Ab Jenkins "Mormon Meteor" Duesenberg Special | Bonneville Land Speed Race Car

[Music] check it out only four horsepower gets great [Applause] [Music] mileage I am Dennis Gage and welcome to my classic car well this week we're in Lexington Kentucky for the Keeneland Concord Elance this is a great show and a beautiful setting kind of a gray day and a little bit of that liquid Sunshine coming down but there are some Stellar cars here and I'm detered to see them all before any more of the stuff comes down let's get to work that's nice great to see you man to see you thanks for being here really appreciate it you look so Dapper you're about the most Dapper car show guy I've ever seen well my wife has a large amount to do with that so all thanks go to her on that deal yeah fun stuff Tom this is just a beautiful show I mean it's a little bit you know we got this Mist going on but I'm surprised the number of people that came out for and the cars are unbelievable well this was a reunion year so we had the best of the best so it was the the toughest job of this weekend was for the judges I don't envy that position at all this year not one bit you're right it was a Best of the Best Year and that explains cuz I'm telling you this show field is magnificent super it's a jewel we're so blessed to be able to be here it's great grounds very historical place and it's for the benefit of it's the Kentucky children's hospital and that has been our beneficiary for 11 years now the true story is that these guys and gals are absolute Heroes and we just have one very small humble portion of helping to support their cause and we get to enjoy our passion with cars here we get to get out and and there's that camaraderie between it's an extended family and the other thing about car people is just how giving they are because again there's almost some charitable underpinning to every show and and you've certainly got a worthy one and you guys have raised a lot of money a l fun and what an array I mean you know the true Classics and you got muscle you got these Arrow cars here this time that's we have the early 1900 cars right the nickel plated cars and it's like how cool to be able on one field to be able to see that all the way up to an Enzo or a McLaren or that type of thing and we consciously tried to put together together American Classics and trucks and Crosley and race cars and all that kind of stuff Brad very eclectic and this is really also well the show is just today Saturday you start on Thursday you have the The Distillery tour I mean weour ABS Nick of the woods absolutely we are last night was the hangar bash hang bash yes the museum museum stff It's a Wonderful event and the vibe is fantastic might be letting up a little bit let's look at a few of these cars check them out let's [Music] go well John our paths cross again I've bumped into you at several shows over the years I think the alt Park in Cincinnati and then uh there was a a Shelby show they had the 98 Cobra down in Nashville down in Nashville that's right so I'm coming in here this is the first thing I see the ab Jenkins Stenberg this car is amazing I had the opportunity to uh with AB Jenkins son Mar I actually did the Mormon meteor 3 this was the predecessor to that and this was actually the first Mormon meteor what's the story on its name this is the first generation of the dusenberg special and once it set its speed records on the Bonville Salt Flats they had a contest to name the car and they picked the Mormon meteor as a winning name so and this nose was something that AB created in the Mormon meteor 3 that kind of scoop and swept look would this have been the original color we actually spent a lot of time recreating to exactly the way it was raced even this Dober script they actually took a movie crew with them and they filmed and they wanted to be able to see it was a Dober they were going to make sure everybody knew this was a dusenberg Oh yeah and this windshield would have been something custom made for this car it was raked back a little bit but it's very similar to The Standard window on a dusenberg no kidding all the dashboard's all standard dusenberg and the offset seat app was a little bit smaller guy and I think it was just had to be bumped up yeah cuz it wasn't it was not adjustable seat but I also like with the offset seat you have the offset fairings you know just it's wild looking even the orange the kind of pumpkin interior with the yellow would have been kind of the original colors as best you could tell yes so this started with a dusenberg engine it went through some Transformations but it's a do it's dusenberg now yes it it got refitted with the original serial number dusenberg engine from when it originally raced let's look at that baby all right supercharged of course they modified the supercharger just a little bit to give it a little more boost put some bendex stomberg racing carbs on it these are updraft is that yeah they're updraft and down to the supercharger and then this plate is just shielding the heat yeah from the exhaust and there're such stunning engines I mean dual overhead cam eight cylinder four valves per cylinder way ahead of its time I tell you I mean I'm glad Harry allowed