A spin on a 32 Roadster (The Piata)

Great story, thanks for sharing!

 

very very cool car, sorry I missed this thread the first time.

 

Just to clear up.
This was in Pueblo when the Piata was parked next to Maynard, another roadster with a long Denver History.
Maynard was in Pueblo, shown by the builders son.
Still running the original Cad with 6 deuces. They looked pretty good parked together.

 

Thanks for the info Mike! I appeciate everything you have done for me and to keep the history of the car passed on.

Jesse

 

Greetings! My mother was researching the Piata, found this thread and asked me to follow up. I just registered so I could post. Bud Lakas was my grandfather, and I have many fond memories of riding around in the Piata as a young girl!


The Piata was my grandfather's pride and joy. He worked on it most weekends, and often drove it around town or up to my grandparent's cabin in Evergreen. Whenever my sister or I had the chance to be a passenger, it was always a special treat!


My grandfather was an avid car enthusiast, owned several fun cars over the years, and even raced Porsches in the 1950's here in Colorado. According to my mother, he raced in both the Pike's Peak and Buffalo Bill Hill Climbs, as well as in Estes Park and Aspen. He had several car buddies, too; and if the Internet had been around when he was younger, I'm certain he'd be a regular contributor here.


My mother still has the needlepoint referenced in the story above that my grandmother made of the Piata, and I'm pretty sure we have some additional pics. I'll see if I can find any and will post them here.


Thank you for posting this wonderful story from Mike Mahaffey. It was great to learn more of the Piata's history & chronology that I never knew before. But more importantly, thank you for all of the great comments! My Mom and I are so happy to know the Piata has a wonderful home, where it's loved and appreciated as much as when it lived with our family!


Cheers,
Nancy

 

Welcome Nancy! Thanks for sharing your memories.

 

Nancy - We are resurrecting the 1953 Hot Rod Hill Climb in Georgetown, CO September 14th. If sure love to have you attend the event. Jesse is overseas, doesn't sound like the Piata can be at the event.

Bud ran around with many of the guys that were involved in this event.

Welcome aboard!

Http://hotrodhillclimb.com

 

Wow! Nancy, first off thank you very much for your post. I have been searching all over the internet and books for information on Bob McClure, Bud and your family to ask you guys questions but with no answers thus far. Your post gave me chills to find out there is more history about the car and people that remember it. As Mike stated, since I'm still in Afghanistan, I will more than likely not be able to attend the Hill Climb this year. I will make it a point to make it out to CO within the next year or two, when I am home for good. I will also send you guys messages about when I can make it so you can see the car and ride in it if you want. I am also sending you a Private message(PM) with my contact info. Please if you have pictures I would love to have copies of them to help retain the history of this fun car. I will also post them in this thread. Thanks again and stay in touch.

V/R

Jesse

 

Sounds like fun, thanks for sharing! Have already chatted with my Mom, and we just might make it!

 

Just got an Email from Nancy! Finding this history out was a pretty cool surprise to my otherwise boring day. She attached the picture below. I blew the pic up a bit and that's why it is a pixelated.

Anyone recognize what the guard/pushbar on the bumper is off of? I do not have that part at this time. Thanks Nancy

Piata Circa 1974

 

It looks like the grill guard Dad has on his 40 Mercury. I beleive the center piece interchanges to either say Ford or Mercury.

 

Received a very nice surprise today. It's a letter from Bud's family and it talks about who Bud was as a person and some more history of the Piata. Thanks Nancy!

THE PIATA

MEMORIES FROM: STEVE SHERMAN (Bud's nephew)

The Piata was started with a 1940 Ford chassis. Bud Lakas took at least 3-4 years to build the Piata.
Bud rented a garage in old Denver and was very secretive about the Piata.
I think it was 1952 (not positive of the year) and our family was at XXX Emerson Street in Denver
celebrating Christmas morning breakfast Bud took off secretly. Then here he came down Emerson St.
honking the old bullhorn of the Piata! My grandfather, Denise Barkalow, said "What the hell is that?!"
Bud said it is “Merry Christmas to Celby”. Sam Sherman (Steve's dad) said “it's got NO DOORS!"
After the inauguration of the Piata, Bud and Steve drove the Piata to Billings, Montana to see Steve’s
sister, Louise.

As time went on, Bud would attend many Hill Climb Races in the Piata. He and Steve drove to Aspen,
Georgetown and Lookout Mountain, Colorado.` Everywhere they went there were admirers. Magazines and newspapers would flock to Bud writing stories and taking pictures of the Piata. There was a "Big Interest" in the Piata.

Bud did race the Piata at a closed Military base in New Mexico and attended and raced at the
Continental Divide Raceway near Castle Rock, CO. He also raced in a few Hot Rod Races. Almost every race he took Steve.

MEMORIES FROM: PIATA'S DAUGHTER (Linda)

My dad never stopped "puttering" on the Piata! He'd spend hours after work in the driveway working
on the Piata. He was always changing something , a nut & bolt or hubcaps etc. On the weekends, l
would go with him to every junk yard in the city of Denver looking for a special kind of screw or
whatever he needed at the time. He did have help on some things from the mechanics at Kenz & Leslie Repairs. He kept the Plata in our only one car garage! All the rest of the cars had to sit outside during the winter. Daddy finally let me drive the Plata my senior year in high school it was the THRlLL OF MY LIFE!!!

