Have you heard of Dale? This is a three-wheeled automotive prototype produced during the U.S. oil crisis in the early 1970s. Sadly, it never reached the market because it was accused of being a scam.
Dale is a concept car that prided itself with an 850cc air-cooled engine. Note that to overcome the oil crisis, it features a fuel efficiency of 70 miles per gallon.
During Dale's launch, many investors considered it a perfect solution to the fuel shortage. This made Dale a popular topic in the public media at that time.
So when the interest on the unique vehicle piqued, people started wondering about Carmichael, the person who made Dale.
The History of Dale
Geraldine Elizabeth (Liz) Carmichael is an entrepreneur who was infamously known for being convicted of many crimes. However, most of them would revolve around the fact that she was a transgender woman and her Dale project did not meet expectations.
According to Time, Carmichael was an extremely active entrepreneur. Due to her enthusiasm, she was able to sell everything ranging from vacuum cleaners, knitting machines, and other similar items.
However, Carmichael might have decided to take her marketing skills to the next level. She ended up mastering skills like counterfeiting schemes, embezzling down payments, and ultimately scamming her customers.
Sources say Carmichael used the money to support her five children. Some notably gave narratives about their lives as they kept moving from place to place to avoid the authorities.
When Carmichael changed her identity in the late 1960s, she ended up working for an automotive company by Dale Clift. Here they designed and developed the car, which will be widely known as Dale.
This design was revolutionary and uniquely configured, featuring a body that had a triangular shape that was mounted on a narrow frame. Be warned that this build makes it hard for the vehicle to change its direction during a drive. However, it is impossible to tip over because it also has a low center of gravity.
Note that since the car only had three wheels, it featured an extremely light body. And being lightweight meant it did not need much fuel to power its engine, which is why it easily gained a positive reputation.
The Lady and The Dale
Despite being an old story, many were intrigued by both Dale and Carmichael. One of the viewers was apparently the writer and director Nick Camilleri, who saw this story in the 1989 Unsolved Mysteries episode.
According to Car and Driver, Camilleri eventually researched all available facts and information about Carmichael. After nine years of research on the topic, he then produced a four-part documentary series that had been aired on HBO.
Camilleri describes Carmichael's passion for building Dale as something similar to other automotive start-ups of their time: passionate individuals who aspired to success, fame, and wealth at any cost.
