The hits just keep coming from Tom......Coming from a family of hoarders, I have a lot of this type of paperwork that was handed down. Many stashed in envelopes with other legal papers. I see one there from the town I grew up in....Compton, Calif...
A '34 Willys for $3.00, a T roadster for $5.00; and I thought I was getting a good deal when I bought a rust-free Model A two door body for $15 in the mid-70s.
Go look at these images taken mid week at Bonneville in 1957: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=61953 Notice how few people are in attendance... Nobody outside of our heroes really gave a **** about old cars. The demand for this stuff was tiny. Given inflation, Cobbs paid about $41 for that Willys. That being said, Tom was spending REAL money for modern **** in order to go fast... He paid $600 for a Cadillac motor in 1953. That's about $7300 in today's money. To put that lunacy in perspective, you could waltz into a Ford dealership that same year, breathe in the showroom fumes, and roll out in a brand new ’53 Customline for $4,950. Tom wasn’t just spending, he was firing money out of a cannon in the name of speed. I have over $50k in Bills of sale for 1950 and 55... That's more than half a million in today's dollars.
Wow, pure gold, luv this kinda stuff! $400 for an aluminum sports car body, new hemi, Olds, flat heads... amazing. Thanks for keeping history alive and verified Ryan. This Cobbs collection find just gets more and more amazing the deeper you take us.
$4,950 for a new Ford in 1953 does not sound right. Way too much money. Are you sure of those numbers? I would think more like $2,300.
I think $2,300 is way too high even. I remember when the Ford Maverick came out in 1969 and seems it was $1995. Granted that was the bare bones Maverick, not a Galaxie or LTD.
The Jalopy Journal
