automotive : biography

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Nudie Cohn (Nuta Kotlyarenko) customizer of Bonnevilles to the western movie stars

Stars of the then popular western movies were no exception to the taste for extravagance in rolling stock. Indeed, with many of them having added a film career to their stardom as singers or rodeo performers were well used to glitz and glamour in their garb and extremes in what they drove. And indeed in the case of one Nudie Cohn who first put rhinestones on cowboys it was the same designer who decorated cowboys who also slathered their vehicles with western iconography. Silver six-shooters might be door handles or gear shift levers and silver dollars were imbedded in leather upholstery. Kiddie seats were little saddles. (All pre-seat belts and car seats obviously.)

Nudie Cohn fled the anti-Semitism of the Ukraine as a pre-teen. A custom official in New York decreed that the shorter name was better for the lad's life in the new world than Nuta Kotlyarenko. He was probably right. Anyway, after wandering about the country, improving his English by going to western movies, Nudie ended up in the Hollywood area as a tailor and was soon turning his taste for westerns and an in-born imagination into fabulous costumes.

Cars caught his fancy and since a publicity-aware General Motors favored him with a free Pontiac Bonneville every year to "dress", his Nudie Mobiles became as famous as his suits, boots and hats.

Some seven or eight Nudie Mobiles may still be in running order. Certainly the best is one that Nudie presented to his friends and clients Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, two of the most popular country and western singers and "oater" stars ever. DeWayne Deck, a Denver business man with an eye for the unusual bought the car at a July 2010 auction when the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans museum closed its door in Branson, Mo. It was not that the stars had run out of fans so much as the fans had run out of mobility. The auction was a great success.

DeWayne Deck knew what he wanted and what he wanted to pay for it. He made one bid and the world's most dramatic Bonneville was his for a total of $254,500.

The Santa Fe Concorso tracked down the ex-Rogers and Evans car in Denver and invited its new owner to let it be one of three Cowboy Cars to be shown at the third edition of the Santa Fe Concorso. And thus its lane-wide steer horns mounted on the radiator will grace the greenery at the Club at Las Campanas Sept. 30.

But not all cowboys in those days equated glamour with glitz. Call it perhaps a taste for exaggerated elegance; Tom Mix was attracted to the 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton with its unique coffin-nose and buttery color. It was just one of three made that was outfitted similarly (an exterior tire mount in the back for instance.) Bob White of Scottsdale AZ acquired his elegant Cowboy Car at a 2010 auction and oversaw a meticulous frame-off restoration before showing it at Amelia Island Concours of 2012. Bill Warner, founder of that fine Florida event 15 years ago said of the car: "The 812 Cord is rare, technologically advanced and extraordinarily desirable."

above article from http://santafeconcorso.com/about.html

read more at http://mrkicks66.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/rhinestone-cowboy-nudie-cohn-pictures-new-western-cowboy-boot-tips-in-store/ which has more photos

Movie review of "The Boys of Bonneville". in a word, Phenomenal. Here's why -

This is Ab Jenkins. He was born and raised in Utah, made a living as a building contactor and carpenter. Til one day, he decides to go to Reno... there was no road, trails maybe from stagecoaches, pioneers in ox drawn conestoga wagons, etc... but no road. He took his motorcycle, and went from Salt Lake City heading west, and came to the Bonneville salt... he open up the bike, and liked riding at 80 mph with nothing to worry about. It's a long time before you see anything when you're driving across the largest flat spot on land in the world... he liked the fast ride. A lot. He didn't mind the isolation I believe, because there wasn't another human for a looonnng way.

