This Coffee and a Concept could also qualify as a Coffee and an Odd Car given the unique obsession that designer JV Martin had for three-wheeled cars with ‘ette in the name. Most well known for the Stationette of the mid-1950s, Martin had similar designs for the Martinette in the early 1930s based on a patent filing for the Autoette in 1930.
Martin’s obsession had designs that pre-dated common super-compact three-wheelers like the BMW Isetta, the Morgan, and the Reliant Robin (the nemesis car from Mr. Bean). His designs very likely inspired or informed those later vehicles. Even today, the Polaris Slingshot likely drew from Martin’s designs.
James Vernon Martin was born in 1883 or 1885, depending on who you ask, and became most well-known for his storied career in aviation. After joining the Merchant Marines in 1900, he attended the University of Virginia and then Harvard. He organized the Harvard Aeronautical Society in 1910 and traveled to London where he was certified as a Royal Aero Club FAI pilot in 1911. That time in England was where he met his wife Lily Irvine, who later became a pilot under Martin’s tutelage.
Until the late 1920s, Martin was singularly obsessed with aircraft and aeronautical engineering. He held nine aircraft-related patents by 1916. In 1924, he sued the United States government on claims that an active conspiracy to monopolize aviation was holding his company back. It was about this point that he began tinkering with automotive.
Martin’s first automotive patent was applied for in 1930 and granted in 1935. A tadpole design (two wheels in front, on at rear), the Autoette had a rear-mounted engine and the front of the car opened in a swing-out door to allow access. A feature not seen again until the 1950s with the Isetta.
The Autoette design became the Martinette concept in 1932. It had a wooden frame, aluminum body, and was shown at the New York Automobile Show in 1932 to much acclaim, but little commercial interest. That car disappeared until the 1980s, where it was found in a backyard chicken coop shed and donated to the Cradle of Aviation Museum and restored. Where it remains today.
Martin kept with the design motif of three wheels and a rear engine, but produced no more prototypes until the 1950s. In 1954, a full year before the BMW Isetta was introduced, Martin showed the Stationette. Similar to the Martinette, the Stationette was mostly made of wood. It had side entry doors, however, and a more modern look to fit with the popular looks of the time period. The Stationette eventually found its way to the Lane Museum in Tennessee, where it was restored and is shown today.
The Stationette garnered more attention than did the Martinette, but still found no interested manufacturing parties. After a couple of years of touring, it was put into storage and work began on the Tri-Car of 1955. This was a group project with several designers and engineers involved. The Tri-Car was renamed the Suburbanette (because of course it was) and a single fiberglass version was prototyped. I appeared in Madison Square Garden in New York City for the 1955 Universal Travel & Auto Sports Show. Brochures for a “Kari-van” version of the Suburbanette as well as re-iterations of the Stationette, but based on this new Tri-Car design, were also circulated. The fate of the Tri-Car/Suburbanette after its showing is unknown.
Martin died in 1956, leaving behind his companies and interests. These exchanged hands several times, during which the patents and prototypes were disbursed. The Smithsonian Institute’s Air and Space Museum has extensive archives of James V. Martin’s papers and filings in its archives. Among those are papers regarding his wife Lily’s aeronautic career as well. You can find summaries of that collection here.
Also of interest is an article written by H. Roy Jaffe, an automotive engineer who worked on the Tri-Car project under Martin. That can be found here. Photos of the Martinette and Stationette herein are from Jaffe’s article. Other photos are courtesy of the Lane Museum.
