They Can't All Be Beautiful.....
black mamba
Registered Users Posts: 8,325 Major grins
.....in fact, some are downright ugly.
I'm a little surprised that Wayne Carini ( Chasing Classic Cars ) would own up to owning this thing. Then again, Wayne has shown a penchant for quirky cars before. He and his partner in this car, Ralph Marano, brought it to Amelia for a showing.
This is a 1957 Spohn convertible. Spohn was a coachbuilder from Ravensburg, Germany, who was credited for building bodies for the pre-WWII Maybach luxury cars. After WWII, Spohn purchased left-over cars from the U.S. military for their chasis and continued as a coachbuilder....taking orders on a one on one basis.
Each car was built to the specific desires and specs of the buyer. There were less than 200 hundred cars built and no two were alike. This car is built on a 1939 Ford chassis with a 1953 Cadillac 331 C.I. V-8 engine, 4-barrel carb, and 3-speed Ford transmission.
I'm a little surprised that Wayne Carini ( Chasing Classic Cars ) would own up to owning this thing. Then again, Wayne has shown a penchant for quirky cars before. He and his partner in this car, Ralph Marano, brought it to Amelia for a showing.
This is a 1957 Spohn convertible. Spohn was a coachbuilder from Ravensburg, Germany, who was credited for building bodies for the pre-WWII Maybach luxury cars. After WWII, Spohn purchased left-over cars from the U.S. military for their chasis and continued as a coachbuilder....taking orders on a one on one basis.
Each car was built to the specific desires and specs of the buyer. There were less than 200 hundred cars built and no two were alike. This car is built on a 1939 Ford chassis with a 1953 Cadillac 331 C.I. V-8 engine, 4-barrel carb, and 3-speed Ford transmission.
I always wanted to lie naked on a bearskin rug in front of a fireplace. Cracker Barrel didn't take kindly to it.
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I was dissapointed in your other thread that my picture didn't show up.
Now, with this title and first line, I was scared that my picture "would" show up
About the car:
What a great mustache on that thing!!!
Yes, that other one in the third picture is also a Spohn. It must have been a barn-find car...in really rugged condition. I was scared to get too close to it; I'm told car-cooties can leap up to 5 feet.
BTW...that " skeleton " car you can see between the two Spohns is the only rear-engined Corvette ever built by Chevrolet. They exhibit it without the body so you can see all the workings. I'll feature it in another post a little later on.
See ya,
Tom
You have reason for great concern, my friend. I have plans for the use of your picture.
I can't help it....looking at the front of this car makes me think of a cow-catcher.
Take care, buddy,
Tom
The car in the background is a Spohn bodied 1950 Veritas BMW, it was bought a year or two ago from the Lee Roy Hartung collection for something like $200,000. Obviously, an unrestored original.
Fins and vaguely rocket-like were popular then - I can see Flash Gordon driving this in style.
Yea, it seems I remember that car being a part of a show that Wayne Carini did on the Hartung collection. They obviously have not attempted any restoration yet...it's in really ratty condition.
Thanks for the visit,
Tom
A funky one for sure, Eric. There's talk that the thing snuck onto the lot and tried to mate with the Batmobile until they could let the dogs loose and run it off.
See ya, buddy,
Tom