Went to the Petersen's Open House. They have some neat stuff hiding in the basement. Sorry for the bad pictures.
Original was damaged by an engine fire but is currently beeing restored back to original condition by Brizio. What you see in the photo is not the Ala Kart but rather a semi clone of the Ala Kart.
That place is so great, some truly amazing stuff. I was down there last year and was in awe, of course that was when my camera decided to take a dump on me. No need to worry about the quality of the photos, the light down there sucked anyway. But that is just a fraction of the cool stuff down there. I'll dig up my list, but a memorable car was a 38 Rolls, with gigantic round doors. Made for some sheik or something and later plated in gold. But the workmanship was impresive. Thanks for the pics.
They have a lot of cool stuff down there. I took a lot of pics last spring. I never got around to posting them though. Here are a few more (not to hi-jack your thread ) A Camaro Gene Winfield built
I never noticed before but that SOLD sign you see in the picture is from when my firm sold the Petersen the XR6. I used to sit in it every morning to check voice mail and return phone calls!
Great pics ChevyGirlRox, what's the name of the orange track type with the big boots on all 4's... I remember being struck the first time I saw that one in a magazine...!
How do you get to see the basement cars? Just ask or do you have to prearrange? and do you know if they will let individuals down or only groups?
I was invited to the basement as part of a convention I was at there at the Petersen. I imagine if you call ahead and make arrangements they may be able to have a curator escort you down there.
The original Ala Kart was burned when the engine caught fire at a car show in the east. The car was then owned by AMT model company, and two "executives" were out late and returned to the auditorium after it was cold and left the car outside. When they tried to start it in the morning, the fuels line had cracked from the cold and pumped fuel into the engine compartment and sterted the fire. Barris repaired the car and it was documented in one of the magazines of the day. It then went through a series of owners and wound up in Arizona where it sat for about 25 years. That is the car that is at Brizio's. The one at Petersen's is the "Howdy" clone, I imagine. When I owned the Matador, I tried to buy the Ala Kart from the guy in Arizona, but he wanted $5,000 and I thought that was ridiculous. I never said I was smart.
You could ask on of those guys in the ''real cool' black jackets Several times per year the basement it open but it's not as interesting as the old city wherehouse next to the freeway! Where? house? At one time the city had the largest publicly owned collection of automobiles in the country....... Ask them about BMW screwing up their trip to Italy ..... but don't tell em I told you
I think the orange/red track roadster was Ermie Immerso's(?).It's got an Ford Indy 4 cammer engine. Seems like it won AMBR a few times. Great article in one of the mags a few months ago about the auction of all his toys when he passed on. Think he owned Thunder- bird exhaust products. Dale
i could be way off but i believe that it was the first winner of the grand national roadster show. full belly pan and just a pretty cool car to poor over. i'll try and post more pics of it later, it was on display when i went there a few years ago.
WOW too KOOL!!! I love this show rod stuff.Wasnt the touring used in a Elvis movie?? The T was built by Lonnie Gilbertson in Milwaukie Oregon,it won AMBR in two different looks.........You realize if L.A. has a major earthquake...the history of our hobby is history!
You are right about the blue track nose roadster. It belonged to Bill Niekamp and it did win the first AMBR award. I remember seeing the white roadster with the red scallops ( flames?) in many a magazine over the years. Hard to imagine that the first Oakland Roadster show winner is sitting in some basement. WOW !
Big disagreement whether the blue roadster, which was indeed the Niekamp Roadster, or the Flint roadster, was the car in the original NHRA Logo. Truly one of the premiere traditional troadster of all time.
ChevyGirlRox, No "thread hijack" at all. You got pictures of stuff I couldn't get to. Elvis drove the Barris built car in "Easy Come, Easy Go" with Ann Margaret.
Thanks its was driving me nuts trying to remember that movie....with all the kool show rods.....could a ISCA show rod feature be in the future??? sick minds want to know
I knew it and the one to the right were both AMBR winners but it wasn' until I watched this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=VTlYD-i8070 mentioned in this thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=220801 that helped me put two and two together. It is the Niekamp Roadster. The FIRST winner of the AMBR trophy in 1950! My how have times changed (for the worse!) There is more info on it here: http://www.remarkablecars.com/ppads/showproduct.php/product/2019 And on one of my favorite sites, How Stuff Works, here: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/niekamp-roadster-hot-rod.htm EDIT: I am sooo blonde sometimes. I didn't realize someone answered the question like 5 posts ago. Oh well, above is MORE info!
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