Sometimes great feral cars just come knocking on your virtual door and say “shoot me” or, maybe, “post me.” Yes, it’s that special day when gluttony is celebrated rather than reviled so we invite you feast on two early ’50s sedans that were sitting ducks (or turduckens) for loyal FeralCars fans Amy Treco and Andrew Keeler. If you recall, Amy was our Halloween model/presenter. If you don’t recall, click here to see what you missed. Andrew is constantly roaming, ahem, The Streets of San Francisco seeking out feral vehicular encounters. Today we give thanks to both for their service to the cause.
Amy sent in a stunning, rockabilly-style, lowered ’54 Pontiac with add-on “dagmar” front bumper bullets, fender skirts, headlight half covers, de-chromed flanks and a “tuff” windshield visor. The last of these custom touches is the coolest accessory any juvenile delinquent type, loitering around a pool hall, trimming his cuticles with a switch blade, would lust after. ’54 was, by the way, the last model year Pontiac — or any domestic car maker — offered a straight 8 (cylinders inline) motor. Displacement was 4.4 liters /268.2 cubic inches, around the same size as the motor powering today’s BMW M5 but with 430 fewer horses on tap.
Andrew sent in this ’49 Ford, a “fordor” model, still thrivin’ ‘n’ jivin’ in the land of Rice-A-Roni and sourdough. That mottled surface rust, coupled with contrasting fender skirts and red rimmed wheels, make this V8-powered (239 cubic inches/3.9 liters, 100 hp) rockin’ Dearborn relic a thing of beauty, worthy of a doo wop song sung under a corner streetlight.
Does the front end remind you of anything? If your response was “airplane Studey,” give yourself a gold star. The similarity to Studebaker’s ’50 – ’51 “bullet nose” car is apparent and that’s no coincidence. The Ford design has been attributed to Bob Bourke, Richard Caleal and Holden Koto, all of whom had been designers with Studebaker’s styling unit, administered by Raymond Lowey. The three seemed to have done some moonlighting before they all — surprise! — ended up working for Ford.
People’s exhibits F and S:
We found an advert for Amy’s Pon-Ton, the subtext of which is that size does, indeed, matter.
There’s a stunning ’54 Pontiac convertible you can buy for for a mere $93,000. Doesn’t that make you want to check it out? Here you go.
Equal time for the ’49 Ford. You have just a few days left to bid on this low mileage ’49 Ford “tudor.” It has only 51,000 miles on it which works out to fewer than 800 miles per year. Bid here now before it’s too late!
If you, like Amy and Andrew, have stalked a feral car and would like to submit a photo of it for posting consideration please send it in: info (at) feralcars (dot)com OR through Feral Cars on Facebook.