it to come out and you're you're here with it you you got a pretty good gig I got a great gig I thought I had a great gig you got a good gig beautiful dusenberg thanks for bringing it out thanks d we should do this he wants to do this Bob this is a boat I mean this is a monster this is a 57 El Dorado brome right Cadillac elor El Dorado brome this is a heavy car 5,300 lb 300 lb and these bumpers alone I mean cast triple Chrome plated so if you hit those they didn't bend they broke this is almost comical how far these stick out yes they're dagmars right right that's the popular name steer name for them we we don't know what that refers to but what caught my eye about this car is I've never seen one in this bright red well this is Dakota red it would have been an optional paint for the year it looks really good in red well I think so that's why I chose the and your and your outfit today too apparently yeah but uh I actually done one of these once in the past was Bill Warner and that was the first time I had learned of this what I would say is rather unique and period option these shot glasses right they're magnetic shot glasses it's ironic that in 57 they encourag drinking and driving and smoking cigarettes yeah cuz You' got this little inlay for your Camel non-filtered cigarettes of course ladies had their perfume that came with the car what I understand is it's it's really these things that are the tough thing to find you can restore this car but finding this stuff is like extremely hard to find and very expensive so in 57 we're getting a little bit of you know fin kick up here yeah somewhere to a 57 Chevy that's in fact that that part of it is almost 57 Chev exactly and then again these big dagmars back here and is would this also be cast aluminum that's correct oh just crazy well it's would have had a I think a 365 V8 let's go have a look at that engine all right oh yeah I love that air cleaner they called that the Batwing or something that's correct yes that's the Batwing and under that baby are two quads correct two four barrels oh man the car was originally air ride and a lot of them were converted in dealerships just to Springs St Springs and this one has been converted but I left the compressor on to show how it normally would look it's packed in there too I mean for a car this size I'm surprised there's so little room in the engine compartment yeah but you understand why it weighs 5,300 lb so Boba 57 caddy El Dorado B in Dakota red yes sir I'm in heaven is a beautiful card thanks for bringing it out man and you look marvelous thank [Music] you well Stephan this is a rare car a Nash Healey and i' I've only seen a few of these and I've done years ago I did a A Roadster but but I think the CPS are even more rare is that true they are there were only 60 of these made how many 60 wow that's actually more than I thought when you think of Nash you don't think of something that looks like this you think of a you know kind of pedestrian kind of an Everyman car right the farmer car yeah but they were really looking to do something sexy something sporty such a unique body style the one thing that never quite fit to me in these cars was in fact the grill the rest of the car is so sleek and this Grill is kind of big it was the first Grill work that had the headlights in board uh-huh and these are what parking lights or signals or yes what a beautiful interior too although I will say it's a little bit Nash in this gauging everything the gauges are Nash right it's got an adjustable telescopic steering wheel and it's not really a back seat that's just a compartment or that's just uh space back there I mean this nice CU suitcases fit back there but not much else and then this little almost Cates kick up here yeah and the trunk that's aluminum the lid is aluminum the cross legs that's Pina and that's that's interesting kind of looks like a Corvette no where they got the idea I wonder I just I can't imagine wow so that's basically your Nash straight six right yep but nashes wouldn't have had side draft suus no they put those on in the beginning with the aluminum bodies ran these for just a couple more cars after this one and they switched over to Carter's whys up and cuz I imagine this is a little bit temperamental it's a little bit temperamental with this high performance aluminum head I guess it really did well cuz they raced these things in the 52 lamon and took first in their class and were only beat out by two U Mercedes Go Wings wow so how does it how does it perform is it a fun car to drive um it's not like driving a Porsche no no no close it back down but it's well of course it's a 53 so I mean it's going to have sort of you know period performance yes yeah you know it shifts like that it stops like that nothing looks like it nothing at all looks like this it's a nashy what was the model called L man so it's a 53 Nash l l Coupe wow Stephen beautiful car thank you thank you very much my pleasure you so [Music] much well Bob this is the only three- wheed Morgan here what a shock that's probably the case pretty often right yeah it really is considering the fact that in the 30s there were almost 400,000 of them around the world I'm shocked at that I mean they really