When I was working on the same jobsite, Aerospace, back then, I had the pleasure of meeting Tom & discussing hot rods. Never heard about his passing, he was quite a guy!
Interesting. I have found that posting photos on this site is so easy they practically post themselves!
Dont be to hard on the guy, some folks have no time to learn things that dont interest them. His time was well spent, 40 was way to early R I P.
Thank you for sharing. I'm pretty sure other photos from this sequence show Tom playing the harmonica while riding shotgun in the first AMBR winner.
I have the 1971 issue of Street Rod quarterly in my bathroom magazine rack...I was just reading about the road trip with the Niecamp roadster . I am still curious about what made the Texas Highway worker throw a surveying pole at the car and put a big ass dent in the door....
Two thoughts on Tom Senter. First I'll never forget reading his description on finder his Ardun heads. Second was a sorta close encounter at the first Memphis Street Rod Nats. I was hanging out one evening in the headquarters motel parking lot when Cotton Werksman took Tom for a ride in his Ardun T roadster. When they pulled back in, although he looked a bit white knuckled from hanging on, I saw the biggest smile I've ever seen on a human. Headquarters parking lots were always a fun place to be back in those days. Lee
Thought maybe the boys did something to really piss him off? After all there was a few rocky mountain refreshments consumed during the trip
If I remember correctly Tom bought his heads in a muffler shop and he high tailed it out of there as fast as he could with his new found treasure. That was a fun read but even better was his description of the Safeway Sandblasting Willys at the drags. A fellow spectator asked Tom what was in the Willys. Blown Ardun was Tom’s answer. That’s a truck motor, they don’t buzz said the other guy. Just then Bones Balogh revved it once to clean it out and slipped the Hydro into gear. It revved to 8000 and Bones shifted to second while Senter helped his new found associate return his jaw to its normal position. Tom went on to say that he could not put into words what that Ardun sounded like but if you ever ran into him he’d do his best to give an imitation. The man had a way with words.
Its great reading once again about Tom. While I never had the opportunity to meet him he passed away just before I got my first ARDUN. He was certainly taken to soon. Knowing only one person in my area around who had any idea on how to build the ARDUN I found the R&C White Pages feature to be invaluable in guiding me along on building my first ARDUN engine. If it wasn't for Tom writing the article's the learning curve would have been extremely difficult. Ronnieroadster
The Jalopy Journal