My dad loved cars! In 1940 he attended the Indy 500 as a mechanic with the Hughes Brothers of
Denver. Their car placed 11th. Then in the early Fifties my dad was the race driver for Alex Thomson
who owned a Porsche Spyder Roadster 550. The body of the Porsche was aluminum and it was only one of 4 in this country at that time. Bud kept the Porsche at our home at XXX Dahlia St, in Denver. Daddy raced the Pike's Peak Hill Climb, Aspen, Lookout Mtn and Georgetown rallies and at Buckley Air Force Base in Denver. During those years he won many awards. The Porsche Spyder was eventually sold after the actor, James Dean crashed his. BUT.....meantime, Bud Lakas had secretly been building the Piata all those years!

Bud's memberships included the Sports Car Club of America, Continental Divide Raceways near Castle Rock, CO and the Sports Car Club of Colorado

*** And yes, Mother did a needlepoint of the Piata which I still have
*** And l have the original bullhorn from the Piata
*** And l have the original key ring tag that says "FORD"
***And l have the original membership pins to the different clubs
***And as far as pictures -looks like Jesse has got ém all (mostly l have duplicates)
WE ARE SO HAPPY TO KNOW WHERE THE PIATA IS!!!

 

Nice car and story! I can't believe I missed this great thread after all these years. Gary

 

Looks like a 1940 Ford Grill Guard. HRP

 

Man, I would SO MUCH rather see this car than yet another HAMBer buying a fifties survivor and un-channeling it and tossing the hubcaps and cycle fenders to make it more "traditional" Major kudos to gunswanted for preserving our collective history as it was, rather than as the history revisionists wish it was...

 

The two Estes park Colorado photos I believe to be Colorado State fair grounds in Pueblo not Estes Park. I don't remember seeing Piata but I did see Maynard there and spoke to Jerry's son. I hadn't seen it in years. One of my best friends Cousins built Maynard his name was Jerry Herman. His family owned Herman Marine that was located what is now I-76 and 88th ave in Commerce City behind the Big A Conoco. The Home and shop are still there but I don't know any of the Herman's still have it. Jerry was about 10 years older than me and that car was a big influence on me think I was 14 or 15. I love reading the stories of people and cars on the Hamb. I would like post the story of my 32 5w someday. and as for Gunswanted THANK YOU for your service. When you get back and come to Colorado it would be my pleasure to buy you a beer or 3.

 

What a great story.....the history of this car, the lives it has touched.
I'm glad to see this car has found it's next caretaker, and the right one at that!

 

Included with this post is a photograph taken in August of 1954 at the second Buffalo Bill Hill Climb up Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO. The photo is of a Porsche America roadster driven by Bud Lakas to third place in the Under 1500cc F Modified class. I believe this is probably the car that Bud's daughter Linda refers to as a "Porsche Spyder Roadster 550" in the gunswanted post #102, above. Bud Lakas also drove this car to a second place in class finish in the 1955 Buffalo Bill climb.
The Porsche America roadster was indeed an aluminum bodied competition car, and can be considered to be the first series-produced competition car produced by Porsche. As such it is actually much rarer than the 550 Spyder. Only about a dozen America roadsters were produced versus about ninety 550 Spyders.
The car Bud drove was owned by Alex Thomson in 1953, although I had thought that Bud owned the car when he raced it in 1954 and '55.
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Jesse, what a great story!! Really warms the heart. The car is really cool and glad you have it and care so much about its history. Really special having the builders family so involved all these years later. I'm loading a pic of my cabriolet body as it was when I got it. I tried, to no avail to learn history before building it "my" way.. ( Wondered if the same guy built both cars) Keep us up to date, we love the pics. Tim

 

Awesome post.

 

Rshaw, cool post thanks! I have a pic from the same race track with Bob Mcclure's Jag powered special. It has been my screen saver for a long time now. I have been looking for Bob's car for a long time with no luck so far.

 

The McClure Jag photo I believe is one I posted to the Colorado Hillclimb historical site a couple of yrs. ago. It, and the Lakas Porsche photo are part of a collection of 1950s photos of sports car events in Colorado. After I posted the McClure Jag photo, a response came back from Bob McClure's grand daughter saying the family still had the car. I subsequently spoke with someone who claimed to have seen the car cruising around the Highlands Ranch area. So, it's still out there, somewhere!

 

RShaw, thanks so much for sharing this picture and for providing more accurate info on the type of Porsche it was that my grandfather raced. You are correct that the car was owned by Alex Thomson. That much I can confirm. Alex's daughter, Chris, and my mother (Bud's daughter), Linda, are still close friends to this day. Great to see such a wonderful photo of my grandfather. I plan to share the photo and your comments with my Mom this weekend, on Mother's Day. Thanks again! Nancy

 

Tim
Cutting the doors down to make one look more euro was a common mod that no one does any more. I don't know the exact era of the mod or if it even had one, you could still see them around that way when I was little in the later 50s or earlier 60s.

 

Beaner: I remember them as well.So much so that the instant I laid eyes on the cabrio body I knew what happened to it. Its water under the bridge now!!!

 

I wouldn't probably mod one that way but I would sure run one that way if I had one. Some of that stuff that has been forgotten was just too cool for school.

 

1941 bumper,guards & grill guard.