1941 Chrysler Newport phaeton, pace car of the 1941 Indy 500, the dual cowl's last dancer

a dual cowl phaeton, a body style that had disappeared from the scene at Chrysler after 1933.

 For the dual cowl’s last dancer, designer Ralph Roberts, of LeBaron, combined the old-fashioned body style with exotic baroque curves inspired by aircraft design, including flowing envelope fenders, a fully disappearing fabric top, and headlights that disappeared behind flush-fitting retractable covers.

 Even the rear cowl was electronically raised and lowered, to ease passenger entry and exit.

5 were built for the show car circuit, and all 5 have survived roughly 80 years of museums and galleries, but this was the only one with fixed  headlights

Newport was, up to that time, the only non-production automobile to have ever paced at Indianapolis.

It would continue to hold that honor until the Dodge Viper prototype ran in 1989, and it remains the last custom-bodied automobile to have paced Indianapolis.

the Pacemaker Newport passed into the hands of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., son of the company’s late founder and namesake, president of the family’s landmark New York skyscraper, who had it repainted light green and used it while vacationing on Cape Cod.

More than just a well-connected relative, he was perhaps the only man for whom a “daily driver” Newport would make perfect sense.

The car was eventually traded into a Chevrolet dealer in Provincetown, Massachusetts, probably by the second owner. It was stored by the next owner in his barn for 30 years, before being sold in 1989 to the Pascuccis, noted collectors who returned the car to the enthusiast community after decades of hiding.

http://clasp42.rssing.com/browser.php?indx=14584416&item=323

Edsel Ford, wasn't content to be seen driving around in a regular production Ford... he needed something special, but still Ford

Seems strange to see a dual cowl Model A, but Edsel felt he needed it.

Edsel Ford, unlike his famous father, was an aesthete, artist and connoisseur. Given the presidency of Lincoln in 1922 he applied a measure of style to Ford cars, establishing the company's first design department in 1931. Early in 1934, he ordered a town car from Brewster, built on a Ford V8 chassis.

Brewster and Co. was one of America's earliest carriage builders. Established by James Brewster at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1810, the firm won international acclaim at the Paris Carriage Exhibition in 1878. In 1905, Brewster built its first body for the burgeoning automobile industry; by 1911 it had abandoned carriages entirely and moved the workshops to Long Island City, New York.

In 1914, in what would become a long association, Brewster took a Rolls-Royce franchise.

Not surprisingly, many imported Rolls-Royce cars bore Brewster coachwork. When Rolls-Royce of America was established at Springfield, Massachusetts in 1919, Brewster became one of the companies supplying "Rolls-Royce Custom Coachwork," bodies built in small series and listed in the catalogs. The Brewster relationship was sufficiently close that Rolls bought Brewster in October 1925.

By the early thirties, however, all luxury automakers were reeling, Rolls-Royce among them. Chassis assembly at Springfield ceased, leaving only a few imported Phantom II chassis for Brewster to clothe.

Rolls-Royce of America was shut down in 1934; by then its president, John S. Inskip, was running Brewster and steered the coachbuilding company back to auto manufacture. With the deepening depression, Inskip reasoned that America's wealthy, faced with belt-tightening, might be interested in a coachbuilt car on an economy chassis. This led to the Brewster Ford.

For his own car, however, Edsel specified a standard Model 40 grille and a hood without louvers. Bearing Brewster number 9002, it was reportedly the third built, and was still being finished while in transit to Michigan in a railcar. Delivery took place on June 1, 1934, the first Brewster Ford to reach the public. It has headlights of the 1936 Ford style, 16-inch wheels and a 1938-type banjo steering wheel.

Brewster Ford No. 9002 was sold through the New York Ford agency in 1941, at Edsel's request. The new owner, reportedly a New Jersey resident, kept it until his death. After his passing, it was left to his only daughter and transported to her home in California. It then remained in storage until 2005, when the current owner was able to buy it. The car was transported directly to the Meadow Book Concours d'Elegance, where it was welcomed back to Michigan for the first time in 55 years and displayed as a special, non-judged exhibit. It appeared in March 2006 at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, receiving the Amelia Award as runner-up in a class for custom-bodied Fords, in competition with seven other cars with high-quality restorations.

The heart-front Brewster Fords are the only Ford V8-based cars recognized as Full Classics by the Classic Car Club of America.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/4961005_253-1934-brewster-ford-town-car
http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2018/07/hiding-in-plain-site-gullwing-motors.html

Bugatti carrossée par "La Carrosserie Profilée" 1925

I don't recall seeing a dual cowl Bugatti before

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10214100821223478&set=a.4705775571281&type=3&permPage=1

Chevrolet Moonlight Speedster built by GM Holden

Moonlight Speedster body numbers date from 1931, and it is known from 1931 newspaper reports that five Moonlight Speedster cars were built as the 1931 Chevrolet models were launched around the same June day in the five major capital cities: Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane and each capital city had a Speedster on display.

 This means there were at least five additional Moonlight Speedsters in storage at GM Holden's Woodville factory in South Australia awaiting new buyer orders.

The car's primary role was to highlight the 1931 Chevrolet range under the new GM Holden merged Company, a Hero car with dramatic and sporty design to get buyers into Chevrolet showrooms.

From the firewall back the Moonlight Speedster bodies are hand formed aluminium with the standard firewall steel pressing bolted to the cowl by two timber frames. Moving back, the boat-tail is constructed of 17 pieces of welded aluminium fitted with a timber frame.

The Chevrolet Moonlight Speedster design was copied from the 1929 - 30 Vauxhall Hurlingham. Vauxhall was also a GM company as is Opel of Germany. It seems likely Vauxhall took out a registered design on the Hurlingham's stunning shape.  The Hurlingham was a slightly larger car, sitting on a 123 inch wheelbase compared to the Chevrolet Monnlight Speedster's 109 inch wheelbase. Opel also produced a similar shaped car in 1932, the Opel Moonlight Roadster with a 1.8 litre six cylinder engine.

http://www.vvcaaqldinc.org.au/page7.php  thanks Paul!

a lot of dual cowls in just one photo