The black made them look different. I was not sure what they could have been made from. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
First thing I thought when I opened this thread was: "Hey, that looks quite a bit like the one in my avatar." <------- So I built one........ just in 1/24 scale.
I think this is Lou Senter's T roadster. If you look closely at the photo I've included you can see the Chrome band on the spare tire the knockoff on the gas tank and the hairpin mounts on the frame. The headlights look the same as well. The driver looks to have their hand on a shifter. The windshield, hood, wheels & tires have been changed and no belly pan but this photo was supposedly taken in 1935 so car may have gone through some changes. Mick
It does look well worn like its been around for a while...but I can't imagine someone removing nice stuff like the polished hood and the wheels. Still...a lot of things do look the same!
I certainly agree....it is the closest candidate thus far and further investigation is needed. Does anyone have any other information on Senter's T? Any other photos? Specs? The most important being when was his car built? Was Senter's car A powered or T powered? Watching over the film, especially listening to the scene in which it leaves Ruth's house (about 14:40)....it is MOST DEFINATELY a Model T engine.....with out a doubt. I know that idle gate anywhere. Model Ts and As sound similar......but a T has a sound of it's own......especially a hopped up T Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
I dont think so. The rear of Senter's bucket, from the doors back and around the rear, are cut nearly flat, the film car still has a slight flair upward from the doors back. Senter's car ran an A with a Rajo head.
Vic Meleo's old roadster, although it appears to be a 3 springer in this shot, the wheels, chrome rear drums, cut down bucket are close. This is from Hop Up #5. I can't find a picture right now but that dash in the film car sure reminds me of the dash in the Hodge roadster out of Huntington Beach. You'd think I could find a picture or two on it, I did an article about the car back in the 90s. The film car has a pump in the dash and I think the Hodge car did too as well as a knob to adjust the cam timing. I dunno, they're all cool.
I see what you mean. I thought the same thing about the dash being Spot on for Robert Hodge's T....but his car wasn't a roadster, it was a touring. Actually, at this time Hodge's masterpiece was still a full fendered, full bodied T touring. I don't think it lost the back half and the fenders until '34 or '35....before ending up imobilized in a service station garage in San Diego (if memory serves) in 1939. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The Hodge roadster sat in a wrecking yard building in Huntington Beach for 50 years and was used in the local 4th of July parade for decades as well as an ocasional blast down PCH to blow out the cob webs. I interviewed the family members years before Anderson bought the car,(they told me the car would never be sold!) but that's besides the point, the dash reminded me of that film car's dash that's all.
I want to see it in person and would love to hear that car run....or better yet, get my hands on the patterns for the head and make a copy of Hodge's engine for my T roadster. The Hodge car is my favorite I think. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Somewhere, someplace (hopefully) there's another un machined casting sitting on a shelf...thats the story the family told me.
I've heard that story.....I thought his son Jeff Hodge had the other unmachined casting and the original patterns for the head and other parts? ....I would love to get my hands on that casting...... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Note the accessorie oil sump, this was the reason hairpins were offered by Fronty, Morten & Brett, Roof and other speed equipment manufacturers. This car is a three springer and had no need for hairpins, just a good clear shot of the oil sump. Bob
As an old movie fan I enjoyed this both for the cars and the clarity. At around the 6.00 min mark as Cary Grant is speaking to Nancy Carroll at the bank counter, in the background appears a model T with no hood. My aging eyesight is not what it was, however does that T have an overhead conversion ? Perhaps younger and sharper eyes can confirm either way.
I was thinking the white line was a robe rail from a touring, is that not correct?[/QUOTE] I believe that is the upper body line rib marking the top edge of the turtle deck. The early cars had them, a stamped bead along the top edge of the turtle deck. This body definately started life as a roadster. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Wonder what this car is running for brakes, i don't see any rods or cables, so they must be juice. Rear drums are not 26-27 T, they look special. Bob
The car has a few too many trinkets for my taste (horns, sunrise grille), but it's the most nicely finished/earliest fenderless T roadster I've seen. The look with no turtledeck & rear-mounted spare, plus the polished parts & great wheels, is completely new to me. I think it looks great.
Has anyone done any research on the cars that showed up at Legion Ascot in the 1930's? There had to be support cars that were there, this car is really a late 1920's Sprint Car with a T body. Bob
The Hodge Roadster has a Pease Brothers head. Hodge worked for Pease Brothers foundry. Hodge made the overhead cam attachment but the head is Pease bros.
My girlfriend was doing genealogy research and she was going thru old photos with her great aunt, she would see an old car photo and say that was the 34 Plymouth we bought in 37 for $500 with 17,000 miles on it. She could remember the price paid and the mileage on the car of every car we saw a picture of- sadly she could not remember if she took her meds that morning. She was still chopping firewood at 95, and painting one side of her house every year, but they had to put her into a facility due to the mental deterioration. Hope I do as well physically!
I found this movie in a DVD collection on Amazon, "Pre-Code Hollywood Collection (The Cheat / Merrily We Go to Hell / Hot Saturday / Torch Singer / Murder at the Vanities / Search for Beauty) (Universal Backlot Series) (1931)" I'm thinking that Speedster conversions were perhaps common enough and a more homebuilt style build like this wouldn't have had as much of a stigma at that time. Maybe it would have been considered a gentlemanly sporting motorcar at the time and place even.
The movie is about a "fast" set of young people and an all night drinking party. The twenties were a time of changing morality and behavior, things took a more conservative turn in the depression thirties. So, the behavior in the movie was rather wild for the times. Watch the movie and see the old biddies gossiping.
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