History Matranga Mercury at the 1951 Oakland Roadster show

Wow Rik! This could be a hugely important historical picture. If Sam's car was listed in the 1951 program as #416 you would think this has to be a picture of it at that show. What are the chances that it would be at any other show or year with the same participant number?

 

This is amazing....I have all the early programs and this would be in 1951!
The numbers change every year,in 1952 a completely different car has this number.
RON

 

OKAY.... so this means that the reason there where no photos of the Sam Barris or Jerry Quesnel's Mercury on the wall behind the Matranga Merc is because the Sam Barris Merc was at the same show in 1951!
Very interesting! I know that it has been written before, but there really never was any proof of this, and there for it was always doubted that Sam's Merc was at this 1951 show.
I think I read that the Gil Ayala 1940 Mercury which was parked behind Sam's Merc won the Custom class.

The photo of Sam's Merc and the Matranga Merc in this thread must be from the shame show. The show cards on the car have the same design, and each year of the Roadster show have their own different design as far as I know.

 

It is interesting that two of the trophies in front of Nick's car (starting from the left the second and fourth) appear to be the same as two (the two on either end) of the ones infront of Sam's car. Moved? And the third one infront of Sam's car is in the set up picture of Nick's car as well so it appears George got alot of use out of the same trophies

 

Wow this is huge! Sam's car at the show and finished.

 

February 20 - 25, 1951

 

You would think if Jerry's car was on the streets already in primer George would have had a picture of it on the wall (Zaro's car was still in primer in the picture he hung up) as it would be pretty huge to say your shop had produced two custom '49 Merc's already.

 

No, Zaro's 1941 Ford in the last photo is not in primer, but painted Tokay Beige.
Johnny had Barris repaint it after they changed the grille. But he never liked the way the Tokay Beige looked on the car, It did look good at night - almost glowing - but not during the day. So he soon had Barris redo it in a dark maroon.

 

Thank you Rik for another brilliant and informative post!

 

Ah I wasn't sure as it looked so white in the picture and the only one I remebered seeing in the beige was this one that seems so much darker.

 

Here is the program...check out this line-up!​

RON

 

Thanks for those scans Ron.... Very interesting!

 

I made a new scan of that photo and added some contrast to the background so that we
now can see the Padded Top against the back wall a bit better.
And now it looks like it could very well be the top of Johnny Zaro' 1941 Ford.
This top was made by Chavez...
Johnny's car was also at this 1951 Oakland Roadster Show.

Also it appears that this photo shows a sort of cover over the rear seat of the Merc.
In the other photo you can clearly see the rear bench, but not in this photo.




This is another photo of a Roadster show that perhaps now can also be identified as the 1951.
Bill Taylor's 1949 Chevy can be seen here. And according Ron's scan of the 1951 Program
that car was at this years show as #418.
And all the way in the front of the row of cars we can see the back end of Johnny Zaro's 1941 Ford...
without the top! (I have no ID on the car in between these two Barris Customs... although I would love to know)

 

And besides that the designs of the show cards changed every year as well. I n my research I have figured out the first five years...

 

(I have no ID on the car in between these two Barris Customs... although I would love to know)

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the car in between is awesome!!! i love the flow of the fenders!! everything about it from this angle is pure beauty!

 

Holyshit!!!!! This is heavy and just raises more questions now.

 

Yet another brilliant thread !! Thanks Rik !

 

Im glad I was asking if anyone had any proof that these pictures were in 1951,it gave this thread even more depth then it already had.Thanks for starting a very important thread Rik.

 

Rik do you have any pictures or programs of the Los Angeles Armory shows? Say in like 1950-1952 ? I would like to see some of these.

 

I cant blow up the lineup but by looking at it really close it shows that Gil Ayala had already sold his merc to a Richard J. Sneidiek ????? I cant read the last name very well.

 

I might have a few, but I have not started to identify those...
Here is a folder on my site with some early 1950's car shows.


This sure was a good thread... Ever since I saw the photo of the Matranga Merc at Pat's place I wanted to do this... but until this week I just did not had the time to do so.... I'm sure glad I finally did give it the time it needed. Some really fantastic info came from it.

 

Richard J. Stickley from Hollywood... Yes, Gil had already sold the car by then.

 

Rik this thread you did is simply amazing !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Jeff did you notice at the end of the Ayala/Sneidiek description of the car in the program that it says it was clocked at 129 MPH! They didn't hide that they raced their cars.

 

YES!!!!!!!!! That is pretty fast for a full blown heavy custom with flathead power !!!!!!

How about this whole thread ???????? This stuff is insane and now there is even more material to study

 

This is simply the best picture of Sams merc I have ever seen.Actually this is one the best pictures of an early styled merc that I have ever seen.This thing just looks perfect right here.

 

This photo of the interior of Nick's 1940 Mercury is also taken at this 1951 Oakland Roadster show. The photos on the wall behind it can be seen... if you look hard.

 

Yeah crazy stuff! Every time we think we have things locked down something new pops up and we have to reevaluate the whole thing. Makes it super interesting and exciting though.

 

Yup and how anyone can knock shaved drip rails on a Merc when you look at this I don't know.

 

Thanks for sharing the photos. I never get tired of seeing more photos and info on those particular cars.

And thanks to R&C Ron for the deal cincher with the scan of the original program.