The mother of one of Hugh Hefner’s close friends worked at the short-lived Playboy Motor Car and suggested that the Playboy moniker would also make a great name for a monthly men’s periodical. Although the magazine of the same name ultimately achieved far greater longevity and fame, the Playboy car is a true treasure in the eyes of serious automotive aficionados.
Active for just three years in the late 1940s, Playboy Motor Car manufactured only 91 units of the voluptuously curvy and impossibly cute Playboy microcar. Although the Playboy’s creators managed to sell some franchise dealerships and refine their automotive design to include a powerful Continental engine and a retractable hardtop, the enterprise fizzled out shortly before the turn of the decade.
The 1948 Playboy A48 Convertible that hits the Sotheby’s auction block on October 11th is the 88th of the 91 Playboys to come off the production line. This exceptional car comes with its original, highly-operational engine and a beautiful, decades-old, bare-metal repaint in a 1940s-appropriate Seafoam Green.