On display at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada is a unique prototype car created by an inventor, night club owner, and engineer named Julian S. Brown.
Back in the early 1900s, mechanical inventions were flying out of people’s brains and onto patent applications like crumbs from Cookie Monster’s mouth. Few of those inventors, however, had the means to actually make something of their ideas. But Julian Brown did.
As a young man, Brown had inherited $2.5 million from his father. That’s equivalent to about a billion dollars today. OK, more like $78 million. Anyway, it was a lot. Those fat stacks meant that young Julian could concentrate on the things he was most interested in. Like designing engines, building a car, and partying.
Brown began investing in night clubs in the New York area so he could fulfill that last bit. But during the day, he worked on engines.
Rather than use his rather sedate and common surname, Brown decided to name most of his companies and inventions after his first name. He started in 1912 with an inline-6 that he billed as “America’s Most Expensive Engine.” This probably wasn’t a great slogan to use as a selling point and the engine never really went anywhere.
Next up, he worked out an electric motor design for watercraft. That too didn’t do well. Then a 100-horsepower opposed piston engine design for marine use. It weighed over 900 pounds and cost about $1,300. That’s about $44,000 today. It also didn’t sell.
Julian’s first car came in 1918. Well, his first attempted design of one. Once again, he concentrated on the engine and came up with a “Twin Three” six-cylinder design. It was basically a V6. The car never actually happened, but Julian felt he was on to something.
In 1922, Brown set up shop in Syracuse, New York and hired some machinists and foundrymen to create what would become the 1925 Julian Sport Coupe. As before, Julian put a lot of design effort into the engine and drivetrain for this car. The rest of it, while a bit odd, was pretty standard fare for the time. Except for the rear-facing jump seats, the weird 1:2 main seating layout, and the false radiator/gas filler. But we’ll get to that.
Julian started with an air-cooled radial six-cylinder engine similar to that found in aircraft of the period. This mounted atop the rear of the frame and was attached to the rear wheels with some U-joints and swing axles. The engine lay horizontally and had a cast aluminum crankcase, cast in two banks of three. The engine displaced 4.4 liters and put out about 60 horsepower.
A bunch of high-tech features adorned this engine. It had hemispherical combustion chambers (way before Dodge did), a hollow camshaft, and a remote oil sump. All new innovations at the time, though not Julian’s designs. A flywheel at the bottom of the engine connected to a wet cone clutch and three-speed transaxle. All inside an aluminum casing. Brakes were inside the wheels, a concept taken from Bugatti race cars. There were no brakes on the front wheels.
Julian turned to Fleetwood to build the body. Famous coachbuilders at that time, the company took Julian’s body design and, per his specifications, made it of aluminum. Brown shipped the finished chassis to Pennsylvania and Fleetwood fitted the bodywork to the frame. Julian then drove the vehicle back to New York as its first test drive.
Inside the Julian was another odd concept: 1:2 seating. The driver sat front and center while two passengers sat flanking. Two “child jump seats” popped down from the dashboard to either side of the steering wheel. These faced rearward.
Julian Brown announced the Julian Sport Coupe in 1925 and said it would go into production “soon” for a price of $2,500. That’s roughly $45,600 today. Which is the average price for a five-seat family car now. So he wasn’t far off on that count.
The car, of course, never came to fruition. Julian, like a lot of big idea people of the time, couldn’t get funding for this expensive and not terribly practical car. For about 24 years, the car sat in the Lincoln Garage in Syracuse. It was sold in 1949 to recoup storage costs and passed to another buyer before being purchased by Bill Harrah for the museum’s collection.
The car has been fully restored to running condition and repainted to its original colors. Upholstery is in the period’s style, but probably not what the original looked like. Restorations were done using Julian Brown’s specifications in his original patents and designs. Brown died in 1964, just two years before Harrah purchased the car.
