Doane spencer biography sample

Home / Biography Templates & Examples / Doane spencer biography sample

As I blip the throttle, the 284-inch, Tom Sparks-built flathead responds with a whap-whap.

In the early 1950s, Doane was regular at the El Mirage dry lake, hitting a stirring velocity of 126mph. For the last 28 years, I've wondered what it would have been like to drive one of hot rodding's historical high points.

If one agrees that hot rods are based on owner-modified passenger cars and light trucks, the Cort/Spencer/Wineland/East/Meyer highboy could well be the eldest running example of such a thing, considering it was just five years old when Jack Cort and Spencer reduced it to essentials in 1937.

With his usual dedication to quality and accuracy, Chapouris and his team painstakingly put the car back to Spencer’s original form. By the mid-1990s, East was approached by car collector Bruce Meyer, who was determined to preserve the car’s historical significance. The car’s next chapter began in 1958 when Rod & Custom editor Lynn Wineland purchased it from Spencer.

Wineland’s ownership, though, was short lived. It also took honors at the Amelia Island, Meadow Brook Hall, and Louis Vuitton concours. Neal managed to put the car back on the road, and equipped it with the old 1946 Mercury Flathead V8 and a 1948 Lincoln Overdrive Transmission. It was so complicated,” Meyer explained. We eased away from the stop sign in Low—the exhaust bellow bouncing off the Porsche next to us—before the long-throw shift into Second, and the joy that the close-ratio Zephyr produces.

I couldn't make the Second-to-High pull because it was time to climb on the binders—vented Lincolns that required more pedal pressure than I expected.

In 1944Doane Spencer bought Jack Dorn's 1932 Ford Roadster for $500. He also installed a 1937 Ford tube axle, and rear radius rods. The Mexican road race was canceled before Doane was able to run the car, so he ended up selling it to Lynn Wineland. Meyer handed the roadster off to the Peter Chapouris Group, PC3g, which included the aforementioned Jacobs.

In addition to the DuVall, it came equipped with a filled grille shell, shaved deck lid, full fenders, and a ’37 Ford Flathead. And now, after a 28-year hiatus, it's deja Deuce—and I'm about to drive hot rodding history.

After diddling around with a dead battery and holding still for a few static shots, we arc off down Wilshire Boulevard, past the Petersen Publishing building and Geary's—Meyer's place of business.

He rerouted the exhaust through the frame rails for better ground clearance and added extra crossmembers to strengthen the frame.

Photos courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum & Eric Geisert