Wow, that´s some awesome history! I´ll shut up and watch your build now! Thanks for sharing all this info everyone!
Great to see the save, just finishing the chassis rebuild on my avatar as well, mostly raced around the Omaha area, multiple track championships, no modified cut down bodies allowed & factory frames were required. The Lincoln area tracks were similar but migrated to the cut down bodies & differing rules.
Earl Wagner started racing stock cars in 1957. He moved up to super modifieds and sprint cars which he drove until the end of 1974 when he retired from driving. He also ran some USAC races in stock cars. In 1975 he became the chief steward at Knoxville, a position he held until 1999. Earl passed away in 2009.
I am very excited to provide some new updates to the Slim Gutknecht/Earl Wagner #77 coupe body that is the star of this thread. I have pictures of our two daughters playing inside the body in my parents barnyard. I showed it to them and they confirmed that it could have been no later than 1989-1990 that I already had the 1932 body. I mentioned before that I looked at my notes in conversations with Mrs. Gutknecht and she mentioned a VHS video they had done. She said she was asking $15 for a copy.....I was sure I had it somewhere. Today I found it after going thru six boxes.....found stuff I never knew I had ! The VHS has two typed labels from Ruth Gutknecht......."Pleasantville Racers"..... "Slim Gutknecht Earl Wagner Friends and Family"........"1957 When Racing Was Family" On another label, she states that the video contains still pictures and silent movies from 1956-1989. I am planning to get the VHS converted to current technology in the near future......stay tuned. I contacted the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville Iowa today. They have agreed to do a conversion for me. In that discussion, I got a brief overview of several other cars.....one in the museum and one close by. I also learned for the second time that Ruth Gutknecht dictated that the car be PINK so she could always find it on the track.......and.....she hand lettered the number 77 on each car and did any other lettering needed ! I do not have a link quickly available, but if you can find Ruth's obituary, it is a great read......every builder/driver's dream partner. Have fun.....more to come.
I don't want to muddle the content of your thread so hope to soon create a thread that closely relates to your end of the racing world as well, the Omaha/Lincoln surrounding area has a very active revival/restoration of some of the significant early coupes/sedans from the eastern Nebraska/western Iowa dirt tracks, glad to see your save & look forward to following along. It will be fun to see if some of these old time machines did battle on the same ovals.
so this is how this project began . I asked a friend about a car that was for sale after the sad death of the owner. upon arrival I decided that the car I had gone to see , a Plymouth coupe , as in a very poor state and that it wasn't for me . however also for sale was the 32 roadster shown above . a deal was done for the roadster which was a fibreglass body on a classic with all the parts purchased and fitted " sort of " and a correct 32 title . The idea was to just do a quick tidy up and drive it - however when I started to strip it down I realised it was not going to be something I would be happy driving so a decision was made to take a different route . I had been advised that there may be a 32 five window body that was available in the UK and although the owner may be reluctant to sell he was happy to talk to me . I went to view and was happy to meet the owners valuation . I then started on the chassis , which basically involved cutting everything away except the rails and building myself a jig . I then set out to find an original front Model A front crossmember , an original K member and also a correct Rear crossmember , these are original not reproduction . These are all bolted in place at present but plan to hot rivet as it all progresses .
I think its a bit of both to be honest , once I had the 5 window body I wanted to do it a swell as I could and the chassis was awful anyway . I did keep the motor , steering box , front axle and spindles as well .... all the rest was sold on to buy more traditional upgrades
Sorry for a total lack of updates , I’ve been somewhat distracted . small things moved on a bit , I have been taking a little time to try and educate myself a bit on getting the frame right . Anyway one of my inspirations is Bennett’s customs in Australia , I first came across them when looking as speedster builds and have found the YouTube channel very helpful when doing the frame . I also really liked the licence plate holder / horn holder front crossmember from a model A . So I spent a bit of time making one of those . I also couldn’t resist getting the body mocked up on the chassis , which was the first time I had done that . One of the distractions was this little fella . I have had the chassis for this for a few years and have done nothing but fit a Jaguar XK engine and a manual overdrive gearbox . A few weeks ago I managed to buy this body , which has an interesting history itself . In 1935 MG sent an N type Magnette with a racing body to Lemans and it did extremely well , the car returned to England and was campaigned for years after - in 1950 the car was in a bit of a mess so the body was replaced - this is the body that was fitted - the car was campaigned in the 1950s - I’ve attached a picture of it racing in period . The car was acquired by the current owner in about 1961 and the decision was made to fit a body like the original Le Mans one and this one ( known as the whale ) was sold and had been unknown in most circles until very recently when I acquired it . The plan is to build an ash frame and use it as a hill climb / road car here in the UK The other distraction is this little corvette . imported into the UK in 2011 it has been restored as an exact replica of the Scuderia Scirocco 1962 Le Mans entry . Full FIA Historic passport it raced Goodwood Revival in the Kinrara trophy and also classics Le Mans in 2017 . It requires a bit of improvement and a few little jobs ironing out but that will be done over the winter alongside building a race car transporter . Plans are to use the car for historic racing as part of an upcoming to programme I work with and also to be able to offer a “hire a race car package “ in Europe . Where we can supply car , transport , pit crew and backup for anyone with the required licence to race at prestigious historic races in England and Europe .
I can definitely understand how you got distracted with those two worthy projects. Congratulations and keep up the good work.
Could you please explain the expression 'ash frame'? I've seen that used quite a few times over the years in reference to the construction of English cars and get confused. Usually small sports car types. To me, the frame is the perimeter steel (usually channel) structure the chassis is build with, i.e frame rails. Surely a chassis is not built with a wooden frame?
Hi , amazingly some cars were built with wooden frames back in the day - famously Morgan sports cars . However in this case I mean the frame on which the aluminium is moulded round and fixed to - a traditional construction for bodies by coach builders back in the 20sand 30s when you would just by a chassis and running gear off the car manufacturer eg Rolls Royce and that would go to a coach builder eg Mulliner and have a bespoke body made for the owner . Pre dates Mass production which we didn’t really get over here until after the 2nd world war . Henry obviously led the way with the model T over there when it comes to mass production - British car makers tended to be very small companies at that time and there were lots of them . I’ve attached a few pictures of an ash frame I recently took pictures of to get a few ideas - I hate working with wood so heed all the help and inspiration I can get
Thanks for the clarification and pictures. Morgan was one manufacturer I have read about with references to 'wooden frames.' So they really did use wooden chassis frames. Amazing. No rust, but watch for woodworm!
Wow.....the old Earl Wagner coupe sure looks better than it did sitting in our barnyard in Iowa in the 1990's ! Looks like it is coming along great. I still need to get the Slim Gutknecht home movie VHS video converted to modern format so I can share. And by the way......I Love both those other projects especially the speedster, but also your concept and vision for usage of the old C1 Corvette......by far my favorite era and I still miss my 1959. Please keep us posted.
My ex- lived across the street from the Knoxville track, her Dad sold parking in his front yard on race days.
Updates have been poor and I apologise for that . I’ve been having a bit of a re evaluation of life and have sold a load of my projects to concentrate on ones I really want . Obviously the 32 stays !!! But I’ve added another 32 to the stable - but that’s more of a British Hot Rod and what some of us crazy red coats did after the war when we were bored and needed a thrill . I’ve also managed to find a motor for the 32 Ford , 51 mercury flatty
Did a little work repairing some of the nasties on the A pillars before attaching the replacement header rail at the front - I took the rusty bits out of the inner on the old roof front and offered it all up together for the first time in a few decades
The Jalopy Journal
