![]() ![]() What made King T stand out-apart from Gene Winfield's eye-popping Lavender Pearl paintjob-was its chrome-plated independent rear suspension, complete with inboard mounted Airheart disc brakes. Conceived as a show car from the outset, King T was powered by a lightly modded 265-cube small-block from a 1955 Chevy, driving through an early GM Hydramatic transmission controlled using the vintage Model T spark advance and retard levers mounted on the steering column. Owned by Don Tognotti, it was built by Don and Gene Winfield in Los Angeles, who fabricated a custom tubular steel frame to support a 1914 Model T Ford body originally purchased for $300. Its real name was the King T, and when completed in 1964, it was regarded as a landmark Model T-based hot rod. Restored to original condition, the Beatnik Bandit is now owned by LA car dealer and Roth enthusiast Beau Boeckmann. GM's revolutionary Firebird III concept had pioneered the idea of joystick control in 1958, and Roth built his own version with something that looked like a chrome-plated shovel handle sprouting out of the transmission tunnel to control acceleration, braking and steering. Unlike Silhouette, however, the bodywork is all hand-crafted fiberglass. Like Silhouette, the Beatnik Bandit has an acrylic bubble top, a leitmotif of extreme 1960s show rods, though this one is one piece. The Beatnik Bandit was built on a shortened Oldsmobile chassis and powered by an Oldsmobile V-8 fitted with a GMC 4-71 supercharger. Like other Roth cars-Outlaw, Mysterion, Orbitron, Road Agent-there's a cartoonish feel to the Beatnik Bandit, which appeared in 1961, and was said to have been inspired by a sketch that appeared in Rod & Custom magazine. ![]() ![]() One of the more eccentric members of the southern California automotive counterculture in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Roth was as much an artist and cartoonist as a car builder, known for his illustrations of slavering monsters driving customs and hot rods before turning his hand to car building. The automobile as art? Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's 1961 creation, the Beatnik Bandit, makes the case. Silhouette was reportedly stolen in 1983 and has not been seen since. As outrageous as it looked, the Silhouette was a driver check out this footage (0:47 to 2:20) from a 1966 film produced by MotorTrend founder Bob Petersen, with it being driven by TV star Lloyd Bridges, no less. Cushenberry entered the car in the 1963 Oakland Roadster Show, where it won the Tournament of Fame award. The front half of the two-part acrylic bubble top was hinged and could be raised via an electric motor for access to a sci-fi cabin with instruments mounted in a central pod structure and a steering control made from chrome-plated steel that looked like it should be guiding a space ship. ![]() Underneath, the Silhouette rolled on a shortened 1956 Buick chassis, and it was initially powered by a Buick nailhead V-8, swapped in 1966 for a 427 Ford. He created the edgy, minimalist, scratch-built bodywork-said to have been sketched by industrial designer and custom car creator Don Varner-from hand-hammered 20-gauge steel. But it was in fact based on a real-life custom hot rod of the same name built in Monterey, California, by Kansas-born customizer Bill Cushenberry in 1962. The bubble-top Silhouette was perhaps the most futuristic looking of the Original 16 Hot Wheels lineup. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |