on Bring a Trailer (bringatrailer.com) auction - offered by a well known shop in Dallas Texas - this shop is offering many special built rides at No Reserve
Great car. I remember building the model kit when I was a kid. Cool then and even cooler now! Wish I was rich.....
I remember reading an interview with Don before he died, He had been searching for that car for years but could not find it. Must have been locked away in someone's garage until that person died or something. Cool that it survived.
As an adjunct to the current thread about "asking prices," this will be a great data point about how well AMBR's are holding their value.
This car was really something to see in person. The upholstery was done at Walt's Trim Shop in Fresno Ca. I would go to Walt's in the evening to watch him work. Walt did the seat back 3 times to get the Dimond tuck to lay into the corners with no puckers or folds. He had to change the shape of the triangles to accomplish this and wouldn't quit until it was perfect. I only met Don once and he was very personable, even to a High School kid like me. The 55 Chevy independent rear was an engineering marvel. Here is a link if you want to read more about Don's beautiful roadster. https://www.tbucketplans.com/tognottis-king-t/
I've heard that it was purchased by a Hot Wheels collector. If true, it makes sense - it was the basis for the "Hot Heap", one of the Original 16 hot wheels castings in 1968.
That's what it sounded like in the comments, and I believe the guy put his bid in like 2 days before the bidding ended and no one bid against him. Almost seems cheap for an AMBR winner in such good shape, but seems like it went to a collector who really loves it so that's cool.
Always liked that T, bought the AMT kit as a kid, the new owner got a great car for the money. The one thing that always bothered me was the year they claimed it was manufactured in, it has a 1915 body with 1914 style fenders. Ford was still building 1914 "style" Roadsters in early 1915, the 1915 style cowl came out midyear. Photo from an early 1915 sales brochure. Bob
Don Tognettis King T was released by AMT as part of a 2 car set with Joe Wilehms AMBR.........I have built both 1/25th scale models in the past 12mths having bought the double kit about 15 yrs ago..........see attached pics of both models..........the Wilhelms Wonder T as kitted should have had slicks on the front wheels(included in the kit) as well but I used "modellers licence" & replaced them with normal white wall tyres......slicks on the front just looked wrong......lol.....apologies, Joe...............regards, Andy Douglas
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