'32 Ford Anniversary
2022 is going to be a big year. Not only is it the 70th anniversary of Speedway Motors, it’s also the 90th anniversary of the ’32 Ford. It’s the car that brought the V8 engine to the masses and has been at the center of our industry for just about all of those 90 years.
We’ve heard that there’s going to be a special display dedicated to the Deuce at this year’s Grand National Roadster Show, and that reminds us of another display from years ago. In 2007, for the 32’s 75th, an entire building at the GNRS was dedicated to a breathtaking assembly the most influential ’32 hot rods of all time. It was a big deal, and yours truly was lucky enough to be there.
I was much younger then, in fact I was only 23, and I was completely starstruck. There, in one building, were the legendary cars and characters that I had been reading about in the car magazines for all my young life. I bounced around the show with my trusty old film camera in hand, doing my best to document the experience through the crowds and with hands that were literally shaking with excitement. I didn’t catch every car in the building, but I got most of my favorites.
So, in honor of yet another anniversary for the legendary Deuce, here’s a small collection of snaps from one excited kid 15 years ago.
First on the list is the Pete Henderson roadster. This car was hot rodded before World War II and passed through multiple hands, serving as street roadster, circle track racer, and running at the lakes. It got a Chevy 265 swap when they were brand new and even appeared in a hot rod b-movie in the 50’s. But, the version you see in this photo is the restoration to it’s early, most famous condition. This car will always be known as “the hot rod that beat the horse.” In 1944, there was a hot-shot cowboy with a fast quarter horse who was challenging fast cars all over the place. This was the only car that beat him, cementing this car’s legend.
We all know the name Edelbrock, and this is the car that started it all. Vic Edelbrock Sr. built this car before the war and used it as a testbed for the speed parts he was developing. It ripped a then-impressive 121 mph pass at the dry lakes just a few weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The car was eventually sold, and amazingly turned into a show car that was crowned America’s Most Beautiful Roadster in 1956. For most hot rods, the AMBR-winning version would be the most famous, but not this one. Instead, it was restored to its pre-war lakes racing version after being re-acquired by the Edelbrock family.
Look up “32 Ford” in the dictionary and you might just see a picture of this car. The McGee/Scritchfield Deuce has been there and done that, setting the precedent for what a ’32 Ford should look like along the way. The version on display at the 75th was restored to its first iteration, built by Bob McGee and appearing on one of the first Hot Rod Magazine covers. This car’s Z-ed frame, louvered hood sides and top, hidden hinges, and bright red paint made a statement that has been copied by countless hot rods through the years. In its next life, under the ownership of Dick Scritchfield, it received a series of hot small block Chevys, ran at Bonneville (for a time claiming the title of “World’s Fastest Street Roadster” with a 167 mph pass), appeared in movies, and became the model for the LA Roadster Club’s famous logo.
Here’s another car that has influenced much of what was to come in the hot rod hobby. Doane Spencer was everywhere in the early days with this car, making constant changes and improvements along the way. He raced it at the lakes and drove it cross-country numerous times, picking up money along the way by helping out in the shop at Ford dealerships. In the early 50’s, the car was taken apart for a rebuild in preparation for the ultimately cancelled Mexican road race. During this rebuild, some of the car’s most distinctive and influential features were added like the spring-behind front axle, cowl-steering, nerf bars, and exhaust through the frame. The resulting car, now beautifully restored and in the collection of Bruce Meyer, is an absolute knockout.
The 404 roadster was so named because of the wicked Isky cam in the huge, 314-stroker flathead run by Tony and Pat Berardini. These guys dominated the early drags with this Deuce and a matching Model A roadster. As with so many of the early hot rods featured here, this one would go on to lead a colorful life as Hemi-powered A/Gas roadster and later a Chevy-powered street roadster before being restored to its early version.
