Bringing the Lee Titus Roadster Back to 1959: In Print

I have said it when and I’ll say it once again: I get the job done with some of the greatest individuals in the business. Calendar year soon after 12 months, I get to be involved in some of the best assignments that the very hot rod and personalized automobile environment has to offer. Print, electronic, video, podcast, you name it, I appreciate it. Right now, let’s wind down our Pebble Seaside Concours d’Elegance protection with a couple terms about my most up-to-date journalistic endeavor.

Earlier this summer, I was at property in Michigan when my cell phone rang. It was my great friend Roy Brizio calling from South San Francisco. Right off the bat, he strike me with a question that we equally now understood the answer to. “Would you be intrigued in earning a Pebble Seaside Judges’ E book for the Lee Titus Roadster?” he asked. “Of program!”

It was not prolonged ahead of I was sitting in Roy’s business accumulating historic photographs, magazines and textbooks for research. My heart commenced to race as I imagined the black lacquered roadster sitting down on the 18^th fairway amongst the sea of planet-course machines. We talked notion, format, and format, and then I was on my way.

The upcoming part is my favored. Starting with a blank web page and a pen, I manufactured a tough sketch of how I preferred every little thing to search. I took inspiration from vintage publications as properly as some of my pet-eared publications of yesteryear. As the scanner buzzed and the black-and-white photographs popped up on my laptop screen, I believed about in which they would have the most impression.

By the time almost everything was in spot, I dove into my stack of files. One particular by a single, I wrote the captions, generating absolutely sure to include things like just ample details without having likely overboard. With the deadline quickly approaching, I buttoned every thing up and proofed it far more instances than I can rely. Before I realized it, my portion of the project was completed.

I have extensive been a lover of the Lee Titus Roadster. As I set collectively the reserve, I concluded that the vehicle was—without a shadow of a doubt—way ahead of its time. The ’32 speaks for by itself. Gas-injected smallblock Chevy, full fenders, flawless paint, dropped axle, dash-comprehensive-o-gauges, show-stage detailing—it was a present-day traditional when it was concluded 1959.

Like so a lot of other important incredibly hot rods, the Titus roadster underwent a collection of improvements. Stylistically, it bounced around from the ’50s to the ’40s and then into the ’60s. It went via a string of well-regarded proprietors ahead of finding its way to Ross and Beth Myers of Boyertown, Pennsylvania. They worked with the Brizio group to return it to its May 1959 Scorching Rod Magazine address type. The concluded merchandise is spectacular, to say the least.

Even while I was not ready to make it to the Concurs this calendar year, I viewed the protection intently on Instagram as very well as the H.A.M.B. The Titus Roadster took home the Dean Batchelor award, which, in accordance to the exhibit, is given to the “most significant car similar to our Warm Rod heritage.” A great honor for an amazing 1932 Ford. Congratulations to every person associated!

—Joey Ukrop

For the complete Titus record, make positive to look at out HEMI32’s superb thread here