The following is a letter and a series of photos that I received from Charles Heyer. Enjoy the history. Hi Ryan, Thanks for offering to look at my story about my father's rac... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Photos and stories like that are humbling. It's easy to lose sight of the true roots of what we love with all of the glitz and glamour in the majority of the hot rodding/custom world that we see through magazines, car shows, movies and in our own garage. I see old photos and hear stories like that and I look at their faces, their clothes, their strong arms and broad backs and realize that they were REAL men; Hard working daredevils with balls big enough to push with a wheelbarrow. Something to live up to, and if not, at least to respect. I sure hope Charles Hyer finds that car some day.
That's a great looking car there. I hope somehow it survived and will be found by someone one day. Really wild looking from the front to see such a narrow car. I wonder if he has anymore photos of the car?
Awesome story..... but you forgot the part about finding the car after all these years in it's original glory.
The engine is an overhead valve inline 6, built before the straight 8's. They were pretty reliable but not all that strong, and very out of date by the mid thirties. A perfect candidate for a Ford Flathead if it had been used into the 1940's... wonder if it still exists and it still has the Buick 6?
That car looks European to me, particularly French. What was his styling influence, other than aerodynamics and driver safety?
We need to exercise the "Power of the HAMB",and help unearth this historic car. Thanks for sharing this story,lets finish it with a great ending.
Charles: Great story, and those photos are awesome. I can appreciate how difficult it is to find a car that had family ties. In regards to my Dad's "Venus", the Massachusetts owners found me as opposed to my finding them. Had a name plate "Venus" not existed on the body, they would not have known what it was called, nor would they have ever been able to do a Google image search to eventually find my website. Other than what you're doing by spreading the word, I wouldn't know how in the heck you would find this car except to start hunting in every auto bone yard in a 100 mile radius, or even placing picture ads in little town newspapers in the vicinity. But hard to think that anyone would scrap a racer like this. Ever thought of building one from scratch from just the photos? That would be awesome!! Thanks to Ryan for bringing this story to us, and thanks for submitting it. I love this stuff! Anymore photos? Patrick
1930's, home-built race car, throws some dirt, converted for the street. That's hot rodding in pure form.
It's weird in a cool sort of way. I agree with Randy,although I suspect it went the other way 'round more often than not. Any way,best of luck with your search.
Thanks for the comments, guys. I bet my Dad is smilin' down. It's a long shot that I'll find ol Lucky 13, but let's all keep our eyes open-she's hard to miss! I'll be retiring in about 5 years; maybe I'll have to build another one!
That would be an excellent idea. You've come to the right place if you need advice on how to do this, the HAMB can most likely answer whatever questions you'd have and help you source the parts. If you really do it, post your build here and ask questions often.
Yeah, I've been getting that feeling that I found the right place. And hey, I've got five years to convince my wife!
You know, as far as wives are concerned - I think it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, and I can't imagine she could look at those pictures and hear those stories and not understand why something like Lucky 13 would be so important to you. Could it be it's similarities to an all time favorite female orifice?
Welcome to the HAMB! That has to be one of the best intros by a newbie, great car sure hope it is still out there. There is something about the photos that strikes a nerve, have they been published before, or were they at a fleamarket?
You ask for more photos? OK, here's a perfect side view of the car totally complete. Notice the headlights and the radiator ornament (Whippet, I think). EXCUSE THE THUMBNAIL PIC. I'M STILL TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO UPLOAD FROM PHOTOBUCKET AN IMAGE OF THE PROPER SIZE!
Yes 37kid, these were published before - in May 1979 in Old Car Illustrated. They ran a three page spread on it, but I got no response about the whereabouts then. But now with the HAMB who knows, maybe someone knows where it still lies. heyerground