Powell Sport Wagon: the pickup built on junkyard Plymouths

The Powell Sport Wagon was a small pickup truck built by the Powell Manufacturing Company of Compton, California, between September 1954 and March 1957. It used a modified 1941 Plymouth chassis recovered from junkyards, and it arrived several years before the Ford Ranchero and the Chevrolet El Camino made the car-based pickup familiar.

Powell Sport Wagon at a glance

Based on one source, the English Wikipedia article on the Powell Manufacturing Company; the Sport Wagon is covered there in the company history rather than in a separate article.

History of the Powell Sport Wagon

A company of scooters and radios

Powell Manufacturing Company was started in 1926 by the brothers Hayward and Channing Powell, who had begun with radios in Los Angeles before moving into motor scooters in the mid-1930s. Their Compton factory switched to war production in 1942 and returned to scooters after the Second World War with the C-47, P-48 and P-49 step-through models, followed in 1949 by the P-81 lightweight motorcycle. All four postwar models used the same single-cylinder, four-stroke 24-cubic-inch (393 cc) engine developed in-house. The company again switched to war production for the Korean War in the early 1950s and never returned to scooters.

The Sport Wagon

From September 1954 to March 1957 Powell built the Sport Wagon pickup and a station wagon version. The pickup was sold as the Sport Wagon and the station wagon as the Station Wagon, both using modified 1941 Plymouth chassis recycled from junkyards. In total the company built around 1,200 pickups and 300 station wagons, alongside three motor homes.

What the press said

The design was noticed. Motor Life magazine put a photograph of the Powell Sport Wagon on the cover of its October 1955 issue and called it “an obvious choice as one of the most interesting and unique automobiles in the U.S.” In February 1956 Motor Trend published an article by its co-founder Walt Woron, who concluded that the Powell Brothers had succeeded in their purpose: to provide a vehicle that “can’t be beat for general utility” and that made “the perfect runabout or 2nd family car”.

The end of the company

Powell’s car-based pickup ideas were echoed a few years later in the Ford Ranchero and the Chevrolet El Camino. In the 1960s the company reorganised as Powell Brothers, Inc. and built the Powell Challenger trail bikes from a larger factory at 5903 East Firestone Boulevard in South Gate, California. Hayward Powell died in March 1978; with Channing Powell retired, the company dissolved and closed in April 1979.

Design and features

• Recycled Plymouth chassis: the Sport Wagon was built on modified 1941 Plymouth frames taken from junkyards.
• Two body styles: the pickup was sold as the Sport Wagon, the SUV-shaped version as the Station Wagon.
• Small production: about 1,200 pickups and 300 station wagons in two and a half years.
• Ahead of its time: the layout anticipated the Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino.
• Noticed by the press: a Motor Life cover in October 1955 and a Motor Trend article in February 1956.

Powell Sport Wagon versions

• Sport Wagon pickup (1954–1957): the main product, about 1,200 built.
• Station Wagon (1954–1957): the utility version on the same chassis, about 300 built.
• Motor homes: three were built by the company in the same period.

More vehicles from the same maker are in the Powell collection.

Sources

• Powell Manufacturing Company, English Wikipedia: production dates, numbers, chassis, press quotes, company history