He started racing his motorcycle after that, and soon, like most young guys, tried to get some money by racing or riding endurance times and distances. He was setting distance and time records during 1923-25. He quickly was hired on by Studebaker after 1925 as their engineer and test driver, and set many records in their cars from 1923 to 1927, as these couple of photos show. He set or still holds? 8 records, and driving Studebakers, and some were only from some big city to Salt Lake City, but he also set two from New York to San Francisco, one in each direction

The movie "Boys of Bonneville" does a better job of filling you in on his abilities as a driver with no peer, literally, and is a better bio-pic than most of the A&E Biographies that I've seen, and I do like them. Maybe it's because the movie shows more than Ab's life, but his accomplishments and family connection where his boys were with him at the salt for his racing. Maybe it's because I was interested in the racing, as much as the driver, I'm not sure. It's possible that because I knew nearly nothing about Ab, or his racing, that learning while being entertained, intrigued, and having my attention captured with the variety of vehicles, and those being described by racers and not a narrator with a script... it's that good of a movie.

the movie takes you through his steps from motorcycles to Studebaker, from board tracks

and he was averaging 70mph over long times, 140 over short times, this would be around 1928

After board track racing stopped, he went hill climbing. Pikes Peak, Mt Baldy and others, setting 5 records between 1928 and 1931

After Studebaker, Ab was hired by Pierce Arrow to spotlight the abilities of their already impressive and reputable car. It was too late to save the manufacturer, the depression took away the customers with disposable income, the ones the competition didn't... when you compete with the best, Duesenburg, Packard, Bugatti, Voisin, Delage, etc you take your chances that they might get the edge.

getting the fenders and running boards off

race ready, Ab was given the car and 6 spare tires to work with. He set records. Hundreds of them. He set and held, more records of international racing . . . than any other man ever has. He beat the records of Bugatti, Voisin, and Delage with the Pierce Arrow in 1933. That is how good a Pierce Arrow was. Not a race car, a stock car.

Above and below appear to be different years, different models. The below has an angled grill, and a cover for the passenger seat

And either one or both of Ab and Augie used Plomb tools. I love Plomb tools

Ab made the endurance records, by himself. Not as a teammate, like the Bugatti, Viosin, Delage drivers. 24 hour records. Between 112 and 127 mph for 24 hours, not on a paved track with lights keeping the race course well lit. In the dark of the Utah desert, with a couple kerosene lamps to show the edge of the 10 mile circle course

notice the plane for filming

All of that happened before racing on the salt at Bonneville was an annual event. Before the SCTA was conceived. Before anyone else had ever raced there, timed their cars, made a road to it, etc etc.

That he could set records is astounding. You ever hear of anyone from Utah doing anything? Ab set records at Bonneville that no one could compete with. No one, anywhere. Because, in my opinion, he was the most impressive endurance car driver I've ever heard of. He sat in a car and put up with engine noise, boredom, heat, cold, wind, sun, and everything I can't think of, for 24 hour runs. Many of them. Even a 48 hour run, which he still holds a record for.

So when he learned that the English people were trying to set records at Pendine Sands and Daytona, he mailed them that they should try the salt. He probably could have kept that pristine flat to himself for a long time, no one else was using it, but he opened it up to all comers who had a desire to achieve. That is pretty selfless.

No storms, no beach variations, no limits on round track courses, no spectators crowding the track... pretty much the ideal place to achieve high speeds, and Campbell was having a lot of problems trying to get to 300 mph in the Bluebird. Campbell broke 9 records (LSR = Land Speed Record) and Pendine and Daytona, but couldn't get his goal achieved. 300 mph

Campbell realized he was getting the best advice for a location, and when he came to Bonneville by Jenkins offer... it started the world to pay attention to world land speed racing at Bonneville, every year when the salt dries out. Campbell was the first man over 300mph, and Bonneville was the only place on land to achieve it.

Quite a switch from high speeds, Ab took an Allis Chlamers down the salt, and set a record mile on a tractor at 67mph for a mile. June 1935

In late 1935, he switched to a Duesenburg, the Mormon Meteor / Duesenburg Special to compete in the new higher records being set with airplane engined cars, like the Bluebird, and the Napier Railton (John Cobb)

the Duesenburg was a 1934 SJ, engines built by Augie Duesenburg and Ed Winfield. The best Indianapolis could make. This is the last Land Speed Record setting car that is made from car parts. Everything since is one off vehicles that come from no car manufacturer, share no parts with it resemblance to a streetable car

The unique project was headed by Augie Duesenberg, who had not been directly involved with the company since the Cord buy-out of 1926. Instead he worked on further developing the successful Duesenberg racing cars in his shop across the street from the factory where the Duesenberg Js were produced.

