Before the Blastolene's, long before the Rat Rod .........There was this Beast. It's 15 feet long and has no bumpers sticking out, the top of the windshield is almost 6 feet off the ground! It has a 10 ft. 8 in. wheelbase and the tires stand 37 inches tall. This Raceabout was custom built for Hoss Cartwright AKA Dan Blocker. He was a car nut as many of you know. He was a pitchman for Nickey Chevrolet, he owned & drove a Z/16 Chevelle for a while. He owned a Genie MK-10 race car called the Vinegaroon with fellow Bonanza star Parnell Roberts back in the 60's. It has a Seagrave V-12 Flathead, and shares some Pierce-Arrow pieces, an Isotta-Fraschini Radiator, Mercer fuel tank, Woodlite drive lamps, Big Guide search lamps, S&M tail lamps and just a bunch of cool bits & pieces all over. Trying to learn some history on the builder if known. Any early pictures or write-ups would be cool as well. The first shot is where it was slid out on go-jacks from a long slumber in the tomb. Thanks to all!
Here are the engine shots, then we have the rear end shots and the last 4 shots are of the front axle, right & left spindles and the spring perch. I'd sure like to know what chassis we are looking at. Would love some input. Thanks!
38FLATTIE Senior Member; on here had a Seagrave engine he was going to stuff into a Packard. It wasn't going to be a speedster but they have the Seagrave engine in common... Just a pot-shot comment, no idea on the chassis
Hoss died in 1972. Bonanza started in 1959. Probably built in the 60's. Hopefully we will learn who built it? When it was built? And what chassis it is on here on the HAMB.
The engine is a 1952 (+/-) one year Seagrave second generation from Pierce Arrow. The chassis sure looks like 1920's truck.
It needs restoration work. Someone made an attempt to start a resto years ago, however it's been stored away for quite some time since then. It's currently in the northern CA. area not far from the Ponderosa Ranch.
I love those dual finned Delco coils! Are they stock Seagrave pieces? Back in the late-60's-early-'70's, I used to search for those coils in 'big truck' boneyards to uses on my and my buddies' small-block Chevies. They were great coils and could throw one hell of a spark! The ones I got mostly came off of mid-50's to early'60's Reo and White truck engines, but I've heard there were a lot of other applications for them too, dating back to before WWII even. Mart3406 ========================
that is an awesome machine. simply awesome. Dan Blocker was one of my favorite TV stars when i was a kid. Micheal Landon? who was that? but HOSS Cartwright? yeah, man!
I've got a NOS one of those sitting in the garage as wall art, tried to sell it in the classifieds several times and never found a taker for almost any price. Just found this thread again, I just purchased the exact same engine as is in the car featured in this thread.. can't wait to tear into it and make some future project sound great
You would never know it from looking at him but Dan blocker was a real car guy. From what I've heard he had a really nice collection of fast cars. Frank
When I was a kid growing up in Los Angeles, Dan Blocker and his wife were good friends with one of my buddies parents. My buddy called me one day to tell me to ride my bike over to his house as he wanted to show me something. I get there and there is a new Maserati parked in front of his house. I had never seen a Maserati before except in magazines. Dan and his wife were inside having cocktails, and I got to meet him. Big dude. Very funny too, as I recall. So he was into cars at least back to the very early sixties.
Hoss was Boss. I think his Z-16 was yellow, if I remember right. Was just sold at one of the big auctions.
im too young to remember the show when it was on but ive watched it on tv land. hoss was always my favorite character--i named my bulldog hoss after him.
Dan Blocker was personal friends with famous auto racing film-maker and author, Dick Wallen. Dick said that nobody ever had an unkind word about Blocker, and for good reason. He really was a wonderful guy and a real car nut. Blocker once owned an authentic 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle SS396 (with the sought-after Z16 option) as Chevrolet was the commercial sponsor of the show. His Chevelle, now in private hands, is sometimes displayed in car shows. He was also the owner of a 1965 Huffaker Genie MK10 race car, nicknamed the "Vinegaroon." The car was run by Nickey Chevrolet in the 1965 and 1966 U.S. Road Racing Championship series, as well as the 1966 Can-Am championship.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"> </sup>
The speedster chassis appears to be a mid teens to early twenties White Model 15 truck - 3/4 ton. The pictures are of the poorer of two of them in my barns. They probably chose this since it is virtually bulletproof; it would handle the V12 power & weight. It would need lots of room to stop though! The original four cylinder White engine has ball bearings on the crank shaft.
The chassis sure looks like a 1920's WHITE truck chassis. This would be their smaller 3/4 ton truck chassis. The hydraulic shocks were added later.
Hi folks,My dad (Bart "Skip" Corrie) built that car in 1966-7 for Bill Anderson, owner of the Ponderosa Ranch. Bill gave it to the big guy. When I last saw it, it had a Merser type round glass windshield mounted on the steering wheel column. Lampworker
Those Woodlites look awful on that car. Completely out of place. It needs some big brass lamps. I saw Dan several times at Riverside Raceway in the late 50s
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