There it is! Amazing this car has survived... Now running a different head, a C4 automatic transmission, BW overdrive, 4-wheel juice brakes, power steering, 12v alternator, electric starter, electric fuel pump, fiberglass fan, wire wheels and wearing some different cosmetics... Not a replica from what I can find. My understanding is that the restoration took place before a lot of the primary source material on the car's 1920's appearance was uncovered. Maybe (excepting the obvious modern upgrades...) this restoration is representative of a later version of the Cootie. The write up seems to say that the restoration took place earlier than 1992... Here's an interesting thread from the Model T Club regarding the Cootie with some additional info on Kopper: forum: http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/506218/573455.html?1445462284 Where this photo of the Cootie racing with Capt. Kopper at the wheel. From the same thread, it seems the body was a Paco. The car is great, but the man is fascinating. The connection with Roof is damn neat. He had some following as a racer in the Washington and Virginia areas. He had several automobile-related business, held a patent for a muffler, and by several accounts seems to have been suffering from what we now recognize as PTSD. I came across a newspaper article where he gave testimony about taking a revolver from his drunken father on several occasions... testimony regarding his father forcing a female relative to sign over a sizeable sum of money at gun point. This female relative is again mentioned in accounts of the Captain's disappearance... Kopper was involved in settling the relative's estate when he vanished and his body was later pulled from the Potomic.
I was wondering why a car of this size would need power steering, but it seems from the text that it was used for pressure lubricating the engine. From Jack Schafer's sales ad it seems that the current incarnation of the Cootie is built from the original body put on a new chassis. Here's another neat picture of the car from one of the previously listed links, showing us how a sporty young fellow should dress when motoring in his speedster (attention Joey U):
Man you got style! That photo is great. The car that was photographed in 1922 had come a long way in the 100 years since it was built, and it’s fascinating. But the man in the photo really intrigues me. His story will be one of my sideline history research projects this winter. So far he’d be a great character in a novel...
BULLSHIT. This pic is completely digitally edited which makes me doubt the validity of any of this. Washington, D.C., 1922. "Capt. Kopper and 'Cootie' at White House." National Photo Company Collection glass negative.
The Jalopy Journal