Augie Duesenberg was supplied with an unnumbered short J chassis and engine J-557. Together with Ed Winfield, he reworked the supercharged engine, fitting hotter cams and a second Carburetor with a heavily revised manifold. The changes hiked the power of the straight eight to a commendable 400 bhp at 5000 rpm from the optimistic 320 bhp claimed for the stock unit.

Designer Herb Newport was asked to draw up a streamlined body for the 'Duesenberg SJ Special'. The most striking features of the slim two-seater design were the steeply sloped nose/radiator and the long tail. The wheels were equipped with removable fenders and separate fairings, which were used to smooth out the airflow. The body was completed with belly pans that protected the Duesenberg's mechanicals and also reduced drag.

Jenkins started off the 1935 season, next out on the salt flats was Englishman John Cobb in his airplane engined Napier Railton, chasing the same records as his host Jenkins. He broke the 24-hour record with an average of nearly 135 mph. Two weeks later Jenkins was back and this time with his new Duesenberg SJ Special. Despite having an engine one-third the size of Cobb's massive racer, the bright yellow Duesenberg looked set to break the fresh records. There was a major set-back when one of the bearings failed after just 300 miles. Two new engines were prepared back in Indianapolis and sent to the salt. The second attempt was again cut short due to an engine failure. It was third time lucky for Jenkins and his relief driver Tony Gulotta as they raised the 24-hour record to 135.47 mph. They had stopped every 400 miles for fuel, tires and a quick check-up. (these 4 paragraphs lifted uneditted from http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3314/Duesenberg-SJ--Mormon-Meteor--Special.html )

Above the Duesenburg Special with a Curtiss airplane motor... it was not well planned, far too heavy of an engine, all out of balance front to back, and side to side. Think about driving a car in a circle really fast, and the engine torque is trying to twist the car over to the outside of the curve. Dangerous.

So the below was a special construction, longer, designed to keep the front back balance true.. and a vertical stabilizer for the high speeds

Augie Duesenburg is the shorter guy in dark clothes

I noticed the race car hauler in back of this scene... and had to catch a shot of the cab. 1940 was the year... what a cool semi truck. I doubt any images exist of the hauler... except this one.

The color images are from the movie, they found a color film of the 1940 Bonneville races. Wow

This isn't the end of the film, not the end of the story.... but as far as reviewing the movie, it's a good place to close.

The car was amazing, and with it he made or set every record from 10 miles 7,138 and 1 hour to 48 hours, and Ab loaned it to the state of Utah (about the only amazing car in Utah state history I can imagine) and they placed it in the capitol building for visitors to be impressed, amazed, and educated by. In 1940 Ab held 153 speed records, 26 with the Meteor III, and today, 13 still stand.

The movie goes into about 20 minutes of the rest of the story, and I don't like to spoil the surprise for movie watchers... it isn't a nice thing to do when I was given a copy to watch and review for you readers to learn what I think about it... the movie makers would prefer you buy or rent a copy, and I assure you it's worth the cost. I will tell you the car is still around, and the family stayed with it, and what happened is astonishing afer Ab raced it.

At age 73 Ab set records in a new Pontiac. Guess what GM did... they honored it with the name Bonneville. The first car to "earn" it's name I would guess... because Ab broke all the unlimited and C class stock car records with it

I also want to point out that Ab was serious about safety, and that has a lot to do with why he didn't race among other racers (very many of whom never lived long) and Ab though setting records for speed and endurance, and cross country public road driving reocrds... he never got a ticket, he never was in a crash/wreck/accident. He was like a hero to his countrymen, for his personality was pleasant, his achievements were incredible, and he was a car guy. . . and they elected him mayor or Salt Lake City, without him running for office, without him giving a speech, without him spending money on an election. That is a well liked guy.

He still raced while in office, and set 21 more records while mayor. No one will do something that cool as mayor again I think. People never get elected to office because they are great people anymore. Ab was likely the last good honest man to be elected in America. Ever since, it's been politicians, lawyers, campaigners.