did build a lot of these cars there were 45 manufacturers now when I think of these I think of an engine out front the first ones did have an engine out front some motorcycle motor out front in 1935 they took a Ford engine would under the hood made it a far more civilized car so once they put the engine in then they radi shell on it nice nice what's the suspension setup it's a sliding pillar front suspension it's basically a rectangle and the axles themselves and the Hub and everything moves up and down on a pillar so it's a rigid thing but that's what made it such a competitive car for hill climbs and bogs and slogs and stuff because it didn't have the suspension pushing the car around how about the steering wheel was that a Morgan no it was an aftermarket thing Morgan wheel was a piece of junk if you want to know the truth and then somebody somebody made this modification w W so fat guys like me can get in that's nice yeah I like that is that the transmission transmission and is it a sequential or is it no it's not sequential it's standard H pattern uhhuh so let's look under here cuz they have a really curious setup back here it goes through the transmission goes to a right angle gear boox this is a right angle gearbox and then to a sprocket and a chain and then they're chain driven yeah oh yeah dual shock setup the original they were put on for racing just to keep the back end down and wood frame wood well it's a metal frame you know that's the myth about Morgans is that they have a wooden frame they don't have they have a metal frame engine's 1172 CC tiny little Su I'm Su yes is two in qu would be the same as a early Sprite or the same as a Spitfire but that's the whole I mean that's the whole thing that's it that's the whole bananas so is this thing like an absolute kick to drive well it's very tractable on the street and under normal circumstances you wouldn't know that you weren't driving a four-wheel car no kidding they're just such wild looking Little Machines beautiful setting it's just a beautiful show and you and again it's the only three-wheel Morgan here it's the only one here today it's killer well Margaret is so good to see you again I you know I I first bumped into you I think it was at Keels and Wheels about 3 years ago down in in Texas I saw you this morning and tried to catch up with you to say hi well you're pretty fast I'm surprised you didn't catch me I'll tell you I've been chasing men all my life and I can't catch you you're my kind of girl I just can't catch you and I learned then that um you were only 101 years young time just a kid just a kid and you had a birthday recently you're now I certainly did you're 104 104 I can't believe it and not only you look fabulous but your car looks this is your Packard which you've had since the late 50s this is my baby you drive this thing you've always driven this thing oh yes yeah I Packer for for years but you haven't let this one go what is it about this car it reminded me of the first car that I had of a big car and uh I just had to have it do you get along well with it I mean you still I love it it's got a fourspeed transmission on it and I love the gears in it they give you a different tune every time you change gears I don't double clutch I don't have to and this car also holds kind of a special place it was the first car to get 100 points in the classic car club and it's a 1930 you obviously restored it but has the engine ever been apart when it was redone the first part but since then no no no we just kept it it very good oil in it and I pamper it a little bit it's one thing that you've had it this long it's another that you drive it and drive it so well that's what they were made for and if you don't take these cars out and exercise them you don't get the oil off there's nothing worse than letting them set oh you and keep the oil changed you it sets there and the interor very very fast I first met you in Texas we're now in in Kentucky how many of these do you do oh about eight a year I mean you and you're a celebrity Wherever You Go I mean people people know the car is a star well the car is the car is always the star I and and you you're so humble and so gracious but I'm telling you you're a star too man the Keenan Concor is just spectacular and there are some mighty fine people down here in Lexington Kentucky this is one you ought to check out and it even cleared off come down here attention my classic car fans go online now to check out our latest selection of DVDs get all 26 episodes from the 2015 season in one DVD set order yours today at myclassic [Music] car.com h

Channel: MyClassicCarTV

Views: 329,163

Keywords: My Classic Car, Classic Car, Dennis Gage, Lexington (City/Town/Village), Kentucky (US State), Keeneland Concours, Car Show, Auto Show (Event), Automobile (TV Genre), Concours D'Elegance, Keeneland (Venue), Mormon Meteor, Duesenberg Special, Ab Jenkins, 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham, Cadillac Eldorado, Brougham, 1953 Nash-Healey LeMans Coupe, nash Healey, 1935 Morgan Three Wheeler, Morgan Trike, Morgan 3 Wheel, Margaret Dunning, 1930 Packard

Id: 6HvMqEwixrY

Length: 15min 35sec (935 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2015