Timbs Special and Hudson Italia

you [Music] there's just nothing on the planet that looks like [Music] I am Dennis gage and welcome to my classic car well this week when the mountains above Malibu to get a look at a couple of Gary and Diane sir Vinny's cars hey these folks have a lot of cars and their tastes run the gamut from rolls-royce Silver Ghost - vintage drag and Indy cars but today we've pulled out a couple that are truly studies in design elegance the 55 Hudson Italia and the one and only 48 Tim's special now these babies are completely off the charts from a design standpoint and I think they're going to knock your socks off hey guy how you doing oh that's very glad to meet you fine finally meeting you but I've heard so much about you and your cars and you know here we are beautiful sunny Southern California day but boy you brought out some some fabulous cars today that Tim special it's like nothing I've ever seen in my life and I and I can't wait to learn a little bit more about it but we also had this this italia over here which has been a favor of mine always and I've only seen one other of these in my entire life there aren't a heck of a lot of them right as we understand was originally supposed to be a production run of 26 but there were six I believe brought to the US five that are together one this in pieces supposedly some of the other ones were finished in Turin and were sold to the car company could get their money there because they weren't being paid by Hudson anymore well so had Hudson gone down in the meantime I mean then while these were being built in 55 is when Hudson declared bankruptcy right after the first few of these showed up in the US well all of those now orphaned Marc's like you know Kaiser and Nash and Hudson we're trying these radical things right along towards the end kind of a last-gasp effort to stay alive you know it's looking at this and I love the windshield I love the rap on it and everything and I was looking at the chrome trim embedded there in the in the weather stripping and the seal and I look closer I mean is this bx conduit it sure is again the italians yeah we're quite creative so they use electrical conduit pull the wire out of it chrome-plated it well you know I also love how the windshield wipers come down to you know the windshield kicks up right here they sit right on top of that conduit and above this vent and again just the design elements there's just the Italians nobody does it like the Italians do it what a wild interior I mean it's so Spacey so very very George Jetson it is and this car is completely original its original paint original interior original carpet the day I was interesting is I mean it's a padded or what is it that was an aluminum dash and it was then painted with a crinkle finish elegant steering wheel just you know beautiful but the lettering on the gauge this is a little bit Hudson yeah the gauges may have been from them that there are more pedestrian but you notice even the surrounds there though they did a louver type of memo everywhere you look you'll find that just details built into the car but these taillights this rear end is one of the wildest things I've ever seen this kind of a I know thruster jack was obviously the rocket theme and then these are the tail lights turn signals and backup lights are all built in there well nothing is that that's interesting about these cars is how far the body bulges out over the wheels especially from down low and back it's like these wheels are way inside the body it's like the body's all puffed up and kind of narrow I think that comes from the fact that the user jet chassis which was their compact car chassis they probably should have used the bigger chassis but that would have cost them more and I think it was probably a price consideration and they may had a lot of jets they couldn't get ready so these were all the jet platform and they're they're powered by the jet six-cylinder engine right all of them I sell for this car really this car started that way but it didn't end up that way well let's go have a look and see what's in okay Gary that looks like a Chevy engine it's a two 65 55 Corvette engine why don't you do a swap on it and now this was done by Hollywood sports car I bolted right up to the bell housing collection transmission so they just had to put some engine mounts in it change the electrical because the rest of the car is six volt but the engine of course had a 12-volt starter in a 12-volt generator and and because it's a dealer install it was legit that's the way I look at and like the rest of the car completely unrestored I listed yep that's why it's a little tarnished here and there but I just can't bring myself writing so perfectly and with only 12,000 miles on it I'm just not going to take it apart I like the patina like keeping cars as original as possible now is she she runs and you do drive it right runs very well we drive it regularly you know it's a gorgeous day here in SoCal and I wonder if we take it out I think we should do mine right we do oh I think you probably should carry thank you so much let's go okay so Gary this is a really rare cover that we always looking for a Natalia how did you come to even know the Italians