This is a picture of the car while it was being campaigned across the US showing Bob Hope with the Templeton. Notice the Ames liscence plate.
Post World War II returning soldiers introduced to British sports cars to America but there were no two-seater American sports cars. Templeton decided to build his own. It is rumored that the car's boat tail was shaped by hammering the sheetmetal over an actual boat.
This hand built car was created atop a 1948 Mercury sedan chassis and the driver now sits where the back seat would have been on the original Mercury.
The car is 17.5 feer long with the hood being 7.5 feet of that so long that two engine could fit under it. It was powered by a race prepped Mercury V8 reportably clocked at being able to reach 143.2 mph.
Templeton created a national PR campaign around this car and showed it off all over the country. As it became harder for his wife to get into the car (which had no doors) he added airplane style steps to help her get in. This car was even the poster car for Erickson Implement Co., Ionite Batteries, and other companies.
The car was originally called the Saturn and when the Saturn car company was started in the 80s he was so disgusted by them using the name that he ripped all the badging off the car and replaced it with Templeton badging.
Anyways I have a lot of pictures, articles, and brochures about this car if anyone is interested. I do not know much about the company that this car founded but it was called Lloyed Templeton Transportation. If you are wondering the car is currently under restoration and I suggested to the Iowa Transportation Museum at the old Spaulding factory that they should have this car on display for a while as it is a famous party of Iowa's automotive history.
