Safety Reimagined - Modern conversations about car safety often feel inseparable from sensors, software, and automation, yet the roots of safety-driven design reach much further back. In the years following
World War II, when American roads were filling with fast, heavy sedans, one engineer began questioning whether the familiar boxy layout was truly the safest answer. That curiosity led to
the Gordon Diamond sedan, a strikingly unconventional vehicle whose design and safety features challenged automotive norms long before safety became a mainstream selling point.
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| The 1948 Gordon Diamond Sedan, a strikingly unconventional vehicle whose design and safety features challenged automotive norms long before safety became a mainstream selling point. (Picture from: MacsMotorCityGarage) |
The mind behind
the Gordon Diamond was
H. Gordon Hansen,
an American engineer based in San Lorenzo,
California,
just across the bay from what would later become Silicon Valley.
Inspired by an engineering article describing Gabriel Voisin’s lozenge-shaped car,
Hansen shifted the idea away from pure aerodynamics and toward collision protection.
He imagined a car wrapped in continuous bumpers,
able to deflect impacts rather than absorb them head-on.
To achieve that, the body would need to resemble a football-like form,
something impractical on a traditional layout.
After briefly considering a three-wheeled solution and rejecting it for stability reasons,
Hansen settled on a diamond-shaped chassis,
giving the car both its structure and its name.
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| The 1948 Gordon Diamond Sedan rode on four wheels arranged in a radical configuration: a driven center axle flanked by single wheels at the front and rear that handled steering duties together. (Picture from: MacsMotorCityGarage) |
At first glance, the 1948 Gordon Diamond seemed familiar in size and performance. It matched a contemporary Ford in length and weight and used a Ford flathead V8 engine, delivering comparable acceleration. Beneath the surface, however, the similarities ended. The car rode on four wheels arranged in a radical configuration: a driven center axle flanked by single wheels at the front and rear that handled steering duties together. Passengers sat between the front wheel and the center axle, while the engine was mounted behind them, all enclosed within a tubular steel unit-body frame that supported the diamond concept.
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| The 1948 Gordon Diamond Sedan used its unconventional diamond layout as the foundation of its safety philosophy, combining wrap-around bodywork and strategically placed wheels to deflect impacts. (Picture from: MacsMotorCityGarage) |
This unusual layout was central to
the Gordon Diamond’s safety philosophy and driving character.
With wrap-around bodywork and wheels positioned to deflect impacts,
Hansen believed the car could better protect its occupants during collisions.
The independently suspended front and rear wheels helped stabilize the solid center axle over bumps,
resulting in a smoother ride than one might expect from such an experimental design.
The steering geometry also delivered a turning radius roughly 70 percent shorter than that of conventional cars, making
the Diamond remarkably agile.
Its streamlined shape further reduced air resistance,
contributing to improved fuel economy and higher potential top speeds for its era.
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| The 1948 Gordon Diamond Sedan revealed the limits of its own innovation, as centrally focused propulsion and single-wheel steering at each end could create dynamic instability. (Picture from: Thingies in Facebook) |
Yet the same geometry that made the Gordon Diamond innovative also revealed its limits. With propulsion concentrated at the center and steering coming from single wheels at opposite ends, the car could become dynamically unstable. In strong crosswinds or on slick roads, it had a tendency to rotate unpredictably, as if trying to spin around its own axis. Ironically, this meant that Hansen’s theories about collision mitigation through wrap-around bumpers were never truly tested, because the car’s handling quirks made risky situations something to avoid rather than confront.
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| The 1948 Gordon Diamond Sedan never truly tested Hansen’s collision-mitigation theories, as its unusual handling encouraged caution rather than confrontation in risky situations. (Picture from: MacsMotorCityGarage) |
Despite conversations with established manufacturers such as
Kaiser-Frazer and
Packard about licensing the design,
the Gordon Diamond never moved beyond its prototype stage.
By 1949,
the project was effectively over,
leaving Hansen with just one completed car.
He continued to drive it across Northern California for two decades,
accumulating nearly 100,000 miles and plenty of public attention along the way. Eventually sold to
collector Bill Harrah and later passing into private ownership in Montana,
the Gordon Diamond remains a rare reminder that bold ideas about sedan design and safety existed long before they became industry standards, even if they arrived before the world was quite ready for them.
*** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | MAKESTHATDIDNTMAKEIT | MACSMOTORCITYGARAGE | THINGIES IN FACEBOOK ]Note: This blog can be accessed via your smart phone.