well the first time I saw one was at the Petersen Museum some years ago we walked in for a dinner and here was this Italian sitting there I spent about 20 minutes squatted down looking at it from every angle yeah my wife I had to drag me away thinking that we're going to miss dinner and I had the museum director give me the owner's name I called him he gave me a list of all the owners he what did one sell his that's a very short list of five people and I wrote them all letters offered by their cars got no response from anybody [Music] after a few years one showed up about 40 miles from my house terney that I had sent a letter to I drove over there immediately hating for the car didn't even question anything then I said you know I wrote you a letter a year or so ago or a couple years ago he says well yes I mainly remember that I kind of threw it away I never planned to sell it well why did you sell it now well I got remarried my wife said get that ugly thing out of a garage so I put my Mercedes in there so he says I'm having to sell it well you know is these are segmenting cars to a certain extent some people don't think this is a pretty car I think it's gorgeous I always have well my wife I used to think that my Avanti was the ugliest car in the world even though she'd bought it for me for a birthday present but this car is according to her positively the ugliest cars world however it's one of my all-time favorite cars so it's just a difference of opinion but you either love it or hate it there's there's no middle yeah yeah you can't you aren't you aren't don't wish you wash you're lukewarm on this card it is a love it or hate it [Music] now this and you occasionally drive this car you take it out or take my frequently my legs say my wife has to wear red to AAP paper sacks on keys one blows off hasn't gotten over this yet right it's so utterly to her no she quite has it [Music] the weird overhead light scoops are really functional correct those are actual scoops that run to little tubes that run air to the front brakes and there's also ducts on the side of the car here where the skirts are that run ducts to the rear brakes to essentially cool the brakes whether they're all that effective on that's in short of course this is four-wheel drum right yeah this car actually is a very practical car to drive but I don't think that decide had anything to do with practicality it's got such a such a euro interior I mean it's just it's beautiful and it feels you get you just feel euro in this car as I think that's one of the things that I like about the car so much is that it is completely different from anything you see today let alone what you would have seen it I need 55 well gary that that italia really runs pretty nice that engine swap i think was the right thing to do i think it helped i've always wanted to drive one of those they're they're so unique but nothing compared to your tim's special IV this this is unique on steroids 1947-48 right yep what bite by a guy named tim's Norman - Herrmann Tim's what's the story on him well he was an aerospace engineer and an IndyCar designer and he decided he wanted to build a car for himself and he got a lot of his inspiration according to his family from the Auto Union land speed record car from pre-world War two which was a mid-engine car of course it had a v12 this is a straight eight Buick it's just it's it's unbelievable and and so obviously a one-off created you know by hand and it's it's all is it aluminum it's all aluminum body the body was actually pounded by Emmel Dietz was an IndyCar body man from that period you know it's it's interesting from the back and if you if you stopped about here it's almost all Byrne speedster a little bit but then that goes away with all this craziness that's going on and these look like Ford taillights yes he used some Ford some Packard parts and of course the Buick engine and transmission everything else that was hand fabricated it's unbelievable and that you know the other thing is huge cars how long 16 17 feet 10 inches pretty darn close to 18 feet but this really tiny little passenger compartment and it's only two people and you you can't be too big no you're right together I wish I'd had this in high school a girl would've been able to get away from me they'd have been trapped close and very young a lot of instrumentation engine turned - and a gauge for just about everything all Stuart Warner's or they're mostly back mount Stuart Warner's with some echo gauges he even went to the extent that he pressurized the tubes in the chassis for two purposes one to supposedly make them a little ever not absolutely sure about that but also the very small electric pump that pumped 110 pounds of pressure into those tubes and that's what works the air horn so that was actually was his air horn reservoir exactly jesse was the air horn roosevelt way and a long long blast and i didn't worry about running out of there out of my way this leather around the dash and everything that was all that was the way it was was the way it was originally done even this small stitching detail around the bow it was stunning steering wheel because that a rose would I believe it is we actually had to fabricate this steering