Motor Vehicle, US Patent # 2,101,057 filed 1933. 4D Transportation Unit
The unique three-wheel car designed by Fuller was conceived as transportation, i.e. the artifact could also be a flying machine, a water vehicle, or a land car. The small design models were made by his best friend, the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Assisting Fuller was Starling Burgess, a naval architect who designed the winning J boat for the American Cup Yacht race. Three vehicles were made in Bridgeport, Connecticut, only one remains today.
Car # 1: Hosted riders like Amelia Earhart, H.G.Wells, other luminaries of the day, the car destroyed after a tragic accident. Fuller was not present at the accident, but he was blamed nonetheless.
Car # 2.: This car is owned by Harrah's Historic Auto Museum in Reno, NV. Often exhibited, this car is the only original car in existence, the interior was recently restored by Lord Norman Foster.
Car # 3: Once owned by the maestro Leopold Stokowski, the car is sadly unaccounted and lost.
Car # 4: One of Fuller's close colleagues, the Pritzker prize architect Lord Norman Foster researched the Buckminster Fuller Archives at Stanford University Libraries and Foster reproduced the Dymaxion car using Fuller's original drawings. The car was manufactured by Crosthwaite & Gardiner, UK and first exhibited at Lady Foster's Ivory Press Gallery in Madrid, Spain, 2010.
For additional information: The Buckminster Fuller Archives at the Stanford University Libraries, Department of Special Collections, Stanford, CA. The 2010 book, Dymaxion Car, Buckminster Fuller, Ivory Press, by Norman Foster. Other Fuller information, refer to An Autobiographical Monologue/Scenario by Robert Snyder. In addition, Buckminster Fuller Anthology, St. Martin's Press, and the Southern Illinois Press Revised Anthology Edition by Thomas T. K. Zung.
