Hydra V16 Coupe

Cars That Were Never Made #12

Rule #1 in making a great movie

The bad guy has to have an awesome ride...

First things first. Captain America - The First Avenger was, in my opinion, the best movie of 2011. It was a very satisfying film with a good script, great action and an extremely likable main character.

It also had an over-the-top bad guy called Red Skull....and he drove a badass car. 

The Hydra Schmidt V16 Coupe.

I have been aware of this car for a while now, because let's face it - Captain America is a wet dream if you're a petrolhead. 

There are many concept vehicles in the film, and many cool period cars and trucks, too. 

When I saw Captain America, my brain went into overdrive, trying to figure out what Red Skull's car actually was. I was reminded of an American military scout vehicle called the Greyhound....

And an old Blower Bentley....

It was like someone had smushed the two together and would up with something really different and cool.

Blower Bentley

But I was wrong. 

The V16 Coupe is the brainchild of Daniel Simon, who worked with director Joe Johnston and production designer Rich Heinrichs to come up with a car that unique to the world of motoring.

And they did. 

Simon wanted to combine the feel of a pre-war Duesenberg or Mercedes 540K with the utility of a serious off-roader. I was right about one thing, though...the V-16 Coupe is based on a truck chassis.

What struck me an unusual is the incredible thought and attention to detail that went into the  V16 Coupe.

The idea was to give Red Skull the fastest car in the world. Nazi goons like that sort of thing, so the V16 supposedly has just that...a super-charged V-16 airplane engine. 

This isn't as outlandish as you might think. Plenty of guys put aircraft engines in some truly outrageous cars back in the day.

The Hydra V16 Coupe is actually powered by a Ford dragster engine, but does anyone really care? The Tumbler (detailed here) has a Chevy V-8, although it appears on screen as if a turbojet is supplying the power. 

I like the touch of the exposed blower unit on the front, and I know damn well those are the same tires that I have on my old M715. 

But what really gets me are the lines of the V16 Coupe. It's just utterly astonishing. Daniel Simon gave us a car with clean lines, fantastic proportions - mixed with military utility.

Too bad they only made one.

You know what would be fun? A video of Red Skull trying to park this car at Walmart.