The Dragnet Roadster

History has a funny way of remembering things. Back in January 1955, HOT ROD magazine featured a rather notable cover image. It depicted a towheaded kid pointing out the finer aspects of a cherry-red roadster to Jack Webb of television's Dragnet fame. The association forever cemented that red roadster in the minds of kids everywhere as "the Dragnet roadster."

It's now 2003, nearly 50 years after that issue appeared. Those pumped-up kids, now adults, perk up at the mere mention of that magazine. Publications (our own included) invoke the association. George Barris even printed trading cards linking the roadster to the program.

But there's a twist: the Dragnet roadster never appeared on a single Dragnet television spot. It never even appeared inside the monthly HOT ROD magazine as a feature. However, the Dragnet roadster holds a vaunted position in hot rod lore. It has quite an interesting story to tell. Luckily, its architects are here to tell it.

The Cozy Connection
The Dragnet roadster started life as the Kazar "Cozy" Simonian roadster in about 1947. According to Cozy, an East L.A. Vultures member, "All my friends were building A/V-8 roadsters, '32 Fords, and Model As, so I wanted one." So, by working on his father's garbage truck he started saving money and buying parts.

He bought a '32 chassis and had Ruben Miranda fill the rails. For the frontend, Cozy bought a stretched axle from Bell Auto Parts. Miranda split '41-48 front wishbones and mounted the ends to the framerails. He also welded shock bungs to the axle. Cozy used the stock spring to suspend the car, but he inverted the main leaf. Miranda fabricated a V-shaped spreader bar with formed ends that curled over the bar and mimicked the frame's boxed shape. Cook's Machine Works on Telegraph Ave. in L.A. shortened the driveshaft on the '40 rear axle. Cozy also used the '40 Ford steering box in a cross-steer fashion.

Cozy then found a '29 Ford roadster body. Miranda cut out the tank's bottom before Cozy entrusted George Karabedian ("...a hell of a bodyman," Cozy affirms) with the body. He gave Karabedian a '40 Ford dash and an idea he'd seen in a '49 Buick Roadmaster. Karabedian responded by filling the dash and tunneling Stewart Warner gauges across the dash's face.

After Karabedian fabricated smooth new rear wheelwells, "we went to set the body on the frame, but the rearend sat up too far (remember the stretched axle and reversed spring up front?)," Cozy said. "So (Karabedian) Z'd the frame just the right amount to make the car sit right." Karabedian also fabricated a new trunk floor for the new frame elevation.

Cozy found an aluminum tank for the trunk and had it welded up in Boyle Heights. Karabedian sectioned, filled, and peaked the '32 shell to match the hood line. He also faired the door hinges and made the '27 roadster windshield posts to work with the '40 dash. Cozy said he thought Karabedian fabricated the headlight bar.

For the engine, Cozy had Tony Faucetta build a healthy flathead. It featured an Evans two-pot manifold and high-compression heads. Fellow Vultures member Jim DeLayo fabricated the headers. The flathead bolted to a '40 transmission Cozy procured at the local Pep Boys. He outfitted it with a 25-tooth Lincoln Zephyr gearset.

Cozy also bought a set of chrome wheels from DeLayo. According to Cozy, they set him back a full paycheck. He then pulled the car apart and "chromed every nut, bolt, washer, and key," he said. "I had the car upholstered at John's Auto Top Shop in Montebello. I had it done in eggshell white vinyl for $60." The roadster went back together for all intents and purposes as a show car. Cozy worked with famed painter Al Ayala for a color the duo called Cherry Coke. "It was a really opalescent red-brown with a lot of metallic," he said.Unfortunately, "as kids are likely to do, I got into a hardship and needed money," Cozy said. "Since all my paychecks went into that car, it was the only asset I had. I had to sell the car. I always wanted it back." That was 1953.

Tom Pollard's Peccadilloes
An enthusiastic boyish-looking Tom Pollard exited the service just as a few buddies tipped him on the available engineless roadster. That worked out fine since Pollard turned up a much-coveted 59L block. Drawing on the GI Bill, Pollard enrolled in the vocational Frank Wiggins Trade School.

Through his association with Tom Lewis, Pollard built a pretty healthy mill. Lewis machined the block's bores to 3 3/8 inches and offset ground a Merc crank to 4 1/8 inches for a 296-incher. Lewis ported and relieved the block. It seems Lewis neighbored with Kenny Harman of the famed Harman & Collins speed equipment company. Pollard said Harman ground a .425-inch-lift cam for the mill. Although early history makes no mention, the engine later ran a Harman & Collins magneto.

