In 1940, Sewart Allen was a privileged college kid living in Los Angeles with a child-like obsession with cars. He was also pretty talented in that he had great vision and decent skills out in the garage. It wasn't long before that vision took over a... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Damn fine car. Wish I was a privelidged kid back then So are the color pictures of the car today? Has it been restored or found as-is? Just curious. Whatever happened to Stewart Allen?
What a beautiful car !! Did any one else notice that the clutch pedal sits on top of the brake pedal?????
Fuzzy, That is the shadow of the steering column not the other pedal. Look at the carpet to follow the shadow. Da'scrump
I saw that car in Hemmings or another mag a few years back.I think it was reunited with one of it's first owners.
I believe Jive-Bomber Jay did a Blog about this car last year ... Yep, here it is: Yankee Doodle Roadster for sale…
... and HAMBr coachcraft.ltd (Rudy Stoessel's grandson) listed it in the Classified section of your own damn website! ... just click HERE.
Scrumpy Use your zoom feature and you can clearly see the brake pedal is under the clutch pedal . Maybe the pedals are a bit loose? No big deal
The car was purchased by collector Larry Harvey a number of years ago, and he had it spectacularly restored by Bob Mosier in Inglewood, CA. Larry decided to sell it and put it in a couple of auctions, but it never realized a price he was willing to accept. The last time I saw it was at the Driving Museum in El Segundo, CA. I don't know if it's still there, and/or if Larry has succeeded in selling it. The car is big bucks, but the quality is absolutely above reproach.
I'd be interested to know the current status of the Clarence Solomon car, which I believe was built at about the same time. The last thing I knew about it, the car had gone to Texas, and had been recustomized -- Different top and/or rear window, stance, and some other details. It was painted metallic red. Anybody know about this one? Rik, are you listening?
Think of all the time you would have saved researching by reading those other two posts... LOL. As I read it I thought to my self, "Self, I think I've read this before." Regardless, thanks for sharing and bringing it back into the lime light!
Yeah... I'm listening... but unfortunately I have no updated info on this one. This car has not been seen at shows or runs for some time. It has been Hot Rodded (nasty word in this case) in the 80's... now running black walls and like you mention a newly shaped top.... such a shame. I hope one day it will be rebuilt the way it was built by Coachcraft... this one is still one of my all time favorites... as is the Ten Year Special. But the Solomon is more like a customs... which I like just a bit better. Its not really to bad how the car looks in the photo's above.. and we should be really happy the car is still around... But below you can see the real beauty of this great Coachcraft car. Photo from the Mark Murray Collection
I think it is... His name is Tex Meyer's (or Myers)... and the car was featured in dark red in a Street Rodder Issue. I dont have that issue, but somebody copied it for me... And right now I have no idea where the copies are, to confirm this. But the photos of the car in white show Arkansa plates. The photos where taken at the Coachcraft shop.. and Derby Ahlstone (owner and restorer of the Coachcraft Paul Plannette 1939 Mercury) send them to me.
And to get back on topic... Here are a few more photos of the "Ten-Year Special".. or "The Yankee Doodle"... I have always wondered how this car looked when it still had the 1940 Ford hood and grille on it. This is the only photo I have been able to find of it with the Ford hood still on it, but it does not show the front. This one was posted by Coachcraft in another thread about their cars...
There is a site about the Yankee Doodle Roadster and on it you can download a nice brochure (3.6 MB PDF)... Click on the photo below to get to the site.
I Remember the article. If I remember right, the car was in pretty bad shape. I always thought the car looked a little different. Looks better in the original build. But at least he SAVED the car.
Back in the early 1950s, a fellow here in southwest Missouri took a couple 46 Hudsons, some imagination, some help from his friends, and built this little roadster. Featured in a 1952 Motor Trend issue. There was a series of pictures during progress of the build. Have no idea where the car went, but the same fellow later tried to build a fiberglass sports body on a 50 Chrysler frame. His nephew told me several months ago that the fiberglass as he mixed it didn't hold up very well.....the job was eventually scuttled. I would go to his shop in the back of his place of business and look at that one. I knew nothing of his first Hudson build til just in the past year or so when the nephew informed me and I bought a copy of the 52 Motor Trend.
Very nice car, but my preference would have about 4 more inches of wheelbase. Looks a little close coupled in the side views.
. Norm, thanks for bringing this thread back up.... So, Started in about 1940 and finished in about 1950??? .....And after changing hands so many times It would have been easy to just give up on the unfinished project given that so many owners seemingly "lost interest" on the job at hand... But no, Stewart, along with CoachCraft boys -had lain the ground work for something that was smooth and curvy, even sexy. With each new owner came a fresh twinkle in the eye, ---The ability to see the pure sex of what was there, And the vision to carry on where the last love had left off. A job well done... ================= ....It's not hard to see the 1950's flowing lines of most any European sports car underneath those 40 coats of mirror finish lacquer. -Just do a Google search for Le Mans racing (pre 1965) and you'll be staring straight in the face at very similiar aluminum bodies flying past ~25 years after this cars inception. Thank God for Visionaries.... .
The Jalopy Journal
