We know from automotive historian Bob Cunningham that the Mars Express first appeared on American roads in 1934, promoting the Pan American Petroleum Corporation. As an account in the Tuscaloosa News from June 14, 1934, reported, Pan American advertised the Mars Express as a 1,000 MPH car that "follows scientific forecasts of 50 years in the future" and that "Pan Am is the first to build an actual practical car following rocket car lines."

The rocket car claim appears to be just as fanciful as the rest of the claims made about the car. Either way, the Mars Express next shows up in 1938, just a few days after Orson Welles's radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds," with the somewhat more plausible claim of being able to run 115 MPH with a supercharged Ford V-8 engine powering it.

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