Gene Winfield built the car for the Hartford Autorama show promoter Joe Kizis. Who asked him to build an aluminium hand-built show car for being used as a promotional attraction to his show. The car name was "Autorama Special".

The main base for the "Autorama Special" was a Citroën ID-19. Gene used the frame and suspension of the Citroën and mounted a Corvair engine on it. The acrylic glass was also custom made to fit the body. The paint was gold metal flake with lime green fading edges. The "Autorama Special" makes its first appearance at the Autorama Custom car show in 1965.

Joe Kizis sold the car back to Gene after some time due to some mechanical problems. Gene Winfield fixed the problems, painted it again and renamed it as "The Reactor". With this new name, the car appeared in several movies and tv-shows as Star Trek, Bewitched, Batman, etc...