wheel to get it to be exactly right and is it it's a column shift three-speed it is it uses a Ford column here I course now all the shifting is going on clear at the very front of the car then from here on it's all Norman's parts they're all rods Bell cranks hi man's ball bearing that comes all the way down the body to run both the carburetor and the transmission and of course this transmission unfortunately not only shifts in this axis but also in this axis so these levers have to move very calm I didn't believe it's a shame they're covered up but they're just an unbelievable amount of rods and letters then of course the radiators in front so on the other side are the water from the engine and returned back to the engine and what's strange nose I mean the the front end is you know again this is this is three quarters aft and in a quarter of its up here drops right down real quick to a grill is very similar to a C on it is right but the only thing is up front here besides the linkage in the column and the little air pump in the air horns is the radiator is that metal flake I mean we've got a lot of sparkle in the paint no it's actually real gold I real like gold gold real gold well I Norman one of the things that he did he wanted to actually spray gold flake a large flake no one had ever done that before took a big spray gun design a set of beaters in the cup that were like an old ice cream maker air driven yeah so that it could keep real gold in suspension in the paint to paint it so that's the way he did it well no so it's it's mid-engine how do you get to it well you have to lift the entire back up to get to the spare tire to get to the fuel tank to change the rear tires or to service the engine that looks like a two-man job no actually it's a one finger job it's a bits power did you guys do that or no it was originally that well in 48 he put a power lift on his ideas correct let's open her up and there she is Wow and so that's it wow that's a Buick straight-8 right the Buick straight-8 was a 1947 crate engine with the transmission behind it now Norman wanted compound carburation because of his racing pedigrees they didn't make compound carburation in 47 anymore but they did make it in 40 41 so Norman got one of the earlier manifolds with the split dual exhaust installed them on this engine to make a little more horsepower and then of course the exhaust you notice come down together slower and come out here very much like a Duesenberg now you've done all this work it does run right I mean you actually created this thing to run absolutely even though we changed and decided to do a full conquer restoration from just making it a driver I still require all my cars to be driving and when we're finished showing it this will be a regular driven car just like the Hudson Wow and but she runs today she runs now absolutely you know we just taught me took out the Italia was a lot of fun may we take this one out maybe you know I could maybe drive this one to you I don't know yeah you're gonna talk to you a little bit on that one girl might take a little more time well let's put this down we'll chat okay contact contact and she starts [Music] [Music] what a field what an amazing field [Music] there's just nothing on the planet that looks like that oh it's kind of become you know our favorite card become the jam of our collection and this was created in 48 he started at 47 did it create a stir back then or I mean it seemed to by the Articles that were written amongst car people and amongst race car people Lizzy a cover rodent Drakon now 49 Wow do you have that you have that issue oh that had a few copies of it that was the actually the second issue and was right at the very beginning second issue road track him it was a cover car what not much of an article but it was a car want to come in a hood a cover car yeah for your second issue how was his documentation honest I mean did he document the creation of this yes fortunately his son is still alive ascend to California and he had his father's original picture book 140 photographs of the original car and he was nice enough to allow us to use that book so that we could do an accurate and honest restoration [Music] needless to say now you probably noticed he never heard of your marriage yeah I know I noticed that earlier I guess he went by the Italian saying what's the behind you doesn't matter doesn't matter and it was probably completely a design consideration a nice event in Christ obviously no windshield wipers no talk all those things are unnecessary for a true sports car in Southern California putting it work too well in Michigan oh that's a serious honk fair yeah [Music] so until our next meeting remember honor the timeless classics I'm Dennis gage happy motoring

Channel: MyClassicCarTV

Views: 815,077

Rating: 4.7917604 out of 5

Keywords: My Classic Car, Classic Car, Dennis Gage, Malibu (City/Town/Village), California (US State), Timbs Special, Hudson Italia, Hudson, Norman TImbs Special, Gary Cerveny Collection, Gary Cerveny, Car collection malibu, car collection fire, car collection malibu fire, california classic cars, car collection destroyed

Id: 8lL5VojwaB0

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 09 2014