Like I said in the title, phenomenal
images from the movie "Boys of Bonneville" as is most of the info, some is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ab_Jenkins

Following images are from http://content.lib.utah.edu

Utah owned a woody... huh. Well, the Road Commisioner did. That is pretty cool

getting something xrayed below

in 1951 at a soap box derby these kids got the helpful hand of a legend, an icon, and an incredible guy. Imagine making a backyard rocket and Buzz Aldrin pointing out how to improve it's performance. That is the type of incredible I see happening there.

But though the movie is reviewed, and the public library archives are shared... this next bit is pretty cool... the Utah Museum of Fine Arts is having an exhibit with it!

from June through September 16th http://needthatcar.com/2012/06/21/quick-hitter-mormon-metro/ on the campus of he University of Utah, guest curator is Ken Gross. Car guy deluxe.

The local news did a terrific story full of cool info here: http://go.standard.net/story/speed-exhibit-puts-famous-racing-cars-on-display

http://www.speedumfa.com/about.html tells that the Jaguar XK-SS that was Steve McQueens, Ab's Mormon Meteor I and III (which holds more records THAN ANY OTHER CAR EVER), Chet Herberts Beast III, and 11 others like a Cobra Daytona Coupe, a Delahaye, a 37 Cord, and a 54 Ferrari

image from http://needthatcar.com

would you believe a guy with a daytime job as a banker set the standard for timing races? Boats, bikes, and drag racing all relied on Otto Crockers timing and clocking ingenuity and perfection

J. Otto Crocker, a San Diego watchmaker, made it possible to accurately time these vehicles to within thousandths of a second for the first time, making new records highly accurate and virtually indisputable. The device consisted of 3 master electronic clock units with individual controls for recording speeds over progressive distances. A photocell beam tripped the clocks at the quarter mile (after the 2 mile start), mile mark 3 & 4, and at the finish line. The Crocker Timer went on to prove its worth at Bonneville, dry lakes, boat racing, and later at the drags.

Born in Neshoba, Mississippi, in 1905, Crocker was exposed early in life to speed and time, as when Barney Oldfield had the 999 racer on display and allowed Crocker to wipe the dust from the car, and when Crocker's grandfather handed him a broken Ingersoll watch and challenged the youth to fix it. Crocker did manage to fix the watch and, intrigued, sent away for the correspondence course offered by the Chicago School of Watchmaking, which he finished in two years.

He soon became a 13-year-old apprentice watchmaker and shunned formal schooling for the craft. At about the same time, Crocker and his cousins began hopping up Model Ts and racing them on a dirt oval they created. His first car used an airplane engine and Maxwell frame, and a later stripped-down Packard was soon turning 130 mph on Daytona Beach.

In San Diego and out on the dry lakes, he started racing motorcycles, (in the 1920's) and he soon saw the ineffectiveness of the timing methods, Crocker felt he could do better with a length of rubber hose, a pipe organ diaphragm, a relay, and an electromagnetic stopwatch. When a racer ran over the hose, the bump in air pressure activated the relay and thus the stopwatch.

Crocker also became enamored with speedboat racing while in San Diego, which led him to race Offenhauser-powered Spitfire hulls on the Pacific and on the Salton Sea. So in 1928, he began work on the first of his photoelectric timing systems. Crocker figured that if he ran a beam of light from an automotive headlamp to a photocell, he could electronically trigger a timing mechanism when a boat interrupted the beam of light. Crocker eventually worked the accuracy of his photoelectric timing system down to .001 second.

Powerboat racing authorities wasted little time in adopting Crocker's photoelectric timers, but dry lakes racers still used a primitive variation of Crocker's electro-pneumatic timing system, until 1937 when Crocker introduced photoelectric timing to land-speed racing, and the Southern California Timing Association adopted the method in 1939

A stint in the Army during World War II only served to further his education: The Army assigned him to its Electrical Engineering division and trained him as an instrument maker. Though he continued to time speedboat races long after the war, he followed the post-war explosion of interest in automobile racing first to Bonneville and then into drag racing, developing photoelectric timing systems for each venue.

