Anyway, enough of the why, let's concentrate on the what, how, and just possibly where of it all. I sincerely hope you enjoy seeing these kitschy kreations on the printed page as much as we did photographing and writing about them-enjoy!
Outlaw, Nee ExcaliberWe'll start with the Outlaw, as it was the first in a series of 'glass-bodied vehicles by Roth. The car you're looking at, however, isn't the original-which is now in the care of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles-but rather an incredibly accurate clone built from a Jimmy C "continuation" body and sculpted nosepiece (both available in limited numbers from the maker) by Mark Moriarity of Mound, Minnesota. It would be interesting to compare the original and clone side-by-side. I have a feeling, given Mark's near fanatic attention to detail, that his copy would be more authentic than Harrah's 1980 restoration.
As noted, the Outlaw was originally christened Excaliber, Ed's incorrect spelling of King Arthur's legendary blade, "Excalibur," for its sword hilt shifter of questionable linage. Note that different stories at different times by Big Daddy give it a heritage of being from: a) an American Civil War cavalry saber; b) a sword his father had brought over when he immigrated from Germany; or c) a sword his mother-in-law, Mary Lewis, gave him that was said to have belonged to one of her English ancestors, and/or an American Revolutionary war relic-it varied. The interesting thing here is that this is nothing that an edged-weapon expert couldn't have cleared up at one time (Antique Road Show, anyone?), but alas, the mystery will continue for now at least, because it hasn't been a part of the car for some time and photos of the object in question are few. In Pat Ganahl's book, he says of the sword hilt shifter, "Where did it go? It's not in the car today. I (he, Pat) asked Bob Larivee Sr., who once owned the car, where the sword handle went, and his only reply was, 'It's not there?'"
Roth's little stylized 'glass roadster was groundbreaking for its era when it made its magazine debut on the cover of Car Craft, in January 1960, and pretty much remains so today almost a half-century later. It's been said that Norm Grabowski's Kookie T was Ed's inspiration, and of that I have no doubt, for Norm wasn't called, "The Father of the T-bucket" without good reason. Inspired, yes, but Ed's wasn't exactly Norm's to a "T," as was Tommy Ivo's (pun intended), but rather a highly stylized visual impression thereof.
Ed Roth was among the first "civilians" to use a buck to create a fiberglass mold for producing a car body (Detroit stylists had been using clay for such purposes for at least a decade or three). Others who'd done so successfully included Bob Sorrell, the construction of a plaster buck for his 'glass sports roadster being covered in the October '55 issue of Car Craft. Note that a bubbletopped coupe version of this body, said to use two F-86 Jet canopies, ran at Bonneville in '54 with owner Denny Larsen at the wheel of his Streetliner. Bill Burke had already pulled a mold from Bob Petersen's Cisitalla coupe (supposedly without his permission or knowledge) to make a 'glass body to run on the Salt in '53. In not using a plaster buck as others were doing, he saved a lot of development time.