1940 Hunt Hollywood House Car (Weathered Gray)

1940 Hunt Hollywood House Car (Weathered Gray)

The Second One

Already in 2016 the ‘Hunt House Car’ was part of our autocult model range and the story behind can be found in the annual edition of our book of the very same year. After this version, created in 1937, the cinematographer John Roy Hunt designed a second quite similar vehicle, which he completed around 1941.

In contrast to the first design, he went for a bigger track width which allowed him to position the wheels closer to the outside of the car body to reach more interior space. For this version he fitted both headlights onto the aluminum parts of the car body, which certainly simplified the production of the vehicle. Additionally he also changed various small things – the attachment of the bumper, the attachment of the rear-view mirrors or the position of the side windows. In the assembly of the aluminum body, he apparently took a new path, because this time the entire car body consisted of several small parts, which were welded together. It was also noticeable that he did not take over the front grille of the first version. Whether this was related to the fact that John Roy Hunt installed a 1939 Mercury V-8 engine, is not known. 95 horsepower drove the 2.5 tons heavy and 5.4 meter (18 foot) long camping vehicle.

It is not known whether the cameraman himself had the idea of making his mobile home in small series at that time or whether he was encouraged to do so by the great popularity of his design. Neither is known how many copies he put on its wheels beside his own. The statements range from that a small edition failed to the number of almost 50 vehicles, which he built until the end of war.