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Automotive Lifestyle
AUTOS: Thunderflite Draws Smiles, Recognition
Designer Dino Arnold signs Barrett-Jackson posters, shows off his startling rendition of the past's vision of the future.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted June 26, 2010   Costa Mesa, CA
Thunderflite's designer and builder, Dino Arnold, activates the "emergency switch" to raise the bubble top on his fanciful custom Thunderbird. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
With its clear, double-bubble roof and sharply honed tailfins, Thunderflite seems like a 1950s vision of a wondrous Car of the Future, possibly one that flies.

But while it looks like a fanciful concept car from a half century ago, the chrome-silver-and-red Thunderflite is actually a recently minted custom car by a famed builder who designed it from a 1961 Thunderbird that he bought off Craig’s List.

Thunderflite was designed to recall the forward-looking concept cars from the past. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Dino Arnold stood back, beaming with pride, as spectators at Barrett-Jackson’s Orange County collector-car auction crowded around the startlingly retro familiarity of Arnold’s vision.

“You can’t get near the car,” Arnold said happily as he watched onlookers angling for photos. “We call it the smile car because everyone who sees it breaks out in big toothy grin.”

Arnold, 58, said that he and his late wife, Suzie, dreamed up the car on their 31st wedding anniversary in 2006, the idea being to present a unique look at the past’s ideas about the future of automobiles. Sort of a combination of GM’s Autorama and “Jetsons” cartoons.

“I tried to build a concept of what they thought cars would look like,” he said. “In the ’50s, we thought we’d have flying cars by now.”

Arnold, a well-known customizer and builder of the popular Avelate Corvettes, said that after the sudden death of his wife, he locked himself away in his shop and built Thunderflite, starting out with the ’61 T’bird from Craig’s List. With the help of a friend, accomplished body finisher Don Johnson, he was able to build the car in about seven months.

Arnold signs a Barrett-Jackson auction poster that features Thunderflite for Bruce Olson, using the bubble roof for support. (Photo: Bob Golfen)
Thunderflite's first outing was a starring role at the 2008 SEMA show, when it won Best of Show by Popular Mechanics. The silver beauty has gone on to win numerous awards and accolades, always a crowd pleaser and attention getter.

At Barrett-Jackson, Arnold was fielding questions and autographing posters for the inaugural Orange County auction; Thunderflite is the car featured on the auction poster and on the cover of Barrett-Jackson’s catalog.

“This is really something,” said Bruce Olson of La Dera Ranch, Calif., awestruck as Arnold signed his poster on the bubble top.

Arnold pointed out some of the unique details of Thunderflite, such as the aeronautical-looking support on the rear of the bubble roof.

“This is the Captain Nemo-type stuff,” he said with a laugh.

This is my favorite photo of Thunderflite, showing what designer Dino Arnold calls the "Captain Nemo-type stuff." (Photo: Bob Golfen)
He demonstrated how the roof lifts up electrically on a support rod to allow ingress. Because the auction officials had custody of the keys and remote control, Arnold kneeled next to the car and reached under the left front fender to actuate the “emergency switch” to lift the top.

Thunderflite's expected value when it goes up for auction today? Who knows? It’s a true wild card that could bring huge money – witness the $4 million sale of the GM Futurliner at a recent Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction – or it could fade in the bidding as maybe just another custom car, although it’s certainly not.

Arnold is hoping that whoever buys it will put it on public display.

“I built it as a one-off deal, and hopefully it will go to a museum or something where everyone can enjoy it, not just have it locked away in someone’s collection,” he said.

The Barrett-Jackson Orange County Auction continues today and Sunday. For more information, see the auction webstie at Barrett-Jackson OC.

Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEED.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, who has driven and evaluated essentially every new vehicle sold in the United States. A lifelong car enthusiast with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle, he annually attends and writes about Arizona's famous January collector-car auctions, focusing on Scottsdale’s monumental Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event and other Barrett-Jackson auctions. SPEED.com fans email Automotive Editor Bob Golfen at
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