This is a rare original 1984 Tritan A2 Aerocar, the brainchild of engineer Douglas J. Amick, who first began developing futuristic aerodynamic three-wheeled vehicles all the way back in the 1960s.
The Tritan A2 offered up to 80 mpg and was powered by an unusual 30 bhp 440cc air-cooled Wankel rotary engine. Domino’s Pizza ordered 10 of them, and used them as pizza delivery vehicles, with ovens in the back to keep the pizzas hot.
Fast Facts: The Tritan A2 Aerocar
- The Tritan A2 Aerocar, designed by engineer Douglas J. Amick, debuted in 1984 as a futuristic, aerodynamic three-wheeler capable of 80 mpg. It had a fiberglass composite monocoque, tandem seating, a forward-sliding canopy, and a 30 bhp 440cc Syvaro rotary engine. Tested in the University of Michigan wind tunnel, it achieved an incredible drag coefficient of just 0.15.
- Domino’s Pizza ordered 10 A2 Aerocars during its 30-minute delivery guarantee era, fitting each with a rear pizza oven. These prototypes reached up to 95 mph but accelerated slowly, taking 17 seconds to hit 62 mph. Plans for an additional 180 units never materialized, leaving just the initial batch of 10 produced.
- After service, Domino’s removed the ovens and donated the vehicles to museums. Today only about seven survive, with most still in institutional collections and a couple in private ownership. The design’s rarity and unusual history have made it a sought-after oddity in automotive circles.
- The example described retains its Domino’s livery but now uses a 670cc Predator V-twin with a CVT transmission, replacing the scarce original rotary. While output is slightly lower at 22 bhp, it delivers greater torque at lower rpm, vastly improving drivability. It is offered for sale in Portage, Michigan on Bring a Trailer.
Domino’s And The 30 Minute Guarantee
Fortuitously, Domino’s Pizza and Tritan Ventures would both be founded in Michigan in towns right next to each other, with Domino’s in Ypsilanti and Tritan in Ann Arbor. For those interested in weird car history, it would be a match made in heaven.
The Tritan A2 Aerocar debuted in 1984, it was a wildly futuristic design with a fiberglass composite monocoque chassis, seating for two in tandem, a forward-sliding canopy for entry/exit, a mysterious rear loop that was claimed to generate power from the wind.
Domino’s Pizza actually started out as DomiNick’s, but the name was changed after the business was bought by Tom Monaghan in 1960. The company originally had three locations, which is why the domino in the Domino’s logo has three dots.
The original plan had been to add a dot for each new location, however this plan was quickly forgotten as the company grew at breakneck pace, opening 200 stores in just 10 years.
The company became famous for its 30 minute pizza delivery guarantee which debuted in 1973. It was a wildly popular promotion that offered people free pizza if their order took more than 30 minutes to arrive after it had been placed by telephone.
As a result of this guarantee, the company was always looking for an edge when it came to cutting time off deliveries, and this is possibly why executives got in touch with aeronautical engineer Douglas J. Amick of Tritan Ventures, Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan after they saw the first prototype of the Tritan A2 Aerocar.
The Tritan A2 Aerocar
The Tritan A2 Aerocar debuted in 1984, it was a wildly futuristic design with a fiberglass composite monocoque chassis, seating for two in tandem, a forward-sliding canopy for entry/exit, a mysterious rear loop that was claimed to generate power from the wind, and it was powered by a 30 bhp 440cc air-cooled rotary engine made by an Israeli firm called Syvaro.
Domino’s struck a deal with Tritan for 10 prototype A2s, this was then planned to be followed by orders for at least 180 more which would be used at various Domino’s locations around the United States.
The outright performance of the A2 Aerocar wasn’t particularly impressive, though it could reach speeds of up to 95 mph thanks to its slippery aerodynamics that had been perfected in the University of Michigan’s wind tunnel.
The 0 – 62 mph sprint took 17 seconds, a pace best described as geological in its speed, but the good news was that the A2 offered up to 80 mpg thanks to its remarkably well-designed aerodynamic body with a coefficient of drag of just 0.15.
To put that into meaningful context, lower numbers mean less drag – a baseball in flight has a drag coefficient of 0.30, a Ferrari Testarossa comes in at 0.36, and a Toyota Prius beats them both with a 0.27.
Fuel efficiency, rotary engines, and fighter jets were all the rage in the 1980s, and the Tritan A2 Aerocar embodied all of them. The only thing that was missing according to Domino’s, was a pizza oven in the back.
Domino’s struck a deal with Tritan for 10 prototype A2s, this was then planned to be followed by orders for at least 180 more which would be used at various Domino’s locations around the United States.
Once the 10 initial vehicles arrived they were given their distinctive Domino’s paint jobs, and the rear seat was removed and replaced with a square pizza oven that could hold multiple pizzas in their boxes stacked vertically to keep them warm en route to their final destinations.
The car you see here is one of the original Tritan A2 Aerocars that were used by Domino’s Pizza back in the 1980s as futuristic pizza delivery vehicles.
For reasons unknown, Domino’s decided not to proceed with the plan to expand the A2 Aerocar program. As a result just the original 10 were made, Domino’s then donated them to automotive museums across the country once they had removed the pizza warming ovens from the rear.
Today it’s believed that just seven of them survive, almost all still in museums, with at least two now in private hands – one of which is available to rent for shows on Drive Share.
The Tritan A2 Aerocar Shown Here
The car you see here is one of the original Tritan A2 Aerocars that were used by Domino’s Pizza back in the 1980s as futuristic pizza delivery vehicles.
It retains its white paint scheme with a red and blue Domino’s Pizza livery but it’s now powered by a 670cc Predator V-twin engine mated to a CVT automatic transmission with a snowmobile clutch. Engine swaps have become common in surviving A2 Aerocars as finding parts for the original Savkel SP-440 single-rotor 440cc Wankel engines was becoming increasingly impossible.
This A2 Aerocar is now powered by a 670cc Predator V-twin engine mated to a CVT automatic transmission with a snowmobile clutch.
The Predator V-twin produces 22 bhp, 8 bhp fewer than the Savkel rotary, but it makes more torque lower in the rev range – 33.4 lb ft at 2,500 rpm versus 28.2 lb ft at 5,500 rpm – which makes the Aerocar easier to drive in modern traffic.
This Tritan A2 Aerocar is now being offered for sale out of Portage, Michigan on Bring a Trailer with a Michigan title in the seller’s name. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Bring a Trailer
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.