Gadgetory

my name is Roger Hoffman I'm from point raised California and this is a 1932 Ford American hot rod designed to run a Bonneville story behind the car is that in 1940 a Southern California guy named Jack Kokura k UK ura bought the car as a 32 roadster he then went off to war came back in 45 in 46 he started hot riding it he put 1946 Ford hubcaps on it things like that they ran it at Bonneville that year and every year after that until 1960 so in 1946 he ran with a Ford flathead engine and in Stromberg carburetors a standard hot rider setup back then he ran 97 miles an hour and then every year subsequent he would do more hot rod stuff lighten the car go to three twos two fours different carburation and and his times moved up from there then in 1956 he put a 454 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi in it with a supercharger built by Don Hampton and he went 163 miles an hour and then in 1957 he went 171 and in 1958 he 183 miles an hour and then the last time it ran with him driving with his arm in a cast because we have home movie footage of it he ran 200 miles an hour through the first trap at Bonneville and the way it works there you have to do a run this way turn around come back the other way for it to count and he declined because he spun after he cleared the trap so he spun this car at 200 miles an hour and the way they taught the drivers back then when you started the spin in you don't panic you floor it and you let it run out of fuel because they ran on nitromethane on very small tanks not gasoline and so they generally occur like this would have enough fuel in it to make a run the equivalent of five miles and warm up to them make the traps and then run out of gas at the end you kind of counted on that and so rather because if you let your foot off the gas on the surface like that then you roll so he spun this thing until it basically died out at 200 miles an hour so he was a better man than me or any of us and then he kept it until he died in 2005 he was a founding member of the gear grinders Car Club in Southern California he was in Bell California which is Bell helmets later became a big hot rod thing and we have a picture of him from 2005 right before he died with the car and then other pictures of him family photos as a young kid out of the army first with the car so there's a record of all that with the car and then before he died he made a several pages of handwritten list of everything ever done to the car by him or any of the other three people who worked on it for 65 years well the way I ended up with it was I wasn't looking for a hot rod I tell you the truth I never believed that that there was a car like this that existed because my interest has always been in original cars all the other cars I have are just original unrestored cars of various makes but on eBay the car had been not listed for maybe two hours and there were over 200 responses to this car everyone stunned no one believed it could exist and so when I got on there at about the third hour bidding had ended so when you see that you assume well somebody with deep pockets saw this and got like maybe it's gone to Jay Leno or whatever and so I assumed that was it but there was a phone number and so I called a number I left a message and I just said you know I saw this amazing four I know it's gone I get it I know there's not another one but if there was ever anything similar please give me a call ten minutes later I get a call and it was the broker and he said we've still got the car and I said you know like how can that even be true and he said well we got such response so fast that eBay thing we realized our reserve price was too low that there was such a demand for the car so we we ended the auction and we assumed that all these people would call us and he said we've been waiting by the phone nobody's called you're the first guy so I said how much and told me I said done and then we put on a trailer in New Jersey and bought it to California where it's back in its home now that's an adventure ride you know it's it the way it is right now it's still set up to run 180 200 miles an hour on a flat surface and it has a push-button desoto transmission rather than a clutch and a shifter which was common with a lot of the big horsepower things because it's more efficient way to do the power doesn't the torque doesn't blow the transmission it easily and to drive it because it's set up with so much play to go fast and plate line it has an enormous turning radius so it would be not just thrilling but you know dangerous to drive around something like this so I live in a small town in Northern California when and every month I meet with other crazy car guys and we just bring an interesting car and we drive ten minutes the little coffee place so I take it there and I do that I it's legal I mean it has California plates it's a legal car to drive but it's illegal with the exhaust and it has some of the first disc brakes taken from airplanes after the war Earhart discs so it has 1946 airport Earhart disc brakes which you would think would be a great thing as opposed to a drum brake but in fact there were terrible brakes and and but people like them because they were discs so it's like a big deal that they're on there but when you drive it the calipers the pots on it tend to stick and grab or crack and so you're in it you can't hear because it's so noisy you're moving the steer wheel back and forth to go at all you're paying a lot of attention and and when you hit the brakes often one the front right will grab and release the other way so you often it's as if you're just starting to go on and it feels like some giant grabbed a wheel and yank you forward so then you have to punch the brakes to release that you know so you know it's good for an old guy because it you grow neurons you know what I mean the way they tell you do learn a language it's like learning a language you know it's a it's it's only