With his first full-blown show car, "The Predicta," winning virtually every award available, Darryl Starbird had hit the pinnacle of custom car fame by the end of the '60 season. He was now an established star and could have rested on his laurels for a while. Instead of relaxing, Darryl began planning his encore, an even more radical approach to the use of the bubbletop and fin: the fantastic "Forcasta."
Realistically, the Predicta was a tough act to follow with its aircraft design influences, so Starbird delved further into the latest concepts from the automotive and aerospace industries to formulate his advanced ideas. Regarding how the Forcasta was developed, Starbird had this to say, "I had been giving a new car a lot of thought. I knew I wanted something with a very low hood, which meant the radiator couldn't be up front. I was thinking an air-cooled, rear-engine car would be the perfect car to use. I had looked at the Volkswagen, but it was just too small for what I had in mind. Then, the all-new Corvair was introduced. Not only was the Corvair longer and wider than the VW, but it was considered the wave of the future with its new technology, so it seemed like the perfect package for what I was thinking about. Plus, with the engine in the rear, there wasn't a driveshaft tunnel to deal with.
"At about that time, Chuck Miller was on the same show circuit as me with his '58 Chevrolet, and we would talk about my ideas for a radical new car. The next thing I knew, Chuck wanted me to build it for him, using all of my ideas. This was early 1961, and I found a very clean, low-mileage Corvair on a used-car lot in Wichita, Kansas. At Star Kustom I removed all of the Corvair's body panels, leaving only the floorpan, firewall, two door pillars, and hinges. From that point, a new body was constructed." And what a body! Starbird started with a pair of '60 Cadillac rear quarters, but they were tweaked and rolled until they wouldn't fit a Cadillac ever again. The fins were raised, reangled, and extended. New doorskins were hand-formed, matching the rear quarters' new, rounded contour. Up front, completely new fenders were shaped, and thanks to the engine being in the rear (with no radiator, either), Starbird was able to attain the low profile he desired. The much-reworked hood and decklid helped to further the wedge effect. The welding and overall fit was of such high quality that very little lead was used, a trademark of Star Kustom.
Darryl then turned his fabrication skills to the construction of a space-age cockpit for the one-time Detroit economy car, building four wild bucket seats, a console, and an instrument panel. Since aircraft have dual controls for a copilot, so did the Forcasta, meaning the radical rocket could be driven from either side, which would further blow the minds of drivers out on the highway. With the body shaped, patterns were made for the bubbletop, as well as the futuristic, bullet-shaped headlight and taillight lenses. Starbird shipped these off to Ray Plastics, the company that had previously blown the bubble for the Predicta and would do many more such bubbles for Star Kustom in the future.