Car Spot: 67 Dodge Deora

From a time when Detroit dreamed up cool

I’ve been attending the Chicago Auto Show for as long as I can remember. It all began back in 1963 when dad went to work for American Motors, and we would get special tickets for a manufacturer ‘s-only night. I remember, of course, all the latest cars AMC was displaying, but also took notice of the cool concept vehicles that almost every manufacturer showed off. At the 67 show, AMC was showing off their new AMC and Javelin, but the vehicle that stood out the most was this Dodge Deora.

I never thought I’d see it again until my buddies and I made a recent trip to The Henry Ford. There it was. Hello, old friend.

There it was just as I had remembered it, still glowing like the day it was revealed to the automotive world. Beyond just an interesting concept, there’s a great story that goes with it. It all started several years earlier in 1963, when a young designer named Harry Bentley Bradley had just finished his first six months working for General Motors. Bradley honed his skills drawing when paralyzed by polio in his youth, but was destined for something greater than merely sketching out a few minor details on the next year’s Cadillac lineup.

But Bradley’s real love was something faster and a bit more radical than Cadillacs of the day; it was hot rods, and he contributed his sketches to hot-rodding publications while still in industrial design school. GM found out about it and was not too happy about telling him to knock it off, but he kept on going and submitted designs under a pseudonym. Designer X. His work caught the attention of Larry and Mike Alexander, often called the A Brothers, who were the best-known customizers of the 1950s and ’60s. They opened a Detroit shop in 1957 and built more than a dozen historically significant cars, including three Ridler Award winners.

Fast forward to 1964, when Bradley was studying at Stanford University in California as part of a GM fellowship program, yet still drawing hot-rod designs. Here, he rendered the Deora for the A Brothers, who got to work, eventually showing off the truck at the 1967 Detroit Autorama. They began with a basic Dodge A100 pickup truck, put a Chrysler slant-six engine in the back, and used a three-speed manual transmission. There were no side doors, and you entered from the front.

Look closely at the exhaust. Look familiar? They’re made from sideways-mounted Ford Mustang taillight housings. Impressed with the truck’s style and success, Dodge leased the Deora and toured it as a promotional vehicle. This vehicle’s design was so hot that it was also produced in a popular plastic model kit, but it was in 1:64 form that it found a broad audience of Hot Wheels fans.

The Deora is part of the National Historic Vehicle Register, added last year to a list that includes such luminaries as the DMC DeLorean Time Machine hero car from Back to the Future, the Tucker 48 prototype, and the 1911 Marmon Wasp, winner of the very first Indy 500. Everything still works, and with its original paint, it is one of the most recognizable show cars ever made. Two slightly more modern versions have come after it, but this first 1967 version is the icon, and it’s at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, seven days a week from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this week’s spot. I’ll have a few more from The Henry Ford in the next couple of weeks, so hurry back. Have a super week.