Our story begins as the 1950s were winding down. The previous dozen years had been a time of optimism, expansion and prosperity in America. The automobile was in the ascendancy. Motorists were traveling as never before. Not only were many more cars on the road, but those cars were bigger and faster, designed to travel great distances on the nation’s spanking new interstate highway system. Volume, speed, weight and distance, all these factors had led to one inevitable outcome: Traffic fatalities were soaring. In 1957 it was now estimated that since the first automobile appeared 60 years earlier, a cumulative million people had lost their lives in car accidents. Each day hundreds more were dying or being maimed. 

Enter one Walter C. Jerome of Waltham, Massachusetts, an engineer and tinkerer who made it his mission to put an end to the national slaughter. He set about creating a vehicle capable of defeating death on America’s highways and bi-ways. Perhaps Mr. Jerome saw himself as a kind of white knight on a noble quest. If so, the battle horse on which Sir Jerome would ride in to battle was a safety car of his own design called the Sir Vival. 

Even the great Dr. Seuss couldn’t come up with a more imaginative machine. Upon first encounter, the Sir Vival’s visual inputs hit us with alarming force. Our initial impulse is to call the authorities, because clearly a Chinese New Year parade has seen one of its dragon floats broken lose. As our brain begins to process the horde of conflicting information being presented, the Sir Vival’s numerous firsts (and gratefully lasts) in the name of safety begin to take form. 

The most pronounced is the insect-like two section body. The rear half appears to have once been a ’48 Hudson, while the front half is anyone’s guess. Mr. Jerome’s thinking here was that in the event of a head-on collision, the front section containing the engine would pivot, diverting energy away from the rear section which holds the passengers. 

The next sight to behold is the turret-like dome rising from the aft section, much like the bridge of a spaceship in a Sci-Fi movie. Indeed, this does contain the Sir Vival’s cockpit. Jerome’s logic behind the layout was two-fold. The driver is elevated for maximum visibility, as well as being separated from the passengers in order to reduce distractions. 

But wait, there’s more. Surrounding the entire perimeter of the car are rubber bumpers filled with air to absorb impact. Protruding from the front of the aft section, just below the elevated cockpit, is a giant cyclops’ headlight that shines straight ahead as the two normal headlights on the front section turn with the front wheels. This setup was meant to provide more complete illumination in the corners. The doors pivot sideways and then open parallel instead of out. This is to make sure they don’t fly open in a crash. Finally, the whole passenger compartment is protected by a steel safety cage. 

The promise of traversing the nation’s motorways in blessed safety; surely a carnage-weary populous would clamor for Sir Vival’s services. With such hopes in mind, Mr. Jerome brought his creation to the 1959 World’s Fair, where he hoped to collect sufficient orders to get his safety car into production. 

Alas, no buyers were forthcoming. The Sir Vival carried a $10,000 price tag, at a time when the average American car cost a quarter that amount. Undaunted, Mr. Jerome, who held patents on his many unique safety features, shopped them individually to various manufacturers. Shockingly, none were interested in bi-sectional construction or cockpit turrets. 

As it turned out, Walter Jerome’s timing was as flawed as his aesthetics. It was just six years later that Ralph Nader’s seminal book, Unsafe at Any Speed, made automotive safety a priority, and its regulation a reality. 

Only one Sir Vival was ever made. It sir-vived for many years tucked away in the private collection of the family of the Hudson dealer in Bellingham, Mass where Sir Jerome purchased his doner car. This summer, after years of perseverance by collector, Jeff Lane, it was added to the wonderful collection of the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, TN. The folks at the Lane are attempting preserve the Sir-Vival in its current state but make it drivable for the first time in many decades.

Copyright@2022 by Mal Pearson