on top, with excellent handling, and stability, generating more cornering G-forces than many four-wheel cars.

After showing the car at both Los Angeles and Chicago auto shows, we started to get publicity in a few magazines. This led to a call from an ad agency that wanted to put the Phantom in a Texaco commercial with Bob Hope. The tag line of the commercial was that, “Someday your high-mileage car will be made of lightweight plastics made from oil.” The car was to break out of a giant oil drum, then drive across the desert and next to Bob Hope where the driver would turn out to be a beautiful girl in a silver space suit-like outfit. The catch was, they were worried the girl would drive over Bob Hope, so they wanted me to drive up to Bob. For this I would have to don a blond wig and silver space suit. When the car stopped, we switched places and the beautiful model would open the door. That was my 15 minutes of fame, suited up in drag.

The Jet Fighter design was started after the Phantom, but we realized that we had bitten off more than we could chew. It goes back to the original simple tube frame construction that we should have done in the first place. Had we done that, we might have actually had a little car company. We made a full-size space buck of this model and had a 1/8 scale model. But at this point we were all out of money and I had to find a real job. Subaru.

The Government testing was done by Paul Van Valkenberg. Paul worked for Chevrolet on their racing enterprises, and has written several books on race car suspension and handling. He wanted to test all the possible variations of three-wheel cars, but there were no front drive three-wheelers, so he made one out of a Honda Civic by replacing the back wheels with one in the middle. A real odd duck to see it driving around.

A group of execs left Subaru to try and start another car company based in China. They wanted to do the same thing: import a new car to the U.S. I got the job of designing the car, made up proposals, and got 50,000 shares of the new company for my effort. So what happened? GM bought the Chinese company and took over production. We were left out in the cold.

Today the Phantom is in my Arizona garage waiting for me to finish the restoration necessary to get it back into running condition. Perhaps this time it will be painted a Cadillac Pearl Red.

People who see it today can’t believe that it is almost 40 years old.

Thanks Ron, for graciously supplying photos and the history of this very significant car.

 

Stage One photos, 1976

 

Ron Will

31 Comments
  1. Ron,
    Thanks for sharing this wonderful presentation, taking your dream car from concept to reality. Truly an ambitious, noble undertaking, and professionally done! A great accomplishment and bold design statement for which you should be rightly very proud of!

    Your designer friend of many years,
    John M. Mellberg

  2. David McIntosh

    Having made an aborted attempt at building a car in the ’60’s, I was excited to read about this project. You can’t appreciate what a complicated piece of work a car is until you try to do it yourself! Ron is obviously way beyond a sketch artist to accomplish a project as beautiful and professional as this. Congratulations and thanks for publishing this story.

  3. I love Ron’s Phantom. It illustrates the hand of a master of form.
    Beautiful—and effective.

  4. Clark Lincoln

    Great story Ron, and very well put together here on DG. Having been involved in several race car design/build projects, I know of the dedication required. Actually the most tedious part is all the final details to get the thing to be roadworthy-or in our case, track ready. I hope you didn’t knock too many years off your life dealing with all the toxic materials we have to deal with in these types of “garage” projects!
    Again, congratulations on a significant accomplishment.

    Clark Lincoln

  5. Wayne Barratt

    Magnificent!
    That has to be the most beautiful looking trike I have ever seen, the overall form and the exterior detailing are superb.
    Your solution to the lighting issue using the mirrors was quite ingenious.
    I like the silver/grey paint , but it does look good in the proposed red scheme.
    Regards,
    Wayne

  6. Virgil Exner, Jr.

    Beautiful project, beautiful car, beautiful story !
    Keep having FUN !
    Best,
    Virgil

  7. Walter Gomez

    Excellent!

  8. Ted Renteria

    I had the pleasure to work in the Chevy III production studio, alongside of Ron in the Fall/Winter of ’74/’75, although for a very short time …due to the ’74 recession.

    I have vivid recollection of Ron’s work, both in the studio and what he he was able to share with me about his upcoming venture, to bring the Turbo Phantom into reality. About 1 year later, I visited Ron’s studio in Costa Mesa and marveled at the set-up …seeing the car in it’s early stages of modeling at full-size.

    Ron, you always impressed me with your commitment, craftsmanship and quality of your work. It’s great to see this tribute to your work…

    Ted Renteria

  9. Roy Lonberger

    Very impressive, Ron…thanks for sharing the story. Much admiration for a designer who can turn a sketch into a running car.

  10. Mark Moody

    As one of the very brief owners of the Phantom II, let me say what you already know Ron…..Beautiful piece of artwork that is a true sight to behold and one that I still consider to be years ahead of its time!
    I hope to once again own this vehicle!

  11. Tom Beaubien

    Great news for me to see your recent photo and your article re; the Phantom. I never knew you were the designer of that handsome 3 wheeler.
    I still have photos of some of the scale models we did together. You are one of the best designers I ever came across. Tom Kellog was another.
    I got to do some interesting things after our work together. My last paying job was consulting with a NASA physicist and getting to build his wing design for a hypersonic wing for a test rocket. This project was out at Edwards A.F. As you might have known, I’ve always loved airplanes and getting to have a small studio in the main hanger with all the latest jet aircraft, well what a wonderful time that was for me.
    tom

  12. Bob Popaditch

    Hi Ron!
    Hope you remember me from good ole’ HHS!
    Your above article and adventure is fasinating and a true life accomplishment!

    Congrats!!!