Lewis also knew Vic Edelbrock. According to the June '54 Rod & Custom article, the punched-out flathead with Edelbrock's heads yielded a sensational 10:1 compression ratio! Other over-the-top goodies included Stromberg 97s on an Edelbrock four-pot manifold--a contraption that Pollard said stood up to its "four in a row won't go" repute.

Pollard found a set of 15-inch solid wheels and shod them with 5.90-15s up front and a set of 6.70-15 whitewalls that Inglewood tire slicked with recaps out back--a first for Inglewood according to Pollard. In later shots the roadster alternated between the solid wheels with bullet caps and '50 Mercury wheels and caps. Pollard took a few turns welding the spider gears in the differential to lock the rearend before getting it right.

Pollard also finished up the last of the body preparation for paint. Friend Rudy Rubalcaba's father shot the car a '54 Pontiac red. The car appeared in that iteration on the Aug. '54 Rod & Custom cover with what Pollard believes to have been Publisher WS Quinn's girlfriend. The attendant article illustrates the car's construction and tricks but unfortunately doesn't accredit Cozy Simonian or his cohorts. The car also appeared on the cover of 1954's The New HOW TO BUILD HOT RODS by Eugene Jaderquist, although nothing appears inside the publication.

With the car finished, Pollard enrolled the car in a show at Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary high school in East L.A. "George Barris judged that show," Pollard said. "He gave me a first place!"

Consider that show a turning point. Barris happened to know a Hot Rod magazine editor named Wally Parks. Parks, who had a soft spot for red A/V-8s, also happened to be in an interesting pickle; Hot Rod magazine was in the middle of a cross-platform promotional with NBC's Dragnet. Parks knew the program's stars, two jet-black roadsters, would surely lay flat on the magazine's cover. Parks needed something that would "pop" off the page--something bright and flashy. Barris knew a kid with a car...

Tom Pollard, Dragnet's Jack Webb, and a cherry-red A/V-8 appeared on the Jan. '55 Hot Rod magazine cover with the slug "Dragnet's BIG ROD" floating over Pollard's head. Unfortunately, Pollard's car occupies only the cover. The magazine's table of contents promises a follow-up article on Pollard's roadster, but it never materialized; the Jan. '55 cover is the only place Tom Pollard's roadster ever appears in Hot Rod magazine.

In a way, that's all Pollard's car needed; appearing in print on the biggest and most famous automotive publication of its time made it instantly legendary. It was an ironic fame at that--the squeaky-clean looking car and kid Hot Rod magazine used to help clean the image of the hot rod raised a few eyebrows on the streets. After all, Tom Pollard was quite the street racer. He's got the stories to prove it.

For a few of the notable ones, in 1954, when Pollard first hit the streets in the roadster, he squared off against two kids on Ferguson Drive just off Olympic and Garfield. Charging down Ferguson, the trio encountered a "very familiar looking car--one with a chrome siren on top!" Pollard said. The East L.A. Sheriff they encountered gave chase and Pollard took refuge behind the darkest house on the block for an hour or so until the heat cooled.

Another time in the later-'50s Pollard encountered another oncoming patrol car while flying down Atlantic Blvd. from Garvey. That patrol understandably gave chase and in the events that ensued, Pollard sprung the Stewart Warner speedo. "We pulled into a Union station and slipped the kid a few bucks to jack the car up on the rack. We put it up there and waited about two hours," Pollard said. "They were really looking for us."

Pollard was so wont for a good race, he couldn't even content himself with bolt-on lakes plugs to seal the headers. For street use the headers led into muffled pipes. Upon invitation to race, Pollard stomped the throttle and wound up the mill to blow the half-quart beer cans off the headers and thereby open the pipes.

Sly ol' George Barris must've known about the fame the roadster could garner. Since Barris had a hand in the HOT ROD cover shot, he negotiated for the roadster to sport Barris Kustom City's badges on the cowl. After the shot, Barris coerced Pollard to repaint the car. Mind you, this was 1954 and Pollard had just spent a bunch of money to paint the car red. "No way did I want to repaint it," Pollard said. But Barris offered to spray the car for $60--provided Pollard prep the car and supply the paint.

Pollard did just that. Of course, "the red was an enamel, and Barris wanted Lacquer, so I had to sandblast the car," Pollard said. He also said Barris talked him into the three-piece louvered hood and cycle fenders. Barris' crew ended up spraying the car lime gold with rather curt rustic bronze flames. Pollard commissioned John's Top Shop to once again refit the eggshell-white trim.

In late 1954, while attending the Petersen Automotive L.A. Autorama, Kenneth Howard, aka Von Dutch, striped the freshly minted roadster. "I fed him beer and he started on the decklid. He striped and striped and man, was it weird!" he said. "He was wearing these motorcycle boots, and he started standing on the white interior," he said. About that time, one of the East L.A. clubbers from the Coffin Cheaters called for Pollard's attention by his nickname--Raton Blanco. That's White Rat to us gringos. "Apparently Dutch knew Spanish, 'cause he draws a white rat on the passenger side dash--more like a man's body with a rat's head."

