1955 Replac Debonnaire

In the immediate post-World War II era, several automobile manufacturers and talented craftsmen created memorable dream cars for both the street and racing. Some were just unique creations, while others were given lightweight, aerodynamic bodies meant to gain a performance advantage. Some were formed from steel, while others in aluminum. Fiberglass was the 'carbon fiber' of the era, offering a rigid structure at a fraction of the weight. One of the early experts in fiberglass was Replac, a company founded in 1946 by Valentine deOlloqui II.

The Debonnaire Dream Car, also known as the Venture, was built in 1955. with the fiberglass body created by Replac to a design penned by Phillip Egan. This was not Mr. Egan's first automobile design; he had been on the design team with Alex Tremulis working on the Tucker project. The Debonnaire used a 1950 Ford chassis, although some examples were built on the 1941 to 1948 Ford chassis, and suspended at the front by an independent setup. Powered was from a Lincoln Continental V8 engine.

Period advertisements described the Debonnaire as a sports car, despite its rather generous 114-inch wheelbase size. Motor Trend performed a road test on the car, and despite the publicity, only six (approximately) examples were built. A fire in 1956 at the Replac factory in Cleveland destroyed the wood buck and fiberglass master forms.

by Daniel Vaughan | Sep 2023