The Excalibur Cars in the Mirror of History

Excalibur is the brain child and dream car of noted designer Brooks Stevens. Brooks is the man behind designing several successful cars which ruled over the highways till 1970s. In Excalibur, the vision statement for Books was to build a car that would be perfect combo of vintage-modern look and performance. First Excalibur was produced in the year 1951. It had a Hennery J chassis and a wheel base of 100 inches Radius. Though Stevens built the initial model solely for private use, the design and performance of this car soon made it a strong competitor of Kaiser-Frazer.

Features and features of Excalibur car in early years

In the initial phase, body of the Excalibur was made up of hand hammered aluminum. However, Brooks was smart enough to realize the demand of the customers and replaced it with fiberglass. Along with, cast aluminum was used for radiator instead of brass. It helped in reducing the overall cost of production. Modified Studebaker buckets were installed in the seats of the car and it was given a cover of vinyl. As a result, Excalibur’s cost much lower compared to the models having same performance and engine capability. Chassis of Excalibur car was best in the industry. In the year 1966, Excalibur launched two new models. The first model was a roadster having advanced specifications like full fenders and running boards. The second model was a 4-seater one having "phaeton" convertibility capacity. In this year, the firm was renamed as Excalibur Automobile Corporation.

The most notable point regarding older versions of Excalibur cars is their limited numbers. Excalibur strictly focused upon limited editions and manufactured car for a confined target audience. Hence, owning an Excalibur was a style signature for many. Series II models of Excalibur made their market debut in the year 1970. These models had several advanced specifications like improved box pattern chassis, wheelbase having radius of 111 inches 4-speed manual gear box and maximum speed limit of 150 miles per hour.

Newer versions of Excalibur cars

Series III of Excalibur was launched in the year 1975. Many of the critics are of the view that series III was a modified version of Series II to make the car compatible with new emission rules. However, this series had its own sets of uniqueness too. Installation of Chevy's big-block 454 V-8 in these models made them power savers and better performers on torques. Compared to first two series of cars, third series was highly expensive. However, when you compare the sales of Series III with II and series I you will be astonished to see the significant increase in sale in spite of huge increase in price. Total number of units sold of Series I and II were 359 and 342. On the other hand, 1141 units of Excalibur III were sold over a period of five years. It means, hike in price could not block the near about 300% sales growth for Excalibur series III. Series IV was the most elegant model of Excalibur and was launched in the year 1985. Classic look, improved engine power and radius of wheelbase, elegant interior and better fuel efficiency were some of the notable features associated with the cars of this series.