Here's a barn find lead.. '57 Oakland Roadster Show winner

nasty looking hope it's cheap

 

Look at the car in the context of the day. It was one radical car, to be sure, still is! I'd own it from a purely historical standpoint. Here is a show circuit custom car that has actually survived fifty years in storage, ready for the right buyer to either restore as it was in 1957, or add tasteful touches to it (especially that front end!) and personalize it, adding a new owner's interpretation of how the car might be built now.

I concur with most of you guys so far. No disrespect to the builder intended here, but the car really is ugly. The car is rolling history, but that does not, in and of itself, translate to desirability. The price would have to be right for a sale on this car. Would I own it? Strangely enough, I would. But, it would not go back to its 1957 show days exactly as built.

 

Looks like the front caught fire. No, I mean real fire. Look at the last couple of pix.

 

How period correct do we want to be? I wonder what responses would be if it was a roth or barris car? This is a history car that won alot of shows, so apparently it was a crowd pleaser.

 

this car was build in the mid 1950's-- almost 10 years before the Orbitron and other overly radical "60's cars" (many of which i could consider ugly if i didnt look at them from the right perspective.) that said, i've got to give the builder credit for being very (yes, overly) radical for back in his time. it's the overly done radical approaches that many times allow the next guys to tone down, adjust and dial in.

to me, this car represents playing with a lot of the fire that would become dialed in more in the 60's. for it's time i think it's ballsy, visionary and i dig it's place in history.

from the right angle, i see beauty.

-scott noteboom

 

and, if nobody calls this old timer, learns some stories & details, and at least goes out to his place to check out the car-- i'm going to really disappointed in my fellow HAMB goons.

if i wasn't tied up, i'd be out there in a heartbeat. hell, im getting tempted to untie myself and get out there anyway...

any guy who builds a car in the mid 50's and holds onto it in a shed for 50 years, likely also holds onto even more history in his head and at his place...

-scott noteboom

 

Yeah! History, is what we all need, before it's too late! Good call and thanks for sharing. The blower is awesome!
JT

 

Im going to try and get ahold of him as soon as I get off work, atleast it would be great to get pics and listen to someone who probably has great stories.

 

Ya it's got some neat parts ............but WTF

 

It's like alot of FEDs... cool as Hell, did well for what it was intended and not everyone's taste. Me? I think it's confused and not pretty...But I'd have it and I would put it back as it was. IMHO, if you would change it you should buy a stocker and build your own, too much history to screw with. As stated before, how many of you would 'personalize' it if it were built by Roth, Barris, etc...?

 

I agree, its one of my favorite cars of the period. Kind of like that Ranchero "The Outer Limits" or whatever it was called, with the custom bed.

I always thought this car was eventually just crushed, like the moonglow did, or even parted out, like the mint grasshopper. I'm thrilled to see it still around, and hope to see it get restored to its show prime, like many awesome customs of the time are!

 

I`m not into that style at all. In a way it kind of reminds me of the horrible looking cars that the major manufacturers are trying to sell today,but no one is buying them.

 

some people's taste is all in their mouth.

 

Depends. Not everything they built was perfection, or pleasing to the eyeball, either!

 

uh......................no

 

Yeah, let's get the old "east vs. west" custom controversy going again!

Think of this car in context: Late 1950s. WILD. SHOCKING. BREATHTAKING. Designed to get your attention and make you talk about it--good or bad. By this time period the custom/show scene was red-hot and you had to come up with something WILD, like this car, to get and keep people's (short) attention. This car was on blocks by 1960, that's how fast the show scene was changing. Like this car or not, it should be appreciated in the context of the crazy custom car show scene of the late 1950s.

 

Did anybody call and get the price?

 

x2

Frank

 

Was ugly then is ugly now.

 

Noone has posted that it turned 112 mph in 12.5 secs., I wonder if there are any pics of that???

 

$12......hell , you guys call. it's probably overpriced by a million dollars.

phone calls are cheap on weekends.

 

Yea, it took me about 30 minutes into the conversation to finally get him to price it and he said 150K......but, he said that he would be chatting with "George Barris" this week to see what the car is worth........He said that he ran the car @ Bonneville to 165mph then the car caught fire from the 97's......and I told him that I was chatting with Grabowski that afternoon at a car event and he told me that him and Norm used to run around together back when they were younger.....and then I started to hear more stories. I wish that I was closer to stop by and chat with the guy in person.

 

I just talked to Jerry, he is a super nice guy. The 50 cad is in his jet boat, the 97's are there and everything else to put the car back to the way it was. He raced all over northern california and has trophy's to boot. He said the 112mph at 12.5 was from bonneville. Now lets talk trash about this car with race history!!! I wish I lived a little closer, it would be nice to just set and look at some pictures of his ventures.

 

Okay, so the Moon Bat supposedly has race history, it's still ugly.

 

Untie yourself Scott!!
I'll even chip in for gas and pay the $4 bridge toll.
San Jose to Fair Oaks is only 2 1/2 hours away....

 

Scott if you could meet with the guy and take pix it would be worth it...........super nice guy to chat with via the phone.

And I know that a handful of HAMB guys think that the car is "ugly", but how many of you can say that you built a 12 second drag car & a 170mph Bonneville car?

 

it may have a very "unique" and interesting style, but....
how many guys are running around with an A-coupe with a 3" chop... or a merc sled. Sure, they're almost all done slightly differently, but to untrained eyes those cars are sheep in a flock. I used to dig musclecars, but shit man... everytime I see a '69 chevelle or a '72 Nova SS Clone, I cry... the lack of imagination just plain sucks. Might as well go buy some crap off the lot, so it can be just like all the others.
So, in the end, my vote is "it's not my style, really... but I dig it". And I'd be proud to own it... bring 'er back to daily glory, with a tad of my own flair, and drive it like the one-of-a-kind masterpiece it is.

 

I would in no way change it during a restoration.
If you want something different than this, then cut up a different t bird.
to change this rollong pice of history to "personalize" would be sacrelidge.
this is what the traditional part of the hamb is about, and to modernize this traditional custom would be a shame.

 

awesome!
I also like notebooms mindset, might be a tad on the weird not flowing side, but it deserves to be restored to its former glory, it is a time capsule and as stated previously, it served a purpose, if nothing else, to start the creative wheels turning in others who viewed it in its day. Who knows what has been created from others getting ideas and such from it. I wonder how many kids saw it and others at shows with their pops and are building stuff today from seeing some of the wilder builds of that era.

 

It was UGLY 52 years ago and looks worse now, a classic example of no taste.