Perhaps the highest honor possible in Crocker's line of work came in the summer of 1959, when the National Bureau of Standards and the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile officially recognized and adopted Crocker's timing system.

Crocker retired from his day job at San Diego's First National Bank by 1972, but he continued to man the timers at every SCTA event that he could attend until his death

He was also a founding member of the San Diego Roadster Club

All of this info is condensed from the article in Hemmings http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2009/06/01/hmn_feature10.html and the first paragraph and image are from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=5731

A good write up, biography, and photo gallery all about Norm Grabowski

http://www.streetrodderweb.com/milestones/0112sr_norm_grabowski_kookie_kar/index.html

But for the latest, go look over Norm's website, and the cool new Nash he's working on, Grabowskis's Kinds Fresh Fish truck http://www.normsnews.com/Fish%20truck.html

Walter Chrysler, a brief note about an amazing biography

For a full write up: http://www.chryslerclub.org/walterp.html

But briefly he started working at age 18, as a janitor, and started taking educational courses like a machinist apprentice program where he studied air brakes (this was about 1893) and steam heat. He worked for railroads until 1900, when he took an electrical engineering correspondence course. He was a foremen with about 90 guys working for him by 1902, and in the next two years became a master mechanic; only 29 years old, and was the boss of 1000 men.

He further rose up the corporate ladder, achieving promotions and becoming the supervisor of many more workers, and in 1908 bought a Locomobile and took it apart to study it

At 34 yrs old he was promoted to works manager at GM, and in charge of Buick production where he quickly turned around the slow production and brought it up to 200 from just 45 cars a day. That is improvement on a scale that is hard to imagine, because it was simple things anyone could have seen and implemented.

In 1916 Walter was general manager of Buick, he resigned in 1920 due to not liking the direction Durant took producing frames.

At 45 years old Walter was retired when asked to save Willys-Overland which was $50 million in debt, but the risk of not pulling this off was so great that Chyrsler asked for 2 years at $1 million per year. He was concerned that failure to save Willys would reflect on his abilities. In two years the debt was reduced to $18 million and he left when Willys executives wouldn't go with development in a new engine.

At this time Maxwell Motors was $26 million in debt and Chrysler was asked to help out, and he did at a salary of $100,000 a year and a stock option. He secured a loan of $15 million for Maxwell and sold cars out of existing inventory for $995 -- a profit of $5 per car.

in 1925, MaxwelI Motor Corporation was re-organized into the Chrysler Corporation after 32, 000 Chryslers were built in 1924 and sold for $1595 — the same as Buick. This car was a true 70 mph performer with four wheel hydraulic brakes and a replaceable oil filter. On $5 million debt the company had a net profit of $4,115,000!

in 1926 the Chrysler 50 replaced the Maxwell and competed with Dodge. The model numbers indicated top speeds - 50, 60, 70 and 80 mph -- and later models used 62 and 72 designations to indicate improved models.

After putting together the Chrysler Corporation from the remnants of Maxwell-Chalmers in 1925, acquiring the Dodge Brothers Company in 1928 and introducing both the Plymouth and DeSoto the same year, thus becoming the number 3 position automaker, Walter Chrysler decided to wind down a little and do something different.

He built an office building, you've already guessed it's the Chrysler Building in New York, and it was a private business matter and not corporate relating to the car business. His sons weren't interested in the auto manufacturing business, so Walter had this, the tallest of its day, skyscraper built to be given as a business venture for his sons Walter Jr. and Jack Chrysler who were not interested in the automobile business

It was surpassed in height (but not beauty) by the Empire State Building in 1931, and today reamins the finest Art Deco building in the world. Walter Chrysler had his personal office here for a number of years. The tower culminates in a beautiful, tapered stainless steel crown that supports the famous spire at its peak.

The building has a lot of ornamentation that is based on features that were being used on Chrysler cars of the day, the thirty first floor corner ornamentations are replicas of 1929 Chrysler radiator caps, and the corners of the sixty first floor are graced with eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments.

Via: http://www.chryslerclub.org/walterp.html