From Aceca to Zagato-Abarth the range of available sports cars would appear to be wide enough to accommodate most tastes. Then, for sheer luxurious comfort, there are the land yachts, a la Rolls-Royce and Cadillac; and, for maneuverability, the domestic and European compacts. Seldom if ever before has the car owner been offered a wider range of vehicles from which to select his preferred mode of automotive travel. Yet we here at Playboy have long been intrigued with the notion that there still exists a very special automotive niche as yet unfilled: the ideal gentleman's sporting motor-carriage, which might give him, in one package, the amentities he wants plus the speed and roadability he demands from an out-and-out sports car. We have, therefore, decided to design – and perhaps produce in limited quantity – a Playboy car. Ken Purdy, our Contributing Editor and an internationally renowned automotive authority, has been working with us in establishing the criteria that will dictate basic design, though the final form of the car has not yet been determined. Instead of a standard chassis, the Playboy will have the welded space-tube frame that is the basis of contemporary front-rank racing cars. The space frame gives two great advantages: lightness and enormous strength. The rear axle will be De Dion for maximum roadability, and the differential will be of the limited-slip type. The engine will be American, for maximum torque combined with reliability and ease of maintenance. A four-speed manual gearbox will handle the power. Since the end of World War 11, nearly every new and exciting conception in automobile body design has appeared on a car carrying the plaque of an Italian carrozzeria. That is why we have commissioned Bill Frick, the famous racing and design specialist, to go to Italy for us to solicit design-sketches from leading Italian houses.
The Playboy will probably be a full four-passenger convertible combining beauty of line and form with maximum performance and maximum comfort. It will be completely amenable to individual owners' preferences, from automatic transmission and a choice of exotic upholsterers' leathers to television, refrigerator and snack bar, rear-seat instrumentation, and so on. It is our plan to design an automobile of notable sophistication in luxury, operating on a performance level that will dominate with ease everything on the road except gran turismo cars designed specifically for competition. This has never been done – but it is not an impossible dream. A car can be a "fun" car, it can be designed to accommodate enough options for near-custom personalization, it can incorporate as many (or as few) as one wants of those push buttons to which Detroit has habituated a lot of guys who don't get much of a clout out of stick-shifting through city traffic or manhandling a rag top in a rainstorm – and it can still outperform anything but a racing machine.
We believe a car can, indeed, offer the best of both automotive worlds – luxurious comfort and sports-car performance – and we're going to have some fun trying to design one. And while it's in the planning stage, we'll welcome suggestions from a readership which is, perhaps, the most vehicularly hip of any magazine's. Share your thoughts, and we'll keep you posted on our progress in producing the Playboy, a unique and exciting motorcar.
