David Gurr

I started my first '34 roadster (the make was always Ford) when I was 14 for $15 for the body and doors and $5 for a complete '33 Tudor. I made a total mess of it by channeling it, ala Jack Morgan's '34 roadster, which appeared on the first color cover of HRM for April 1951. I bought a '36 cabriolet when I was 16 and by age 19 had made it into what is today a resto rod, stock appearance, with the addition of hydrallic brakes, and two suped-up flatheads, eventually replacing the second one with a stock DeSoto Hemi. My third attempt at a hot rod was a Chrysler 300-B, which I replaced its broken automatic transmission with a stick from a Dodge of the same year. My experience with auto mechanics led me to teach the subject in Ethiopia as a Peace Corps Volunteer ('62-'64). I flirted with '34 roadsters for the remainder of my life, buying a dilapidated, rodded one in 1989. Its restoration began in 2002 and it was finished in 2005; and, shipped to me from the builder in NJ in 2007. However, it is still a work in progress as the fuel system has had to be rebuilt because the gaskets dried out while setting when it took a year and a half to install the upholstery and top. I can send photos of before and after as well as my first '34 and '36. I am writing a book about my life with cars, hoping to be finished later this year, with tons of photos. In reseazrching the book, I gathered so much material on the Triple A Contest Board races (Elgin Road Race, Gilmore Gold Cup Race at Mines Field, Legion Ascot Targo Florio and Oakland Oval) of '33 and '34, dominated by Ford V-8s that I will write a second book. I have also gathered lots of information, and contacts, about early dry lakes racing in CA and drag racing across the country, more than enough to write a third book on the subject. It is nice to be able to join your website and give answers to some of your other subscribers' questions.