The Tresaire is a two-seat concept car built by C & C Incorporated, an American company based in Brighton, Michigan, whose name stood for Cars and Concept. Founded in the mid-1970s and acquired by the Masco industrial group in 1987, C & C had built a reputation as a glass-roof manufacturer and supplier to the American automotive industry, as well as a converter of production cars into convertibles, and had also contributed to the development of the Pontiac concept cars Banshee and Trans Sport. The car was first shown under the name Intrigue before appearing eight weeks later, at the same location, at the SAE Congress exhibition under its new name, Tresaire.
Fully drivable, the car could be used either as a coupe or as a full convertible thanks to its retractable hardtop, called the Skylite Convertible Hardtop System, made entirely of glass panels that let light through even when closed. The roof could be raised at the rear like a tilt/slide unit for ventilation, slid forward to create a targa-style opening, or fully lowered into the body for open-top driving, with all movements operated electrically at the push of a button. C & C stated the roof could be retracted even at 65 mph. The company built the entire vehicle from a blank sheet in under six months.
Measuring 460 cm in length and 183 cm in width, the wedge-shaped two-seater had a steeply raked windshield shaped to reduce wind buffeting on its occupants, with a frame built from carbon-fiber material, also used for the door inner panels and the transmission tunnel. The body itself was made of glass-fiber-reinforced plastic, with lower impact-absorbing sections made of Xenoy plastic from GE Plastics. The seats featured electrically adjustable shoulder supports and four-point harnesses integrated into the backrests. Equipment included airbags, round white-faced instruments, and a rear-view monitor fed by a wide-angle rear camera mounted on the high center console, eliminating the need for an interior mirror. A patented airflow system called the Vortex stabilizer redirected air entering at the hood front up across the inside of the windshield to reduce the low-pressure zone typical of open cars, while solar power ran a ventilation fan even when the car was parked. Headlights used General Electric gas-discharge arc lamps.
Built on a tubular frame chassis with modified Chevrolet Corvette suspension units and a matching 244 cm wheelbase, the Tresaire used a highly modified Chevrolet V6 engine enlarged to 4,950 cc with a 90-degree bank angle, delivering 350 hp at 5,500 rpm and 496 Nm at 4,000 rpm through a ZF six-speed gearbox. Weight distribution was 49.6:50.4 percent, and the car rode on P245/50 R17 tires, with both the chrome wheels and tire tread pattern designed in-house by C & C. The car weighed 1,280 kg.
