Roscoe Hoffman was an inventor, an experimenter, and a man-about-the-auto-industry in Detroit, and this car incorporates many of his unique ideas. He had friends in very top leadership levels of all the major car companies and did a lot of their contract work. His specialty was chassis and suspension engineering.
There is no written history on how the Hoffman X-8 came to be but there are a couple of theories connecting to either Henry Ford or the Fisher Brothers. A contract does exist from the early thirties from a Fisher-owned business contracting Hoffman to build two rear engine prototypes. It was reported to have cost in excess of $170,000 to build.
However the car came about, it is an absolute marvel of futuristic automotive engineering ca 1932-5. Built with an all-steel unitized body construction by Budd, independent suspension, this car is powered by an X8 engine that had eight cylinders arranged in an X configuration. The X-8 engine is the true marvel of the car. Water-cooled with overhead valves and twin cams, it is almost assuredly the only car ever built around an X-configuration engine. The engine cylinder powerplant is approximately 170 cubic inches. The entire car is a true one-off.The car did not reach production and this sole prototype remained in Hoffman’s hands until 1961 when he donated it to the Brooks Stevens Museum in Wisconsin, where it remained until 2010. It is entirely original, except for the exterior paint: it was originally gunmetal gray. Mr. Stevens had it repainted in Packard blue to match all of his enclosed cars. The car was first shown at Pebble Beach in 2012, where its distinctive style, technology, and history made it a favorite.The odometer reads just 8,300 miles from new.
Roscoe C. ‘Rod’ Hoffman was an inventor and engineering contractor in Detroit. In the late 1920s, Rod Hoffman built a couple of front-wheel drive experimental cars. This Hoffman X-8 is the sole surviving prototype. The X-8 engine is mounted in front of the rear axle and it has 8 cylinders arranged in an X configuration. Henry Ford’s engineers built several X-8 type engines, but they were air-cooled, while this car’s engine has overhead cams and is water-cooled. The Hoffman weighs slightly over 3,000 pounds and rides on a 115-inch wheelbase.
Hoffman had several patents for rear-engine cars, but this is the only operating survivor. In 1961, Hoffman gave the car to famed designer Brook Stevens and it remained in the Stevens Museum until discovered by an enthusiast in the late 1990s.
