Hot Rods Chauvin Emmon's Indy Influence

Always dug that car. We had a good thread here a ways back when they had his estate sale in Arizona? I think?

 

Last I heard, ol' Chauvin is alive and kicking and still driving things really fast at Bonneville.

 

That is a bad*** car. I dare someone to say anything about it cuz it's gl***. I'd gladly own it, and drive it every chance I had!

 

was that Brauner's (sp?) estate? wasnt he also into indy stuff?

that car is awesome, and I wish I had my camera when it was out at that open house last year... It looks just about like the photo, only it is the yellow Ron Olmsted painted it for him after the red.

 

That might have been the estate sale I am thinking of

 

cool. its got a great style to it, definatly out of the box

 

Yeah, he's still kickin'. Been going to Squeeg's forever and Doug just shot his latest car a year or two ago, rear engine '32, not HAMB'rish though, very techie.

That Indy roadster is easily one of his coolest creations though!

 

Really surprised he didn't use some sort of trick brake up front. Front brakes do come in handy.

 

Yep, Chauvin is still around and still has hot rods! Ask da34guy, he knows him well and could probably give us all a great history lesson on him!

 

I remember that car vividly from my first year's subscription to Hot Rod. I met Chauvin Emmons a few years ago at the salt. Nice guy, and still focused on building fast hot rods.

 

I don't know much about Torsion setups but from what I do I like them. The "Torsion T" was another cool car that ran a similar setup to this one. I do believe that this one was and still is next level type thinking. I really like how clean this car is and I am pretty much digging the whole car. It makes me think of the Dean Jeffries car that posted a couple months ago in it's construction and thought process although this one represents more of a hot rod and less of a show car. I am sure that Olds would be fun to beat the piss out of!

 

My dad did some work for him back in the 90's... very, very talented craftsman... I remember going by the shop with dad, and him running the lathe with that HUGE unlit cigar hanging out of his mouth...

 

That is a very cool ride. The nose of it is very interesting, almost looks exactly like the 'Shark-nosed" Ferrari GP cars of the time. Obviously it is gl***, but is it possible that it was cast off of one of those? Just a question, as I know that those cars were crushed. But an interesting similarity.

 

Clint Brawner was a top Indy crew chief for many years.

 

Like I posted in yesterday's "Now In Color!" thread ...

Be sure to check out Speedwagen's "Do you recognise this T" thread (just click HERE) ... the OP includes this pic of the car when it was painted yellow:



... and post #17 includes a scan of the entire June '64 HRM article:

 

In 1999, Chauvin set the A/FMR (Modified Roadster with an Unblown, fuel burning, 440-500ci engine) record with a two-way average of 302.892mph ... this record still stands today!

HAMBer Roadsters.com (aka Dave Mann) has a webpage with a bunch of nice pics of Mr. Emmons' B'ville Modified Roadster (just click HERE).

 

So does that car exist anymore?

 

JimA ... according to landseaandair it does:

 

I hadn't seen this car until now. It's just wonderful. Thanx for the post. Too bad we don't see more of this hot rod / oval racer stuff going on. Gary

PS there was a fellow selling a gl*** Watson nose just like this in the swap meet area of the recent Billetproof show in Ocala. I was intrigued, but p***ed. Now I guess I should have snarfed it up.

 

It's interesting but looks a bit like a toaster to me. The nose does look like a Ferrari sharknose but it's not cast from them, they look different (the Ferrari looks better IMHO). Still interesting though and must have been a wild car way back then.

 

It's obviously not a popular opinion, but I don't like the styling much. Quality and ingenuity aside, for me the the super sleek track nose doesn't mesh with the admittedly softened, but still bulky looking square body. With the exception of some of the early Roth cars, the '6o's space age/updated look never cut it with '2o's and '3o's cars IMO.

 

This was his driver Hot Rod up until 2 years ago, notice the "Hemi" (Sold @ Barret- Jackson) when he finished the rear engined 32 Roadster.
All the suspension was hand built as were the wheels.
His "Daily Drivers" are a ZO-6 Vette and a GT-40 Ford

 

Yea It's still around. Kind of like a giant squid, you'll just have to take my word till someone can get a picture of it.

 

I was a guest in his shop in about 2001 or so. The Bonneville car was the subject of conversation, the guy tuning said he ran it at 98%. I asked if that wasn't a lot, he said "well, we might have to step it up some!" There were several aluminum hemi heads on the shelf to go to the swap meet. They said that at Bonneville they were on the throttle so long the cast heads would warp and leak between the studs, they had to step up to billet heads.

 

So glad this was posted. After seeing it yesterday i just had to know more. Glad someone asked cuz i was too lazy but in this case my laziness paid off lol.

 

I recall seeing an article on another T roadster that Chauvin built that had a monocoque ch***is. Any body got any info on that? I think that it said that he was planning on selling them?

 

Not sure if this is true or not or if I just dreamed it up.

I think I remember one of the drag boat guys that ran some early billet 426 Chrysler Hemi heads, said that Chauvin had machined them for him.

Some of the first sets ever attempted I think.

Chauvin started making them and somehow the design was pirated / stolen / ???? and they became the Brad Anderson 426 head program.

K

 

I had the chance to crawl all around this Tudor while it was in Don's care.
The hand built suspension was a work of art, and the rest of the car wasn't bad either! (It was gorgeous!)

I didn't really care for the wheels, but I can respect the craftsmanship that went into them. Hell, I wouldn't know where to begin building my own wheels... 1-800-AMERICAN RACING???

Thanks for posting the pics Don!