With Barris at the promoting helm and Dutch's crazy stripes separating the radical colors, Pollard's car exploded onto the scene. Drawings of the car first appeared in the '56 Custom Cars annual. The car soon appeared on the Hot Rods of the Year annual with Arlene Dahl. The car then made its second famed debut on the cover of June '57's Car Craft magazine with George Sein's inversely-painted five-window Deuce. At this point Pollard's roadster sported the three-pot manifold and the feature boasted the roadster's "consistent ability to break the 'century' barrier running in street trim."

Trend Books' '57 Hot Rod annual featured the roadster internally, but denotes nothing of it on the cover. Sept. '57's Rod Builder and Customizer features a shot of Pollard and Jim Stanbaugh on the cover installing the '27 roadster windshield, yet nothing appears inside. Both the Rod Builder '58 annual and the June '59 Car Craft feature abstracted cover insets, yet nothing inside. The publicity did nothing to keep Pollard off the streets. While racing, Pollard annihilated clutches, spit out rearends, and sheared keyways with alacrity. However, a move to San Diego in the late-'50s and a resultant divorce didn't help things much. Pollard later moved back to Monterey Park in the early-'60s; his enthusiasm waned. "I got stopped by cops every time I went out," he said. He reluctantly sold the car in 1963 to Tim Miller.

Miller Time
Not much is known of Miller's ownership other than he bought and used the roadster in its metallic iteration until a fire scorched the cowl and interior in 1967. By 1968, he had the car repainted in a not-so-green gold with bronze flames in a layout different than the Barris one. Understandably, the Dutch stripes went away with the new paint's application. A black tuck job replaced the eggshell-white pleats.

The flathead made way for a 283-inch Chevy in the transition--a sign of the times, indeed. On a positive note, somebody scared up a set of ultra-rare Kinmont disc brakes for the frontend. About the only other positive thing we can say about the period is that the roadster survived it.

The Loe Down
Richard Loe spotted the car sitting in a San Gabriel Blvd. fuel station as he returned from Sam Pierce's Indian motorcycle shop on his Chief. That was 1968 and "it was the neatest roadster I'd ever seen!" he said.

Seeing it in an old magazine only fueled the fire. Loe started chasing the roadster down. Apparently, fellow Vintage Tin club member Terry Polley knew Tim Miller. Unfortunately, Miller didn't want to sell. Finally, in about 1972-73, Polley told Loe at a Vintage Tin meeting that Miller wanted to sell. Loe effectively adjourned the meeting to buy the car.

Loe kept the car until 1974, when the push for a bigger house for a growing family prompted him to sell it. He sold it to a neighbor to finance a house just down the street from the La Canada home he grew up in.

Of course, realizing the enormity of his decision a few months later, Loe scrambled over to buy back the roadster. Unfortunately, "he (Loe's former neighbor) and his wife divorced and she didn't want to have anything to do with me, him, or that roadster," Loe said.

Then, in 1977, Pete Eastwood mentioned to Loe, "Hey, your old roadster was in my shop the other day." As it turns out, the roadster changed hands in the interim and now lived in Corona. Unfortunately, in the shuffle between the Valley and the Inland Empire the fenders and louvered hood sides went away. Apparently, "the guy bought a new Porsche," Loe said, "and it sat outside--the roadster was in the garage. One day they had the house painted and paint got all over the Porsche." Evidently the owner's wife didn't like the arrangement that left a top-dollar Porsche to the elements while some 'old Ford' sat safely in the garage.

"So I made a deal with the guy two or three days later and never thought about selling the car again," Loe said. And the car sits, to this day, in the garage behind the house Loe financed by selling the roadster nearly three decades ago. It appears much as it did when Loe repurchased it in 1977. Loe's son Eric, who's an avid prewar hot rod historian and a great fan of the car, remembers the homecoming. "If it weren't for Eric, we wouldn't have even known about Cozy," Loe said. "He was just trying to make the history back to Tom Pollard when George Bentley remembered him. We met Cozy before we ever met Tom."The greenish-gold and copper roadster wears the battle scars of five decades of building, rebuilding, three paint jobs, and a healthy street racing career. The sheer prospect that it survived is impressive. Loe said he struggles with the urge to restore the car, but can't decide on which incarnation it should forever exist in. Even if he doesn't restore it, the roadster Cozy Simonian built and Tom Pollard made famous serves as a window into our culture and hobby's past and as a reminder of what it once was--even if it really wasn't on Dragnet.