History Another batch of photos from HOT ROD

Well sad to say this is the last of this particular batch. But I will continue to search the archives for more

In late August, the original Ford Mustang prototype was captured in the L.A. shop of famed bodybuilders Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes. Barely a month later, the tube-framed, midmounted-V4, front-drive, 1,480-pound prototype made exhibition laps and fans at both the Watkins Glen and Riverside Grands Prix.

Ford described it as a study vehicle for possible production of a sports car. Motor Trend predicted that its Impact should hit squarely and cause excitement in three or four or five years, adding, Unlike so many styling projections and dream cars offered so far, this one is crammed full of usable ideas.




The day before the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix in Riverside, Carroll Shelby (right) and Ford upstaged Zora Arkus-Duntov (left center) and Chevrolet by sneaking the second Cobra ever built into a so-called Experimental Production class and race that SCCA conceived for brand-new Sting Rays; in particular, the fearsome foursome of Z06 fastbacks entered by Mickey Thompson.

Despite Bill Krause’s sizable horsepower handicap, his spunky, 260ci roadster swapped leads with Dave MacDonald’s 327ci Corvette (background) until the Cobra’s rear hub carrier failed an hour into the 300-mile enduro.



These had to be the trickest transporters at Laguna Seca for October’s SCCA showdown. Meister Brau beer outfitted one of the earliest tractor-trailer rigs in the photo archive for hauling the high-dollar Scarabs and Chaparrals campaigned by Harry Heuer, a member of the brewing family.

Norm Holtcamp had other ideas and started from scratch on his Cheetah, sliding an electric-load-leveling Mercedes sedan chassis under a ’60 El Camino cab purchased at GM’s Van Nuys Boulevard plant.

A hot-rodded ’57 Corvette 283 and three-speed Chevy trans mount amidships. We don’t know whether Holtcamp hit his target of 112 mph fully loaded, but you can be sure that second-owner Dean Moon wrung top speed out of the Cheetah before parking and neglecting it for years at Moon Equipment Company.

Longtime HRD readers will recall a small color snapshot in our May 2013 issue of the disembodied remains in the yard of collector Geoff Hacker, who tells us that full restoration is scheduled to start later this year at JR’s Speed Shop.



Longtime PPC photographer Bob D’Olivo identified art director Art Smith, but neither the blonde nor the legs.

Not much work was getting done the day that SCG editor John Christy wandered by, two weeks before Christmas.


The Mysterion signaled the beginning of Ed Roth’s asymmetrical (some would say dysfunctional) stage. The dual-engined gas dragsters that proliferated during these fuel-ban years might have inspired the twins that buddy Budd Anderson procured from Ford (said to be 406s, but probably ordinary 390s).

During transport between shows, their combined weight repeatedly cracked and ultimately collapsed the Swiss-cheese frame, which was stripped and junked along with the body.

Reader Don Baker saw the HOT ROD Network preview of this article and sent in a memory of riding bikes with his childhood pals to a show at Devonshire Downs (San Fernando Valley). Lacking money for admission, they arrived early that morning and sat outside, watching the show cars arrive, “when Big Daddy rides in, towing Mysterion.

He was alone and asked us to help getting it off the trailer. We pushed it right onto the show floor. Pretty cool at that time.”

We found the image on one of the final rolls exposed by staff photographers this year, yet the Mysterion was completed in time for the start of the indoor show season in January.

 

The history is not from loudbang. It is lifted directly from the text accompanying the photographs in the TEN archives.

Roo

 

Who cares. Loudbang found the site and took the time and effort to re-post it and share it with all of us...getting this history in front of a LOT more folks than would ordinarily see it.

And he DOES mention, early on, where he found it.

Thanks Loudbang

 

The '31 roadster movie car was in Bye Bye Birdie 1963.