Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: When a Car Show Turned Deadly! Continue reading the Original Blog Post
Never heard that story either. Amazing how times have changed. Now if that happened Roth would have been sued into oblivion and that would be know as his last stand.
WOW that is scary. Reminds me when I drove truck in Flordia. I was making a delivery to the Orlando air port and I had to go out to the landing strip to make this delivery and I saw all hell breaking loose around one jet. Turns out the captian was reving up the engines to take off and the turbine exploded and came apart. It sliced right thur the plane killing a women and her son sitting next to it. Scary stuff. Bruce.
interesting - was at a big GG car show years back, a girl that was about 12 was allowed to drive her Grand Father's 30's sedan during show and lost control of it and hit another car - no one killed. My car club used to hold a big evening Main St cruise nite before a big GG Show, with no fee charged to participate, where rods could park and/or cruise. but, after a couple of years the crowds of visitors grew into the thousands and the risk of a car having a problem while driving through the crowd brought the end to the cruising. plus, too many dogs not on a leash, kids standing on running boards, etc brought an end to the park'n'show too. for years after cars would show up looking for the cruise/show.
I also had never heard this near tragic story. Wow, they lucked out that it was not a fatal attraction. Yikes!!
Brings new meaning to a compact car. Rotar, 1965 http://www.ratfink.com/ed-roth-custom-cars.php Rotar stands for "Roth Air Car". Ed used two Bell Auto Parts built 650cc Triumph twins laid on their side. A high pressure prop was mounted to each engine that created a cushion of air that allowed Rotar to propel itself on land and water. Directional flaps on the bottom were plywood and the rear fin was fashioned after Ed's '59 Cadillac. This is an excellent example of the value of Ed Roth custom cars. This car sold a few years back for over $200,000! http://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Ed_Roth's_Rotar Courtesy of Rik HOVING
Wow! Here's a bit more from a rather interesting book: https://books.google.com/books?id=k...MEQ6AEIXDAN#v=onepage&q=rotar ed roth&f=false
I owned and restored Rotar. When I got it the crankshaft on the right motor was broke Off flush with the top of the block. I made a new fan for it by copying the other one. I attached it to the broken engine and made it look like it would work, but I never tried to fix it to run for fear the same thing might happen again. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Here is a pic of me and Big Daddy in front of Rotar at the GSTA car show in 96. The angel hair on our heads was his idea Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mo
To get your attention. Worked on you, me, and everyone that's read this. I'm glad I opened this thread. While far from my favourite Roth car, I did know that it had come to grief at a car show, but didn't know the details. This incident could have easily turned deadly, and I'll bet those people who got smacked up with flying Rotar parts, were not real happy.
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