Latest Cars Reviews Blog: Oh, baby. Art Gerrick lakes modified headed to auction

Oh, baby. Art Gerrick lakes modified headed to auction

Art Garrick lakes modified

A few weeks ago, I wrote up a preview of the upcoming RM Icons of Speed and Style auction for the Hemmings e-Weekly Newsletter, but ever since, I’ve been enthralled by the cars that will be offered at the auction. In particular, if there’s one car there I would sell a kidney or other body part for, it wouldn’t be the Deora or the Road Agent or the Khougaz roadster. It would be the Art Gerrick lakes modified.

RM has it listed as lot R23, estimated to go for $40,000 to $60,000, officially described as thus:

1923 Ford Model T Lakes Roadster
Chassis no. NA
This early hot-rodded roadster was one of the first “cutaway” feature stories in Hot Rod Magazine, which covered the car extensively in the May 1951 issue. Construction of the car began in 1936, and by the early 1950s, it was superseded by newer, more powerful, and more aerodynamic designs such as the post-war belly tankers and jet cars. By 1951 its days of thunder neared the end as SCTA inspections became more rigid leaving few surviving examples of these unique and historic speed demons.
Power is by a highly modified Ford 4-cylinder engine with a Rajo Model BB-R cylinder head, which was an important early add-on speed component, before the “flathead” V8 overwhelmingly became the engine of choice for competition.
The full-length, highly polished exhaust pipe is actually an early Ford torque tube. This was another widely used accessory in the 1930s-early 1950s, indicative of the resourcefulness of early hot rodders.

This, my friends, is the quintessential lakes modified. It carries as little weight as possible, it’s been narrowed 10 inches to cheat the wind (and sports a nifty windshield for the same purpose), and it runs a hot little four-banger. In fact, I’d bet Gerrick poured 10 times as much money into that engine as he did into the Olds-framed chassis and hammered-together body combined. It’s beyond Spartan; it’s the model for the democratic purpose-built racing machine, approachable by anybody with a wrench, access to a junkyard and a pair of cojones. It’s the product of a short, but highly important and formative era for land-speed racing, at a time when all racing was done on the dry lakes or on the streets, and ingenuity and thrift reigned rather than the concept of cubic dollars and 1-800-street rods.

The auction will take place September 26 at the Petersen Automotive Museum.