Showing posts with label 1951. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1951. Show all posts
21 February 2014
27 January 2014
Le Mans 24 Hours, 1951
Sydney Allard with a finger in his ear on the pit wall behind the no.2 Allard J2, driven by Peter Reece and Alfred Hitchings. His ears are undoubtedly ringing a little from the glorious noise of the J2's 5.4 litre Cadillac V8 engine on full chat on the Mulsanne Straight. The car retired with engine failure.
11 January 2012
1951 Kaiser Drag'n - Here Be Dragons!
A Kaiser Dragon? Isn't that the secret boss out of Final Fantasy VI? Well yeah, but wayyy before that it was a car produced by Kaiser Motors Corporation in 1951 and 1953. A rare car, pretty if a little idiosyncratic (read odd) looking, but nothing a little nip n' tuck can't fix:
Like so. Bought as a $150 clunker, the owner treated the Dragon to a hefty roof chop and while he had the recip saw out, two-doored the old girl, taking time to rebuild the front doors so that they look 'factory'. The fun doesn't stop there either; he decided that the Dragon underpinnings just wouldn't do, so mounted the much-modified body on a '95 Chevy Caprice police car frame.
Some build pics from an excellent build thread on Jalopy Journal; well worth reading all 50 or so pages, it's a very detailed record of the build.
With paintwork by a certain Gene Winfield. With a legend like this painting your ride, who the hell would want rusty bare metal?
As well as looking stunning, to me what makes this one so special is that so much of the Kaiser's original visual identity has been preserved, and enhanced. The early '50s big Kaisers have long been a favourite of mine due to their distinctive, sleek styling, and this custom really respects that, whilst also being a very unique creation.
Like so. Bought as a $150 clunker, the owner treated the Dragon to a hefty roof chop and while he had the recip saw out, two-doored the old girl, taking time to rebuild the front doors so that they look 'factory'. The fun doesn't stop there either; he decided that the Dragon underpinnings just wouldn't do, so mounted the much-modified body on a '95 Chevy Caprice police car frame.
Some build pics from an excellent build thread on Jalopy Journal; well worth reading all 50 or so pages, it's a very detailed record of the build.
With paintwork by a certain Gene Winfield. With a legend like this painting your ride, who the hell would want rusty bare metal?
As well as looking stunning, to me what makes this one so special is that so much of the Kaiser's original visual identity has been preserved, and enhanced. The early '50s big Kaisers have long been a favourite of mine due to their distinctive, sleek styling, and this custom really respects that, whilst also being a very unique creation.
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