1952 Cunningham C3

Briggs Swift Cunningham was a sports car driver who raced at tracks like Sebring and Le Mans, racing Cadillacs, Corvettes, and Jaguars. In 1951 began building his own cars, Cunninghams, including the C-3 with a powerful Chrysler Hemi engine.

He was the son of a wealthy banker and his passion for speed and plethora of funds made him the epitome of the American Sportsman. His passion for racing began in 1940 with his 'Bu-Merc' - a unique racecar powered by a Buick engine installed in a modified Buick chassis with Mercedes-Benz SSK bodywork. After World War II, his racing efforts escalated to the highest levels of international motorsports competition.

A pair of Cadillac Series 60s were entered in the 1950 Le Mans by Cunningham. One of the Cadillacs was a stock fastback coupe and the other was a drastically altered, aerodynamic roadster that was dubbed 'Le Monstre' by the French. The Cadillacs finished 10th and 11th overall, inspiring him to return to Le Mans, this time with cars of his own creation.

His first attempt at winning Le Mans with a Cunningham automobile was the C-1 with Cadillac power. Due to a lack of financial support from Cadillac, Cunningham turned to Chrysler who was willing to sell the Hemi V8s to Cunningham at a forty-percent discount.

In 1952, Chrysler introduced the C-2R based on the C-1's chassis. The Hemi V8 was powerful, but the Achilles heel proved to be its weight, three-speed transmission, DeDion rear axle, and limited engine braking resulting in rapid drum brake wear.

To satisfy newly introduced homologation rules for Le Mans, Cunningham was required to produce at least 25 road-going examples. In response, and with hopes of capitalizing on the situation, Cunningham created the C-3. It used a ladder-tube frame similar to the C-2Rs, with an independent front suspension and a coil-sprung Chrysler live rear axle located by parallel trailing arms that weighed considerably less than the DeDion axle used on the C-2R. Power was from a 331 cubic-inch, overhead-valve Chrylser Hemi V8 engine with four Zenith single-barrel carburetors and backed by a three-speed Cadillac manual transmission. The wheelbase measured 105 inches and braking was handled by four-wheel hydraulic drums. The performance was exceptional, with zero-to-sixty mph accomplished in around seven seconds and a top speed of nearly 150 mph.

The first C-3 chassis received a C2 body. The remainder of the cars were clothed by Vignale in Italy, with completed coachwork sent to Cunningham's West Palm Beach factory for final fitment. The design had been penned by Giovanni Michelotti and perhaps inspired by Ferrari's of the era, including the 212 and 225 models.

The coupe retailed for approximately $9,000 while the convertible sold for $10,000, which made it three times the cost of a Corvette. The Cunningham shop could build a chassis every week, but it took Vignale nearly two months to hand-build the rest of the car. Total production reached five cabriolets and twenty coupes.

Briggs Cunningham never achieved his goal of winning at LeMans, but he did finish 3rd overall in both 1953 and 1954 and would continue to race with modified versions of his own design, including Jaguars, Listers, Corvettes, and Maseratis, until 1963.

The Cunningham C3 was the closest Briggs ever came to building a production automobile and was the only Cunningham ever built for the public.