Saltflat Racer or Custom barnfind?

Can anybody blow it up big enough to read the lic. plate? Might be able to trace it that way even tho its an old plate by now.

 

Well the rims are General Jumbo acc. Wheels look like 8 spokes so could be 14x6" 9 spoke would be 15" or 16"wheels. Darrell

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. At a minimum it looks like a high quality custom that was built in the period. I don't think you can piss on that.

 

Im laughing so hard it hurts Help I cant stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I like this post everbody is saying FUGLY! But this pic says alot!!! It sure looks like the same car to me and actually looks impresive. Chrome jumbo's one off body that some one put a lot of time into I think this pic is a start of its hystory! Pretty freakin cool!! Just goes to show that hamb works too!

 

I just had to see these pics right next to the others for a good comparison!

 

Someone must have stripped the rear fenders and headlights if it is the same car as the black one posted above. The tail fin is also completely different on the black one than this one.

It looks to me like someone built this as a replica of the black one, but what do I know?

 

It is absolutely the same car. Some modifications and poor storage have changed it a bit.

 

Tailfin looks the same to me almost a straight line going up and across the top then a radius around the back. Or am I missing something? Ltr Dave

 

its even got the genral jumbo's still on it its the same tail fin just the fenders are missing great find that thing is Leno material

 

i am a bit late to this thread, that thing is stunning, what happend to the old pick of the "black one"

 

The original poster never responded with any more info or photos. I sent him a PM also which he never responded too. At a minimum, a big thank you is in order to av8 for posting an early shot of it.

 

Its just like our hot rods, we always tried to emulated the race cars. the 'rake' was from the lakers using taller rear tires/wheels, for taller gear ratios,dropped axles, and chopping was for less drag. we had 'lakes pipes' and cutouts, we tried to use 4carb manifolds, which was really for alcohol motors [more fuel]. oh and even 'slicks', on the street. , like my 55 mainliner gggg

 

A thanks out to Randy Ema for sending this to me. This car was built by Vaudeville star Ralph Cook in 1932/33. The article appeared in the November 1934 Automobile Trade Journal. The alleged 96 mile an hour top speed makes me wonder what the original engine was.

 

The H.A.M.B. - solving life's custom and hot rod mysteries one at a time.

 

I sent an email to the guy that found it yesterday and the car has been sold. I think it would be really cool fixed up. One issue for me is if it had a more exotic engine in it originally or not.

 

A pair of original photos from Alex Tremulis' collection via the ACD forum.

 

Nice detective work guys, so what's the latest? it seems a shame not to know the whole story.

 

Pretty neat creative ride, especially if viewed in the 32-33 context. What motor is in it now? (While one may not like every facet of it's construction or design, betcha most folks who actually have a resume of building stuff wouldn't find too much wrong with it.

 

I think it originally was powered by a Chevy 6 and it's still in it. The car was sold not long after it was discovered and I do not know where it was found or where it went. It seems a bit underpowered given the aesthetics. Hopefully it will be restored but not a task for the faint of heart.

 

Here is the full history via the Mecum Auction description.

https://www.mecum.com/lots/CA0819-381000/1933-chevrolet-alex-tremulis-design-car/

• Designed by Alex Tremulis
• Displayed at the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair
• Documented with vintage photos of Tremulis in the car with Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Chief Designer Gordon Buehrig
• After Buehrig moved on from ACD, Tremulis became their new chief designer
• Tremulis made an impact at ACD by adding the iconic chromed exhaust pipes that distinguished the supercharged Cord 812 from its naturally aspirated brethren
• After ACD collapsed, Tremulis worked for General Motors and Briggs Manufacturing, which built bodies for Chrysler, Ford and Packard
• Tremulis is best known for designing the 1948 Tucker

Built in the early 1930s for headline vaudeville comedian Ralph Cook, this extraordinary 1933 Chevrolet custom roadster is reputedly the first fully realized automotive design by Alex Tremulis, whose job as an usher in a Chicago theater brought him shoulder to shoulder with many of the starts of the day, including Cook. The resulting custom roadster bore imaginative steel coachwork emphasizing Tremulis’ obsession with aerodynamic design and extravagant detailing. Beneath its unique coachwork, which remains remarkably intact and bears the patina of years of originality, is the conventional Chevrolet frame with leaf-spring suspension and oversized drum brakes behind artillery-style wheels. It is equipped with a Chevrolet inline-6 engine.

At the beginning of a career that would establish him as a titan of American automotive, aircraft and industrial design, the then 19-year-old Tremulis found work in 1933 producing pencil sketches and India ink drawings for Chicago Duesenberg Sales Manager Don Hogan. His design for Cook would have coincided with that period and no doubt helped bring him to the attention of the wider automotive styling community. Cook’s custom roadster was prominently displayed at the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair, as shown in period photographs from Tremulis’ personal archive, some of which show Tremulis in the car with storied Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Chief Designer Gordon Buehrig. In 1936, Buehrig took a lucrative position with Budd Manufacturing Company, opening the way for Tremulis to become chief designer of Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, where his most important contribution was adding the flexible chromed exhaust pipes that distinguished the supercharged 812 version of Buehrig’s famed “coffin-nosed” Cord. The feature ignited record sales for Cord at the 1937 New York Auto Show and earned Tremulis a $20 bonus from E.L. Cord himself.

After the ACD combine collapsed, Tremulis found safe haven from the Great Depression in Detroit, working at General Motors under Harley Earl and then for Briggs Manufacturing, which made bodies for Chrysler, Ford, Packard and other automakers. Tremulis would go on to design the 1948 Tucker, perhaps the most famous of a lifelong body of work that included boat and aircraft designs for the U.S. military in World War II, the Chrysler Thunderbolt retractable hardtop and Chrysler Newport parade car, and the Packard Caribbean. Tremulis’ career was unique among designers, the product of an unbridled imagination that first found its expression in this boldly conceived “Funny Car for a Funny Man.”