This is a very unusual barn find with a great story of a guy building a car out from parts of several cars and after sitting in pieces in a barn for 50 years being discovered and reassembled. The original creator built this speedster in the 1950’s for hillclimbs and as an occasional driver. It has parts from several interesting cars, including a Star chassis, Hupmobile honeycomb radiator, Cadillac bucket seats, Dodge wheels, and a Model A drivetrain and rear end. This speedster was taken apart in 1965 and stored in a pile after the owner’s death. The seller had heard the story, found the parts, has reassembled them, found a new intake manifold and crafted a simple body. It’s in the Fresno area and listed here on craigslist. I would want to craft more of a body for it, but would otherwise leave it as is! Talk about a cool piece of history. So what name would you give this custom? Stupmobile? Stadillac? What do you think?
With a model A motor I don’t think you can call it a “speedster”. LOL
Name it after the guy who built it. If is name was “Murphy”, it’s a “Murphy Special”.
trouble with a capital T. interesting find.
My grandpa would call it a Skeeter. He built them in the 20s-30s. And built me one in the early 80’s.
I will name him George.
Not real sure about a name for this interesting find, but back in the mid 60’s a good friend put a built up Cadillac mill in a ’56 Chevy 2dr post, that thing was a beast, he called it his Chevrolac.
The dueler
In the 30’s there were many of these built and run at the circle tracks common to every little village or town, Fords were the most common “junkers” you bought to make them, Here on the West Coast, they were run on the beach at Pismo. They were often called “SPEEDSTERS” usually prefaced as Ford,Buick or whatever they had the most of.:: Chevrolet speedster.
Bluebird ? ?
CalderMobile with parts flying off the center all the time………………..
(As in Alex for non-art people)
Names aside, this would be perfect for the “Race of Gentleman”.
http://www.theraceofgentlemen.com/
How about Trump, or Trump Special. Looks like crazy windblown hair, built from a lot of crazy parts, but gets the job done. (smile)
How about “mutt”.
Fresno Flyer
Not quite Chris Runge’s Frankfurt Flyer, but nonetheless. . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IEDWVMuC7Y
Didn’t Johnny Cash do a song about a car like this?
There is a serious Model “A” group that build and restore Ford “A” Speedsters that would be interested in this. Look for a publication “Secrets of Speed Society”, a quarterly magazine edited by Charlie Yapp. Now available replica hop up parts such as Roof and Riley cylinder heads are just a start on just how far Model “A” enthusiasts go toward hot Model “A” engines, brakes, chassis, transmissions and special speedster bodies. Although heavy looking, this one looks solid and a good candidate for a speedster body. For a start, I’d chrome that grill to brighten it up, then source a speedster body. As for Mike’s comment on Johnny Cash the song is about a 72,73,74,75 Cadillac a guy made from stolen assembly line parts. I heard it over the weekend and it is hilarious.