The votes are in! We didn’t even put the winner in our Top Five, although we did say that all of them were worthy. The winner is Bill Lindig’s, SoCal Speedshop built, Indy Speedster! Bill is from Houston Texas, and apparently the Texas/California connection was what it took to win this year. Congratulations to Bill and the SoCal team who did a fabulous job on the car. Inspired by Indy cars of old, and featuring all the “track nosed” styling cues you would expect, the Indy Speedster looks the part. We hope that Bill takes an opportunity to cruise this bad boy around the track at the Goodguys Show in Indy later this year. Nothing would look cooler.
To see our Top Five list, click here.
To see all of our galleries from the 2012 Grand National Roadster Show, click here.
That was my favorite. I liked the clean, purposed lines of a race car. I thought Sylvester was gorgeous, especially that paint job; but this one did it for me.
1) I love this car , and in spite of it not being my first choice I’m glad it won
2) But ……… isn’t this just a bit like ( OK a hell of a lot like ) Steve Moal’s track roadsters ( Licorice etc ) that for some odd reason never seemed to have won in the past ?
Kind of makes one wonder about the process and whether a bit of bias may be finding its way into it .
You could put a Sharpie thru the door gaps. The lines and proportions were right on though.
Fantastic machine!
It is remarkable in it’s resemblance to Bill Niekamp’s blue #1 AMBR winner way back in 1949
I would have put this one 3rd behind the Marmon and Riley Roadster.
I like it a lot though. Glad to see something other than the fully integrated jewelry that has been winning recently.
FOLKS,
QUESTION:
WHAT TYPE OF MOTOR DOES THIS ROADSTER HAVE ??
THANKS.
RICK GO.D
Bill is a money man that came to the game very late. The car was hand built by Jackie Howerton and was partially done as early as 1999 when it first appeared in raw aluminum in the Ford Motorsports (it had a Ford 351 Motorsports engine it it) booth at the 50th Oakland show. Jackie was inspired to build the car after doing work on the Tim Allen car that Steve Moal built. Except for the engine,trans, rear end, steering and brakes, Jackie formed everything. Sometimes several times over until he got what he was after in looks and function. Unfortunately, Jackie only got minor recognition on the hand bills that were given out at the display. The Rodder’s Journal had an outstanding feature on the car and Jackie a few months ago. I would read that article to get the true meaning of the car and Jackie Howerton’s passion rather than the SoCal centered info that is out there currently.
The TRJ article was actually about five years ago in issue # 38
Well……. I’s about to eat a little crow here . Got a subscriber email from TRJ ( the Rodders Journal ) which pointed out the back story behind this car ( in issue # 38 and its a dozy ) and after reading it I’ll be admitting this car deserved to win Hands Down . As well as the influence from Steve Moals track roadsters going both ways as well as Jimmie Kilroy from Moals shop doing much of the body work
Mea Culpa and apologies if anyone connected to the car read my first uninformed ( due to my own damn forgetfulness ) post
This car’s a winner and deserves every damn accolade given to it !
@ Rick Gold – Its a Roush 351 Aluminum block FORD banged out to I think around 390 w/ pair of 4 barrels etc
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