Rear Engine Automobile

Like a true student of the Bauhaus, Goldberg sought to unite industry and design. During the 1930s there was very little new building and Goldberg turned his attention to other projects such as creating a design for a rear-engine automobile. Goldberg was not the fist architect to turn his attention to automobile design. Buckminster Fuller designed a three-wheeled automobile called the Dymaxion car, exhibited at the 1933 Century of Progress. Goldberg felt the three-wheeled design was "wrong," and designed a four-wheeled rear engine car with an innovative springing system that was well suited to city driving. The car featured independent suspension in all four wheels, and a rear engine chassis with a pre-selective clutchless electric transmission. The car had a road speed of 140 miles per hour using a ford v8 engine as a power plant. In his Oral History, Goldberg describes the car as "extremely effective and efficient." An operable model of the car was made but Goldberg never had the funds to build a finished body.

QUOTE: "It was relatively easy to design an automobile because the automobile was such a simple device."
- Oral History