The Davis Divan is a three-wheeled convertible built by the Davis Motorcar Company between 1947 and 1949. The brainchild of used-car salesman Glen Gordon "Gary" Davis, it was largely based upon "The Californian", a custom three-wheeled roadster built by future Indianapolis 500 racing car designer Frank Kurtis for Southern Californian millionaire and racer Joel Thorne. After building two prototypes in 1947, Davis embarked on an aggressive publicity and promotional campaign for the car, which included numerous magazine appearances, a lavish public unveiling at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and a promotional trip across the United States.
At the company factory in Van Nuys, employees worked frantically to build Divans, although the model was never put into mass production. Despite raising $1.2 million through the sale of 350 dealerships, the Davis Motorcar Company failed to deliver cars to its prospective dealers or pay its employees promptly, and was ultimately sued by both groups. The company's assets were liquidated in order to pay back taxes, while Gary Davis himself was eventually convicted of fraud and grand theft and sentenced to two years at a "work farm" labor camp.
Only 13 Divans (including the two prototypes) were ever built, of which 12 have survived. The car featured aircraft-inspired styling details as well as disc brakes, hidden headlights, and built-in jacks.
Background
The Davis Divan was the brainchild of Glen Gordon "Gary" Davis, a used-car salesman from Indiana. Its immediate predecessor was a custom three-wheeled roadster called "The Californian", which had been built in 1941 by future Indianapolis 500 racing car designer Frank Kurtis for Southern Californian millionaire and racer Joel Thorne, who was the heir to the Chase bank fortune. For the single front wheel of "The Californian", Kurtis had taken inspiration from the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft, while he also fitted the vehicle with a Ford V8/60 engine and rear axle. In 1945, shortly after moving to Southern California, Davis purchased the car from Thorne. He paid just $50 for it, and while reports about the circumstances of the sale vary, one suggests that Davis may have deliberately crashed the accident-prone vehicle during a test drive to reduce its value to Thorne.
Development
Models and prototypes
After purchasing "The Californian", Davis intended to reverse engineer it with a group of newly hired engineers, including Peter Westburg from Douglas Aircraft Company. Together they built a 1/4th-scale model of the car, which they then photographed for a Hollywood Citizen-News story on July 22, 1947, in which they claimed their ability to build 50 of the cars a day and sell each for $995. Later that year, Davis secured an investment of $2,500 from the Bendix family, which enabled him to create Davis Motorcar Company; ever conscious of his and his project's image, he borrowed local designer Raymond Loewy's office to make his successful pitch.
In 1947, Davis built two prototypes of what was intended to be an economy car, first the Davis D-1 (nicknamed "Baby") and then the D-2 ("Delta"), the latter of which featured a removable hardtop. While testing "Baby", Davis was able to achieve tire marks with a circumference of just , demonstrating the vehicle's impressive turning radius.
Publicity and promotion
Looking to capitalize on the booming post-World War II American car market, Davis obtained significant coverage for his new car in prominent magazines such as Business Week, Life, and Parade as well as in a period newsreel and a syndicated television crime drama, The Cases of Eddie Drake. In November 1947, the Davis Divan was publicly unveiled at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; assisting Davis in handling the event were Jack Adams, a former reporter at The Los Angeles Herald-Express who had been hired to manage public relations for the fledgling company, and Cleo Moore, an actress who had been hired to pose with the "Baby" prototype as a promotional model as well as mingle with the press at the hotel. Also during the event, Davis had four American Airlines stewardesses hired for the occasion sit side by side across the car's single bench seat to demonstrate its ability to carry four adults.