Sorry, that's why I put it in quotes. seems like most pre-27 T's that are built get the Norm Grabowski (no offense steel rebel ) look rather than like this one. I'd love to see more done like this or the Ray Boyles(?) that had the track nose and full belly pans.
There is a photo in the Rodders Journal Scrapbook page 217 and some info in the captions. My scanner isn't working now so I don't have the image....
This is the best pic I've seen of the Neves roadster,from CW's40TPU thread titled "track roadsters of the 1950s". Mentioned that Pacheco and Al Neves were brothers in law.
Pretty cool, and that is straight from the mag pages back in the day (I think), but . . . There is no '24 T or Neves entry on Rikster's site (scans of program), http://public.fotki.com/Rikster/11_...ar-1/oakland-roadster-sh/oakland-roadster-sh/ and . . . Nothing on the Kustomrama site listing the 1950 entries here: Cars Attending: Gordon Vann's 1917 Dodge Roadster Fred Ige's 1923 Ford Model T Roadster Harold Casaurang's 1923 Ford Model T Roadster Don Rocci's 1927 Ford Model T Roadster Pickup Gene Winfield's 1927 Ford Model T Roadster Bill NieKamp's 1929 Ford Model A Roadster Ken Furman's 1929 Ford Model A Roadster 201 - Mac Schutt's 1932 Ford Roadster 202 - David Mitchell's 1928 Ford Model T Pickup Nick Reynal's 1932 Ford Three-Window Coupe Pat Leighton's 1932 Ford Roadster Bill Carash's Roadster Pierre Paul's 1941 Buick Special 204 - Jesse Lopez' 1941 Ford Vincent E. Gardner's 1947 Studebaker Beautiful roadster!
No offense taken. It is all in semantics. It reminds me of when Gray Baskerville printed a picture of my roadster in R.& C. and said "it brings back memories of Grabowski, or Ivo's like-bodied lake modifieds." Now there's another moniker to kick around. I really love all well done T roadster builds.
Great car! Bob Allinger also did metal shaping in the bay area. He did the body on Lee's speed shop Tornado streamliner.
That is NOT Larry Neves in the car... It is my Father ,Terry Chenowth.... This photo was taken in San Ysidro Calif ( San Diego ) in 1951. My uncle Chuck Chenowth owned & raced this car at Paradise Mesa Drags Strip. The roll bar had been removed after Woody Lee ran at Bonneville...
This #2 car is not the same car , The Neves / Lee roadster had 2 seats in it , With a totally different style upholstering.
Earlier today I just ran a featured story on Neves/Lee/Chenowth roadster on Kustomrama before I took off for work: http://kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Larry_Neves%27_1924_Ford On the bus downtown I started to think that maybe people have been mixing together the Neves and Lee roadsters in the past as well? We know now that the guy sitting in the roadster we thought was Larry Neves in fact was Randy's dad Terry Chenowth! Maybe this actually was Larry Neves car all the time: And as you can see it reminds a lot about the Woody Lee roadster: So people have been mixing them together? What do you guys think?
Superfleye I agree.... These are two completely different cars. Does anyone have a color photo of the #2 car. or the Neves/Lee Roadster Here is a photo of the dash of the Neves / Lee Roadster taken in Nov 1951
"Superfleye I agree.... These are two completely different cars. Does anyone have a color photo of the #2 car. or the Neves/Lee Roadster" I would also agree with that. You have to realize that not all info in magazines etc is correct. Thanks to BIGDADDYUSMC we have much more info now...
What a wonderful history lesson on a beautiful car from the days when racing was the only thing that mattered and cars like this one were rare. I will keep turning the pages on this story. Thanks!
nostalgia59 I sent you a email through HAMB,,,, did you receive it ? I would really like to talk to you to find out why your so interested in the Neves/Lee Roadster...
Absolutely, magazines are filled with errors, misspellings and misstakes...they were back then and they are today The same goes with books, so it is not always an easy task! Dick Page posted this photo on my Facebook wall. It comes from HRM June 1952, and it shows the car at the Portland show in March, then owned by Woody Lee again..so it looks like he either bought it back from Chuck or a later owner...
SuperFleye FAR OUT I have never seen this photo... I'll have to see if I can find a copy of the June 52 HRM Here is a photo from a HAMB page titled "Vintage Cal-Neva Dry Lake & Drag Pics (early 50s)" http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=552227&showall=1
After reading the text to the initial article about this roadster, I realized that the nose does indeed look like that of the second iteration of the Novi race car. A little history: The initial car was a revamped version of the '35 Miller-Ford with a Leo Goosen engineered dual overhead cam, supercharged V8 that was fielded by Ed and Bud Winfield (yes those Winfields). Sponsored by Leo Welch, who owned a V8 Ford engine rebuilding company in, Novi, Michigan, it made its debut at Indy in 1941. It was fast but hard to drive. Ralph Hepburn put it on the fourth row in qualifying and it finished 4th in the race. As we all know, WWII brought everything in the U.S., that didn't have something to do with winning the war, to a standstill. After the war, in 1946, the Novi was resdesigned by Goosen, and Frank Kurtis. I won't go into the details, but if you look at that car and the nose on the roadster they appear identical, even down to the bumperette. This was not the last re-design. Andy Granatelli, who also bought and raced one of the '35 Miller-Fords, acquired the rights to the Novi from Welch, in 1960; including all rolling stock, patterns and drawings, and spare parts. After redesigning the supercharger and making other changes, he commissioned Frank Kurtis to build a new body. My quess is that the nose on the Woody Lee roadster came from the spares, or after the redesign. I'm sure there is somebody out there who knows how it came to pass that the nose section of one of the most storied race cars in America ended up on this roadster. I just wanted those who are making suppositions about who built it to focus on the real craftsman who was responsible, whether it was Kurtis himself, or his employees, who were highly skilled and able to work from drawings is a moot point. But, the fact of the matter is this: the results of this amalgam is stunning, to say the least.
Here is some more info from Albert Drake on the subject: "1953 Oakland show program lists what must be the same car. Owned by David thorne and Richard lee. It is rod roadster no. 110 which means it was a "street roadster" (current term) although it turned 124 mph in quarter and 133 mph at Bonneville." The program has no photos of the car...do anyone have any photos from the 53 Oakland Roadster Show showing the roadster?
Just saw the Woody Lee roadster at GNRS. It was stuffed away in a garage for 45 years. Pictures are coming.....
The Wood Lee Roadster is at the 2014 GNRS.....Unrestored , It was recently found in a garage in Los Angeles....
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