Hot Rods Rich Roberts and Friends rebuild the Olson Brothers ‘32 Ford Altered Sedan

Two very awesome cars! Good to see it back together again. Great work by the way.

 

My husband is the first builder, we have all kinds of pictures and the reck. You should have gotten all kinds of information from the seller .so you are now the proud owner of the best little old ford that went really fast. [email protected] 319-576-3264
I have loads of pictures and the video of his reck.

 

It would be cool if you could post some of those pictures and the video of the wreck Steve.

 

This is awesome I was hoping someone involved with the cars past would see this! I’ll be sure to forward your email address to Rich so you guys can hook up and exchange pictures and information. We got a lot of old pictures when Rich picked up the car but would love to get more history on it.

 

Ok, I know a guy in Ft. Madison, Iowa who has several old pictures of it in the old days. Name is Craig Tomfeld. If interested, I could get in touch with him and see if he would forward some of them to you. I lie 30 miles South of Burlington on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

 

Wow cool team !

 

I got the binder full of old pictures from Rich and as soon as I can make a coherent post out of them I’ll post the pictures of the car through the years. As a side note if anyone is in the market for a hell of a nice race operation Rich has decided to put the car up for sale. PM me with any questions or for Rich’s contact information if you’re interested! This is an incredibly well built car with only a few soft shakedown passes on it.

 

I took this photo of the Olson Brothers 32 sedan with my little Kodak Instamatic 104 camera. This was at the World Series of Drag Racing in Cordova Illinois in the early 1970s. I believe when I took the photo the 32 had a 427 Ford FE hi-rise engine in it. For awhile it had an injected 427 Ford SOHC in it.

 

Little easier to see this way

 

Nice picture, thanks for sharing. That car was Legendary here in Burlington. Sure looks good now, but looks weird to me with out the Olson Brothers writing on the sides .

 

Ok, I finally had time to sit down and take some pictures of the scrap book that was given to Rich with the car. Some of the images aren’t the best since I was taking pictures of pictures and I was afraid to take some of the older picture out of the scrap book because they felt like they were stuck to the plastic covering them. Enjoy the pictures and if anyone has any to add please feel free!

 

I watched the Olsen brothers race this sedan at Eddyville Dragway in Eddyville Iowa more times than I can count throughout the '70's. They were always a tough customer to race and they were great guys. The purple stood out from most all the other competitors and the fans loved seeing the old Hot Rod kick butt.
Awesome memories.
Glenn

 

I agree AHotRod, awesome Memories! Thanks for posting these pictures. Seeing Steve Olson in one picture , so young, then alot of years later, there he is. Cool. I still have coffee with him and some other Hot Rodder 's on Friday 's. So glad it was saved, only wish I was rich so I could own it. Thanks , Used Up Junk!

 

I’m glad you guys are all enjoying the pictures. I wish I knew where the original chassis ended up but as so often happens race cars evolve as they keep getting faster. Show Steve the pictures I’d like for him to know the car is still around! I hope he approves of our efforts to preserve as much of its history as possible. We really wanted to race it for a while but unfortunately Rich’s back has gotten so bad that it’s really tough for him to get in and out of the car and I’m just too damn big to fit properly and safely. It was a fun build and we got to make a few hits with it now it’s someone else’s turn to enjoy it and preserve a cool piece of drag racing history.

 

Thanks for posting the pics. Very cool!!

 

Great pictures. Thanks for posting them!

 

Good stuff, keep them coming.

 

Thank you for rescuing and restoring this car!
My dad and I were always on the lookout for the Olson coupe; he still fondly remembers watching (and hoping) to see the car win the day. Thanks for giving me a little shot of nostalgia too; lots n lots of traveling to tracks in/surrounding Iowa (and some not so close too); especially Cordova for the World Series (I'd bet my dad has video on Super8 of them racing there). Hope that car will give the next gen. as much enjoyment as it has given us.

fm

 

I’m really glad you are enjoying this thread, that was my hope when I started it. I love old race cars so having the opportunity to work on a piece of drag racing history meant a lot to me.

 

I was looking thru my scrapbooks today and found this pic taken in 86 or 87 at MidAmerica Raceway ,Wentzville,Mo. nostalgia drags

 

another one from Wentzville

 

Sorry for the double.


Found a few from Eagle Field.

 

Thanks for sharing and keeping the past alive. I live in southeast Iowa and remember the car. The 12th picture was actually taken at the lee county dragway in Keokuk iowa


Sent from my iPad using H.A.M.B.

 

Way cool

 

This is Craig. I will post some of the photos I have, as well as photos from the Lee County Dragway Facebook site.

 

These two photos were taken, one just before, and the other, the aftermath, of the accident at the 1999 Indy Goodguys Hot Rod Nationals. I took the photo of the one just before, plus I videoed the accident. Thankfully, Steve was not injured seriously, just knocked out for a bit.

 

The Olson Brothers Altered at the Lee County Dragway in Keokuk, Iowa.