Here is a photo I took at the Portland swap meet in 1990 of the former Don Tognotti 5 window from Sacremento California. The car at this time was missing the hemi and the halibrand wheels were long gone.
Same reason any hot rod gets famous, and Don Tognotti was AMBR winner in 1964, and hall of fame inductee in 1965
Hmmmm....cool! Got any pic's with the top off!?!? LoL Funny how it was a mag feature 2 years before it got the award too... Perhaps it wasn't America's Most Beautiful ROADSTER, but some other "major award"? I understand now anyway... I must say that the pic's you posted make it look MUCH better...but the whole proportion thing is still way off. The HEMI and the pipes only barely make up for the kinked look of the frame and the high rad shell. Interesting car though. Any pics of the suspension or bare chassis making the rounds???
Don, owned a performance shop in Sac (not sure if that came after the car was built or before). Not so sure about it winning the AMBR but it had won a few awards in its day and was in a few mags..
By today's standards I agree it's off, but for it's time it was one bad machine. This car didn't win AMBR, he had a T-Bucket that one in 1964 called the King-T.
A friend of mine, Jack Ivy in Tacoma, Washington owned the car through the '80's and into the '90's. The last time I saw it it was missing the pods as well as the Hemi and was painted red. Quite a surprize to see it restored.
I just Googled this from the Barrett-Jackson site, car sold for $216,000. Built in 1960 by the late Don Tognotti, the "Avenger" is one of the most revered and significant period hot rods in existence. One of Tognotti's later efforts, "King T", won the coveted America's most beautiful roadster (AMBR) award for 1964 at that year's Oakland "Grand national Roadster Show" Mr. Tognotti was elected to the Oakland Roadster show Hall of Fame in Jan. 1965. An early example of "wedge channeling," this sleek Tognotti coupe was chopped 3.5 inches and the roof was filled. It was then dropped 10 inches in front and 8 inches in rear, over a 4" stretched 1932 frame. This coupe's competition flavor stemmed from its "suicide" front end, tubular dropped front axle, the Chrysler Hemi power plant, a beefy 1938 Imperial transmission and Halibrand Magnesium wheels with Bruce slicks. This altered wheelbase 5-window won its class at Oakland in Feb.1961. That same month, Car Craft magazine named the car one of its "Ten Best in the Country". The following year, was featured in a special July 1962 Car Craft article "Those Swingin' Coupes/Sedans". The coupe won seven major awards and countless others in its first two years of competition. Most recently, the car was sympathetically restored using Tognotti's own, scrap book and spec sheets, (including Tongotti's memorabilia, correspondence, pictures and publications from the gold age of Hot Rodding will be includeed with the car). The car was one of a select few picked for a display at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2001.
very under-priced if you ask me. one of the most amazing cars ever. period perfect and trend setting. part of "America's Car Collection" now. go see it. "pebble beach!" =edit
The man who had the car restored owns (owned?) the King T at the same time.I helped with the restoring of the coupe.It was bright red and BBC powered.It does have a weird front end.And the man who spent all the money never drove it.
First mention I've ever seen of "America's Car Collection" is that the one the Discovery Channel founder started?
I love the kinked frame deal! I think it would look better with regular headers though. Maybe a small block and regular headers. Dave
The original version kinda grows on ya after a while...but that first pic on the trailer shows its ugly side and turned me completely off! Those pods, the SBC with shorty headers, the funked up steering angles from the retrofitted box and the 'oversize for the job' Deuce shell, really kill everything from the cowl forward in that picture. Tognotti on the other hand, seems to have had much of the look going his way. All I'd like to see done to the original is the cowl raised a pinch to give it a better shot from the windshield to the shell. Be a shame to do that now though. Any close ups of the front axle/bare chassis or the interior? Never heard of the "King T"! Love to see some pic's of that one too...
Al Slonaker was the Founder of the National Roadster Show, later renamed Grand National Roadster Show. Don Tognotti did own/run the show for a while. Cheers Jimmy ps "King T" is the oldest car to win the AMBR being a 1914 model T roadster. I love the 5w and it's worth the 200 grand it sold for.
The King T was one of the cooliist T's ever built There was a 1/25 scale model and a Hot Wheel made after it
Also missing were any reservations about looking like you might be from Florida... or the possibility of creating bumpsteer when assembling steering components. The restored pics make it look a bit more cool. And I'd like to see the front end. (only because I've been told it's interesting.)
somewhere in all my junk, I still have my hotwheels "hot-heap" as Mattel called it. Too bad Don met with a tragic end. He was in the middle of an ugly, ugly, divorce and killed his estranged wife, then turned the gun on himself. Horrible thing to feel that desperate about a situation.
Kevin Lee, here's a shot of the front end of the restored car, also a couple from Sept. '62 - after a rework by new owner Bob McCloskey - that's when the pods (and rear fenders and blower) show up.
You can't tell from the picture,the stock front crossmember is still in there. Has a horrible driving position.Need to sneak past the wheel to get in. I sat in the car and made engine noises as all the millionaires stared at me funny.
Funny how I know what I'm thinking but all you see it what I type. The coupe is a great car.I supplied parts for the Seattle classic car collectors. Gordon Apker,Glen Mounger,and the like.When I first saw the coupe in Ken's collection I was excited.I never could relate to Buggati's,Packard's,Dussenbergs. I hoped in the car and started making engine noises! I sold them the hemi,trans,rear end etc.to return the coupe to it's previous glory.Using Tognottis old notes as a reference.It was at pebble beach in 1999? Judged against the Peirson Bros coupe,So-Cal coupe,as a competition coupe.Even though it was never raced.Kinda shows the pull he has at PB.I have a old picture of that car hanging in my garage,proud to have had something to do with it. In person it is stunning and the headers are very cool!
Could have been hype but the R and C article says "Hilborn-injector fed 6-71 GMC blower, Iskenderian five-cycle cam, Jahns pistons get 490 horses on 20% nitro". No E.T. or Speed listed but maybe it made a pass or 2.
The Jalopy Journal