  13. I’ve always loved the Turbo Phantom since the first time I saw a photo of it. I bought a Turbo Phantom II body from Mark Moody. It differes from the original as it is just a fiberglass shell. The original was constructed as a foam sandwich. I am bulding a test frame using a 1500cc Honda Goldwing for power. Then I will design and build a new frame. I will make a completely different frame from 1.5-inch round bent tubing. The frame is being designed in Bendtech Pro software and Autocad, using feiro front spindles and hubs with adjustable A-arms, coil-over shocks, and a modified Porsche 911 steering rack, and a 2.2 Honda V-tec car engine with the front wheel drive transaxle converted to chain drive to back tire. This way I can use components from the car wiring harness, air conditioning, heat, the dash and all the controls, and radiators, etc. I also built a Sportcycle reverse trike powered by a GSXR 1100 and designed by Jim Musser, another well kown ex GM engineer. And I’m building a AKIRA bike replica. Photos: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/AKIRA-bike-project-by-Monroe-County-Customs-MCC/160837117318428

  14. Paul D. Eikenbary

    Dear Ron,

    I LOVED your beautiful car and your write-up! I remember your earliest days while you were building your first real car in your parents’ garage in the 1960’s. Boy, you have come so very far in your life.

  15. Mark Moody

    Thanks for the recent wooden model Ron.
    I have found someone to do a 3D laser scan of the model for me.
    Next, a new phantom buck to start the ball rolling!

  16. Mark Moody

    I now have the required template outlines to make a mold of the phantom after my wooden model was laser scanned in 3D!

  17. Jeff Jones

    Just stumbled on this story and was pleased it tells all. I have wondered about the Phantom for years. I can appreciate the huge effort it takes to build a car from scratch. I have built ground-up restorations and custom cars for many years and you get consumed just rounding up all the fasteners needed for the job! Look forward to meeting Ron & Pat and a bunch more Guildsmen @ Arizona in January.

    Couple of observations; 1) Ron deosn’t look half bad in drag, and 2) he definitely married up!

  18. Mark Moody

    Having pdf file of laser scan material printed this week to begin cutting plywood templates!

  19. Gene Conrad

    Thanks for putting up this article! I was a kid in the ’70’s and I remember seeing an article once on the Phantom. I also was facinated by the Trimuter and other three wheel designs. I am currently working on building a two seat tandem design similar to Ron’s Jet Fighter design. It is a tube chassis strongly influenced by Jim Musser’s Sport Cycle. I’m using a Ninja 500cc. I’m blogging a bit about that at http://sporttrike2x.blogspot.com/

    Mark Moody – Please send me a link to your site – I would enjoy seeing what you are up to.

    Merry CHRISTmas!

  20. Mark Moody

    I am currently setting up a site via Flickr to monitor my progress with my attempt at recreating the phantom.
    When it is ready I willpost the info here.
    Tomorrow I will be receiving 8 printed templates from the local print shop.

    Mark

  21. Mark Moody

    Great new site, keep up the great work!

    To all the phantom fans wondering what happened to my plans, I found it too costly to pursue on my budget right now, sorry..
    But I hope to have something this year.

  22. Ron DeRutte

    Great design Ron. Saw your design when I was attending art school in the 70’s and made myself a promise. I will design and build a reverse trike. 30 years later and five years of nights and weekends I finally did it and registered it in the state of New York.
    Thanks for the inspiration.
    Best and good luck,
    Ron DeRutte

  23. Met Ron recently, truly a nice guy. Can’t wait to see the car!

  24. Mark Moody

    Great news,
    I am now able to begin the revitalization of my phantom project!
    Tomorrow I will have the firewall template cut and the template behind the fuel tank will also be cut.
    I will be posting the pictures on my website and will return tomorrow with a link to the site!

  25. As promised, here is the website link.
    I started cutting two templates.
    Tomorrow I will post pictures of them on the site.

  26. This is an amazing car and an amazing project. I really enjoyed reading about it in detail. Ron is a very talented guy as well as an old friend that goes back to college days.

  27. Dennis F. Otto

    Thanks for the great write up about your stunning (still!) project. The amount of work shows your professionalism; ACCD comes thru again!!

    We had a GM project for small, creative economy vehicles late in 73, at Art Center, that some what tracked with your efforts, of course our “work” culminated in 1/5 scale models. Taking your personal project all the way to a self financed running prototype is the ultimate dedication! Beautiful!

    Excellent choice of power plant, too. DFO

  28. WOW! I’m so happy to learn about the Turbo Phanthom by none other than the builder himself! What a joy!

    I was a kid in Venezuela when I read an article in a very prestigious magazine named “Hombre De Mundo” back in the early ’80s. It started with this sentence: “If you can’t buy a Lamborghini, you might as well get this aerodynamic Turbo Phanthom.”

    That was the beginning of my passion for 3-wheelers, and I do think this car really had the potential to become a niche product like the Avanti, selling in limited quantities for a small, loyal customer base.

  29. Mark

    Is there anyone still interested in acquiring the fiberglass body of the phantom?
    Mark

  30. Ben

    Hello mark i am interested in purchasing a turbo phantom body. How do I get in touch with you?

    Ron sold the molds many years ago.—Gary

  31. Ben,
    I sold my only mold body to Jeff England a long time ago.
    He is listed here within the comments.
    I attempted to create interest in my efforts to create other bodies from the 3D scan I had made. I was hoping others would create a need for my efforts, but it was not to be.
    So, I abandoned the project.
    As you can see, this was over a year ago.
    Sorry.

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