To the 44 million people who passed through the gates of the New York World’s Fair during 1939 and 1940, the Phantom Corsair was perhaps the ultimate vision of America’s four-wheeled future. Now, this streamlined black beauty, a star attraction at the National Automobile Museum in Reno, is set to make a rare public appearance at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance (March 13 to 15).

Presented to an astonished public in 1938—the same year General Motors and Harley J. Earl unveiled the similarly stupendous Buick Y-Job—the Phantom Corsair was the creation of Rust Heinz, grandson of H.J. "57 Varieties" Heinz. Built by Bohman & Schwartz—the coachbuilder whose designs will be honored at this year’s event—the car featured seating for six (four up front and two rear-facing in back, beneath the
alloy-steel-and-aluminum body’s dramatically tapered shape), and rode on a modified Cord front-wheel-drive chassis. Like the Y-Job, the Phantom Corsair teemed with car-of-the-future conveniences and unheard-of safety innovations, including an electric gearshift, a padded dashboard, power-operated doors, an "all-wave" radio with two speakers, and a concealed antenna. And thanks to a V-8 from aircraft engine-maker Lycoming, the streamlined Phantom could achieve 115 mph.

Heinz intended to build a small number of the cars, priced at a cool $12,500—more than twice that of Cadillac’s V-16-powered Series 90 Coupe and equivalent to almost $200,000 today—but his untimely death in a car wreck the following year quashed those ambitious plans. As a result, the first Phantom Corsair remains the only one of its kind.