Not all of the early hot rods on display at the 75th were restored to look like their younger selves. In the case of the Bill Breece 3-window, it appeared as an updated, big-block Chevy powered street rod. But the version that made the car famous came much earlier, in 1955, when a young Bill Breece hopped in his chopped, Olds-powered 3-window and hit the road. He drove it from Ohio to Great Bend, Kansas for the first NHRA Nationals. There, the car was photographed for a feature that ultimately made the cover of the August ’56 Hot Rod Magazine. He then continued west to LA where he entered the Motorama show and got his dash striped by Von Dutch.
Tommy Foster’s baby blue, channeled roadster was built almost entirely by Tommy in Detroit, far away from the hot rod hub of Southern California. But it was nice enough to garner national attention, winning Most Outstanding Car at the ’53 Autorama and then hitting the road on the show circuit. On a personal note, this car was one of the first traditional hot rods that I ever saw in print, in a Hot Rod Magazine side-by-side comparison with Tommy’s car and an 80’s contemporary high-tech roadster. I kept a dog-eared copy of that issue in my 6th grade school desk and couldn’t get enough of the big, dual quad Cad powered roadster. Years later, it was an honor to see the car, and its builder, in person at the show.
The original hot rod version of this car was red and flathead-powered, but it became most famous in the version seen here built by Tony La Masa. He added green paint with Von Dutch striping and yanked the flathead in favor of a “new” small block Chevy from a ’56 Corvette. This version of the car was seen in Hot Rod Magazine and more famously in a 1958 episode of the Ozzie and Harriet TV show, where it represented a "modern hot rod" in a race against Ozzie's stone stock T-Touring.
Even for those of us who weren’t around to see the Orange crate on the show circuit and multiple magazine covers in the early 60’s, we still know the car because of the famous model kit. The chrome tube chassis, Potvin-blown Olds engine, and flip-up body made this car a star of the show circuit. It also went mid 10’s at around 140, which was screaming for the era, especially in a car this nice. The car disappeared sometime in the 70’s and shocked everyone when it appeared in mostly original condition at the 75th. The flipped-up, bright orange body stood like a beacon in the sea of Deuces, encouraging everyone to keep coming back to soak in more of the well-preserved detail.
Though it has gone down in history as the Doyle Gammell coupe, this car was already hot rodded when he got it. This includes what has become one of the car’s signature features, that beautifully chopped and filled top. That work was done by Dick Bergren, and it’s amazing that one of the best chops in the history of hot rodding was done by a 20 year old with a hacksaw. Bergren also fitted the Rochester-injected Chevy, polished ET Mags, and had the Chevy Cordova brown paint applied.
We all know this car, thanks in part to the publishing company founded by Tom McMullen and the car’s subsequent appearance on the cover of every issue of Street Rodder Magazine for many years. Not to mention the many lives lived by this car and the numerous clones that it inspired. But this is the original, already hot-rodded and featured in Hot Rod Magazine when McMullen got it. Tom’s wild redo with a blown small block and wild Ed Roth flames on the cover of Hot Rod in April of ’63 really turned the hot rod world on its ear, and many of us have been attempting to build our own versions of this car ever since.
Phil Cool’s orange Deuce roadster won the ’78 AMBR trophy and appeared on the July ’78 cover of Hot Rod Magazine. Impressive accolades, but this car is just as remarkable for what it wasn’t. By the late 70’s, hot rods were becoming technically complex show rods and tame, highway-running “reachers.” But this gnarly, blown big block powered, Muncie four-speed equipped roadster with huge slicks mounted to magnesium Halibrands was a 100% legit, old school hot rod, and it reminded the hot rod world where it came from.
This car is legendary because of its longtime caretaker, Gray Baskerville. A generation grew up reading articles by “Your Ol’ Dad” in Hot Rod Magazine, and his writing style always stood out as unique and uniquely passionate. This car served as his daily driver for decades and was worked on by some of the biggest figures in the industry. The primer spots and chipped paint are battle scars earned from a life lived on the road, and it’s hard not to get a little emotional looking at this car and remembering the man responsible for that life.
These are just a few of the cars that were collected for the 75th. There were plenty more on hand, each one of them a legend, and I wish I had taken the time (and the film) to shoot each one of them. Even so, we hope you enjoyed this quick look back, and we're already looking forward to the 90th!