Only 3 cars have won the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award twice. The Ala Kart was the first one, winning in '58 and '59. After that, the rules were changed, requiring the car to be significantly changed in order to be eligible to compete again. The two other cars that have won twice were Lonnie Gilbertson's '23 T bucket ('71 and '75 winner) and Ermie Immerso's "Golden Star" Indy Ford-powered '25 T ('89 and '91 winner). Both of these are in the Petersen Museum vault, and appear as they did when they won their second awards. I have never seen a picture of either car as it looked when it won the first time: Gilberston's in '71, or Immerso's in '89. Does anybody have a picture of either car in its earlier form, or can anyone suggest a source for such a picture? I'm a docent at the Pete, and lead tours of the vault. I explain these cars during every tour, and I always wonder what they looked like in their previous incarnations. Maybe somebody can show me!
I know Lonnie pretty well. I bet if you contacted him at Gilbertson Machine shop in South East Portland and explained to him who you are and what you do you would end up with good photos of round one of the car. He is still activly building cars like his latest 55 Chev G***er to grace the cover of a recient Hot Rod mag. The Wizzard
As you probably know, Ermie had Eddie Martinez upholster the Golden Star twice, it was redone the second time to meet the "significant change" requirement. I have lost touch with Eddie, through he used to have a shop in Bellflower. The last (probably 15 years old) phone number I had for him was 818-891-2836. If you could track Eddie down, he might have saved pictures of the car. Also, Bill Hines might know of Eddie's whereabouts, as they used to have shops side by side years ago, and I believe have stayed in touch over the years. Long shot, I know.
Lonnie's car was red the first time it won. I have been searching for a picture without any luck. Gary Crisp did the yellow paint job for the '75 win. A subsequent owner wrecked it and the red fenders and fade was done to preserve as much of the graphics as possible.
No, this is news to me. So the exterior was unchanged between the two years, and only the interior was redone? I'd be interested to see pictures of both versions. Thanks, Steve!
From what Eddie told me years ago, he did a lot of work for Ermie. After winning AMBR the first time, he had Eddie rip out the original (unused) interior, and replace it with something different, so he could enter the car a second time. I don't think any other changes were made. Though Eddie did 3 cars for me, I haven't heard from him in at least 15 years. Whenever I see Bill Hines, I always ask about Eddie, and Hines seems to still be in contact with him.... I wonder if someone like Ganahl could be of any help?
I can't say for sure, but I was always under the impression that Bob Reisner won twice with the Invader.
Tom, I found a source yesterday that said Reisner won in '67 and tied for 1st in '68. I guess that would count as winning 1 1/2 times. The pictures that accompanied that list were identical for both years, so I don't know if any change was made between the two wins.
This account is confusing, and doesn't correlate to the pictures in tfeverfred's post. Are you saying that the car was red for the first win, yellow for the second, and then repainted red again? The car currently looks exactly like the second picture in Fred's post, and the graphics are very different from the yellow car, so I don't get it. Thanks to all of you guys for helping to clarify this history. I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be a really authoritative history -- a book -- on the AMBR from the beginning.
There are two very good books on the show and AMBR. "The Oakland Roadster Show - 50 years of hot rods and customs" by Andy Southard & Dain Gingerelli written in 1998. There is "Grand National Roadster Show & Hall of Fame History" by Rick Perry done in 1999. These have a all winners listed up to their publishing dates. Mick
I think your info is incorrect. That may be why you can't find a red first win picture. And I'm pretty sure that car didn't win in '95. Fred Warren won that year in a '37 Ford "The Smoothster". My source: http://www.rodshows.com/gnrs/show-history.html
Lonnie Gilbertson's T was a straight red paint job (no graphics) when it won in 1971. It was yellow with the Gary Crisp graphics when it won in 1975. It never won when it was red fade & graphics, as I recall it was not owned by Lonnie when it was in this paint scheme. Mick
Thanks, Mick. I found a copy of the Southard/Gingerelli book quite reasonably priced; people selling the Perry book apparently think it's more valuable. I'll keep an eye out.
X2, Didnt have the Zenith wires on it at that time either. I will try to dig up a photo in the next couple days.
OK, OK,........... I've got dumb fingers......fixed it. I saw the car at the Portland Roadster Show, but that was 43 years ago, I'm sure it was red.
Ermie's Car was a pretty simple deal. The color, stance and if I'm not mistaken wheels and tires didn't change, but some darker orange graphics were added, along with the previously mentioned interior change. The corker though was the goofy, small canard style "wings" made of aluminum added down on the kick out bars....
On Lonnie's car, the story I got was that a later owner wrecked it and painted the fenders red and added fade to the body to blend to the fenders and save the graphics. Yet the graphics are different! At least on the drivers side. Haven't found a good picture of the right side.
Looking closely at the pictures of the yellow and red versions, I can imagine that the current (red) version of the car started as the yellow car, and was overpainted with the red fade and with more tree trunks and stuff in the mural. IMO the car would be greatly improved if it went back to a solid red paint job.
Stan Alexander owned the car when it had the red fade and busier graphics. Stan campaigned the car for a couple years in the late 70's and possibly early 80's. Mick
Bob Reisner did win twice with the invader, 1967 - 1968, however he shared the AMBR win with Joe Wilhelm's Wild Dream in 1968. Mick
Here is a brief history on Lonnie's AMBR winner. As pictured in red, Lonnie entered it in the '71 show, not dreaming he could win. After the big win, he got caught up in the car show world. To be compe***ive he knew he would have to make changes and additions. He installed a hand made independent front suspension, blower and wild paint. The pics show the many different versions of the car, he drove it everywhere, it was a regular in every steel/aluminum warehouse in Portland, being used as a "shop truck". In reality Lonnie liked it best in it's early years, saying he "accessorized it to death", to ac***ulate the most points. He took these pictures off of his garage wall about 20 minutes ago, and told me the story. I missed the years when he owned and showed the car, as I have only known him about 17 years.
Isn't the AMBR winners in the Hot Rod Show World magazine too? I can't get to mine at the present time but for some reason I think they were posted in there. Maybe you can locate the correct year Hot Rod Show World magazine on ebay and ask the seller if it shows the AMBR winner for that year before buying and who it was to verify you are getting the right issue. They normally sell on ebay between $8.00 to $15.00 Or maybe someone here can post that have the correct issues of the Hot Rod Show World
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