Breaking Bad

I have very dim memories of Tim Sutton’s call. Less than five hours earlier, I had passed out very suddenly in the bathtub after watching something like 132 straight hours of a TV show appropriately titled, “Breaking Bad.” My Warren G. supplied ringtone brought me out of my porcelain slumber and shook me to my core as I answered in a sort of hushed hysteria.

“What? What do you want? Why are you calling me?”

Tim took it in stride as if he had resolved himself long ago to the idea that I just come with one form of misconduct or another. “Dude… I found a ’32 roadster at the Hill Climb that I want to shoot. Are you paying?” he asked.

“R&C is dead,” I said. “Don’t you know? No one pays for anything anymore – much less shots taken in hot light at some randomly chosen parking lot. Go to hell and take the roadster with you. You might need it.”

Tim didn’t skip a beat. “It’s got E&J headlights, a real Duvall windshield, an Auburn dash, Kinmonts, a Halibrand quicky, magnesium sprint car wheels, and…”

I stopped him there. “Not interested,” I said as I simultaneously tapped the red button on my iPhone.

……..

A few years ago, I was at the Grand National Roadster show surrounded by old men with bright eyes. We were all staring at a glossy ’32 that featured just about every rare speed part that had ever been listed on eBay. One guy pointed a finger at various unobtainable accessories and then whispered a dollar figure into the next guy’s ear. Another gentleman just shook his head and smiled. Another still, got down on his hands and knees trying his damnedest to get just the right angle with his camera. As old farts go, it was pure pandemonium.

Initially, I was impressed too. I mean, I like rare speed parts just as much as the next guy. But, ultimately I’m a simpleton and eventually that part of my psyche won out.  It’s hard for me to explain exactly why I didn’t take to the roadster. It had the stance… It had the look… But the sum of its parts was just too much. As I stood there admiring the car, I was reminded more of the 90’s era show circuit than I was a proper “traditional” hot rod. To me, the car came across as vain, overly polished and more about dollars and cents than hoodlums and ingenuity.

And so, when Tim started rattling off one rare part after another I assumed the worst. To me, a car with all that shit hanging off of it would leave little room for soul and no canvas for imagination. I’d have none of it that day… A few hours went by before Tim found the time to text over an image or two of the car. As soon as he did, I took a 180 on my stance and the number of rare parts that are allowable on any one car. “Shoot it,” I replied. “I’ll wire the money when I have the images.”

……..

As I understand it, in the 1970’s “traditional hot rodding” wasn’t really in the nomenclature. Contemporary cars were being built and the resto-rod look was certainly a thing, but enough time hadn’t passed since the golden era for people to become truly nostalgic for the way things were. As such, things like Kinmont brakes and E&J headlights weren’t worth a ton of money. They were simply cool old parts that one was lucky to have but that others didn’t necessarily spend of ton of time searching for or a fortune obtaining. So when Tom Donahue built the roadster you see here in the mid-70’s, he was building something truly unique for the time out of what could have been considered cast-off speed parts. So unique, in fact, that it was featured in the 1979 Rod & Custom Annual.

Tom drove the car around Nebraska for a few years but eventually lost interest and sold it to Bob James in 1983. Bob drove the car sparingly (last registering it in 1988), but mostly just let it sit in his barn – firing it up monthly to evict the mouse shit in the exhaust and keep it running. His son, Jason James, doesn’t remember a time when his dad didn’t have the car.

“I remember dad taking it out on the town every now and then, but he was always worried that it would get hit or something would happen,” Jason told me. “But it’s that car that made me what I am – that made me a hot rodder.”

Jason spent some time in California learning the hot rod trade, but he is now back home in Colorado. He works for Custom Auto out of Loveland – an outfit that is well known for restoring some of the most historically significant hot rods on the planet. You might know some of their work… Cars like the Berardini Bros. Roadster, the Norman Timbs streamliner, and the Joe Nitti roadster have all rolled through the doors at one time or another.

So, it’s safe to say that Jason knows his shit. And while he didn’t come right out and say it, I think Jason was ready to see this car on the road a bit more than it had been in the past. The Hot Rod Hill Climb in Georgetown, Colorado was just a good excuse to make that happen. That’s where Tim Sutton, our loyal photographer, discovered the car.

……..

And here is where I would typically pick out a few key features of the car and point them out with some witty commentary, but the thing is… That would be damned near impossible to work into a literary flow with this car. There are just so many rare/epic parts in the package that a list form is the only way. So, let’s do it:

1. The first thing that strikes you is the Duvall windshield. Yes, it’s an original piece and not a modern era reproduction.
2. The next thing that draws your eye is probably the E&J Headlights. Remember in the 1990’s when everybody just HAD to have a set? And then as if everyone grew weary of the futile search, they went out of fashion. While I don’t agree with them on every car, they work here.
3. From the E&J’s, your eyes fall naturally on to the original magnesium Halibrand sprint car wheels. Rare for sure… Even rarer in the correct sizing.
4. And when you are staring at those Halibrands, you are eventually going to notice the Kinmont brakes flanking the Houdaille shocks. Now, it’s become popular lately to denounce Kinmonts as worthless stoppers. I can just hear the guy in the satin jacket at the GNRS commenting to his buddy about how the last set he saw went for over $15k on eBay. “And they don’t even stop as well as early Ford brakes,” he’d say. I wonder if he has even driven a car with Kinmont brakes?
5. Of course while you are down on your knees confirming that car does in fact have Kinmonts mounted out back as well, you will notice the early Halibrand quick change rear. Nothing else would be suitable for this car.
6. Eventually, you will make your way to the engine bay and notice the original Thickstun PM-7 intake complete with the matching air cleaner that compliments the marine head covers. The original beehive is almost an afterthought relative to the rarity of the Thickstun equipment.
7. The last thing I always check when examining a car is the interior. When you do so here, the first thing you will notice is the Auburn dash filled with early 2 5/8″ Stewart Warner gauges. What you might not notice is the ’37 Ford radio mounted outside the insert. It’s actually hooked up by cables to a 50’s era Olds radio that’s hidden behind the dash. Trick for trick’s sake.

I could go on of course… I could talk about the Zephyr stuffed ’39 gearbox or the 136 louvered deck lid or the original Fenton headers or the incredibly well done top or even the detailed floor boards featuring red paint and pin striping probably done by some legendary talent of yore… But the list of rare parts on this car isn’t really the point. In fact, I might argue that most of these parts don’t make or break this roadster. What does make this car is the overall look, profile, and feeling of the package when viewed as a whole.

The James Roadster doesn’t feel like a creme puff built with thick pocket books and destined for a show circuit of one kind or another. Rather, it feels like a hot rod ready to be driven and driven hard. Take a look at these images that Tim shot. Isn’t this car just begging to be broken bad?