The Ford Barn - Elliot Ness roadster

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seth Swoboda (Post 2306380)

......... I never knew he played with early Fords.

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Robert_Stack
https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Robert_Stack%27s_1931_Ford

Bob had a passion for exclusive automobiles, and he used to send away for catalogs of Talbot Lagos when he was a kid. From he was about 12 years old he used to go skeet shooting. That was what the top-of-the-line actors of Hollywood did at the time, and Bob especially remembers seing cars such as Gary Cooper's Duesenberg and a 540K Mercedes. Who had the hottest cars were always the big question amongst the actors. They would bet thousands of dollars and take their cars out racing. They all had drivers, they didn't race the cars themselves, so it was all more a matter of showing off than a competition. It was a matter of pride. Living in Hollywood, Bob was surrounded by exclusive cars. He remembers that J. Paul Getty would pick up his cousin in a lavender Duesenberg with the stacks coming out the side. There was also a Bugatti showroom about four blocks from his house on Wilshire Boulevard. The racing bug bit Bob at an early age, and it all began with a fellow with an old Model A named Al Jepson. Al was a former bullring racer and he raced at Indianapolis as a mechanic. Bob went by his shop one day, and Al offered him a ride in his hopped up Model A. Bob remembers that the car had all kinds of special work done to it. You couldn't see it, but when he heard it go he knew it wasn't the way Henry Ford designed it. Bob and Al went cruising down Santa Monica. They spied some gow jobs, and Al jabbed it and speed shifted through three gears and sucked the goggles of them all. That was it for Bob, he was now bitten by the bug. After that, Al built a 1931 Ford Model A roadster for Bob, that Bob raced to a record of 115.68 mph at the Muroc Dry Lake at age 19 in 1938.[2]