• Clocked at 141.95 mph at El Mirage Dry Lake in 1949
  • Winner of numerous concours awards and featured in many hot rod publications
  • Driven on the Colorado Grand, the California Mille, and Monterey Historics
  • An iconic and historically important hot rod

SCM Analysis

Detailing

Vehicle:1932 Ford “Jim Khougaz” roadster
Years Produced:1932
Number Produced:6,893 DeLuxe V8 roadsters (plus 520 standard V8s)
SCM Valuation:$180,000–$250,00
Tune Up Cost:$300 (estimated)
Chassis Number Location:Stamped on the left front frame rail
Club Info:Goodguys, National Street Rod Association (NSRA)
Website:www.good-guys.com
Alternatives:Other historic 1932 Ford roadsters or other hot rods with dry-lakes history
Investment Grade:B

This car, Lot 210, sold for $187,000, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s Paul and Chris Andrews Collection sale on May 2, 2015, in Fort Worth, TX. RM’s pre-sale estimate on this car was $300,000 to $375,000. It was offered at no reserve.

A Deuce for the ages

In my library, there’s a copy of the May 1955 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. On the cover, Don Clark (the “C” in CT Automotive; Clem TeBow was the “T”) and a guy named Jim Khougaz are pictured working on a radical OHV conversion for a ’46 Mercury flathead.

Khougaz was very familiar with flatheads, and he was something of a purist. An early dry-lakes racing enthusiast and a talented wrench, Jim was determined to run his personal ’32 Ford “Deuce” roadster — originally his street car, and later his racer — as quickly as more aerodynamic, track-nosed, belly-panned and lighter T-bodied Fords.

In the spirit of the Greatest Generation, Khougaz, a tough, battle-tested former Army Air Corps B-17 waist gunner, had his own way of dealing with the Deuce’s barn-door aerodynamics. Although channeling would catapult his car into the seriously competitive Modified Roadster class, Khougaz wanted to show his ’32 could run with the big boys. So to keep up with the small-silhouette T-bodied lakesters, he channeled the car seven inches and faired the bulky Deuce body into the frame. He then fabricated a full-length aluminum belly pan. In lieu of a track nose, he fashioned a flat spoiler panel in front of the cut-down ’32 grille to keep the front end down at speed. The windshield was deep-sixed, and he fabricated a slick tonneau cover to reduce cockpit turbulence. Jim figured his engine skills would do the rest.

Khougaz tried a lot of setups before he built a high-output 286-ci flathead using the era’s finest speed equipment: a red-hot Winfield SU-1A cam with its distinctive lopey idle, finned, high-compression Edelbrock heads and a four-carburetor Edelbrock intake, with a Harman & Collins magneto. He ported and relieved the block, and carefully balanced all the reciprocating parts (a specialty that later would earn Jim his living, working for some of the era’s leading racers, including, much later, Carroll Shelby).

The distinctive finish was a custom shade of blue with dark red wheels. ’39 Ford teardrop taillights and a rolled pan finished the rear. The hood was extended two inches and the engine was enclosed with custom louvered side panels. For the street, Khougaz fitted a chopped ’32 Ford windscreen. Inside, he installed a complete original ’34 Auburn dash, with a full set of period Stewart-Warner convex-lens gauges and a Bell fuel pressure pump. He built a custom column shift setup for the 3-speed transmission, and installed a ’48 Ford steering wheel.

Highboy roadsters could top speeds of over 130 mph. Jim did even better. Running on alcohol fuel in 1946, his lowboy hit 141.95 mph at El Mirage Dry Lake. After winning a sizeable collection of coveted Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) timing tags, Khougaz retired this car in the mid-1950s.

A lucky find

Occupied with his engine balancing business and the building of a 200-mph T lakester (which he crashed spectacularly, and was calmly extinguishing the resultant fire when the crash trucks arrived), Khougaz stored the ’32 roadster intact in his loft for 40 years, then sold it to an Indiana dentist, Dr. Mark Van Buskirk. Van Buskirk then shipped this remarkable find to Dave Simard’s East Coast Custom in Leominster, MA, for a comprehensive, five-year, body-off restoration.

Simard was able to save much of the original sheet metal. He and his crew fabricated a new alloy belly pan, and wherever possible, they used original or NOS Ford replacement parts. Steve Pierce of Gilford, NH, matched the original interior in pleated cordovan leather, and re-created the tonneau cover. Viking Auto in Vernon, VT, matched the paint to a sample found on the car.

Mark Kirby of Motor City Flathead built a 286-ci flathead engine with all the correct parts, including a quartet of carefully rebuilt and tuned Stromberg 81 carburetors. A set of chromed lakes pipes can be uncapped, or the exhaust can be routed underneath the car through a pair of Smithy’s mufflers.

Debuting at the 2001 Grand National Roadster Show, the roadster won the coveted Bruce Meyer Preservation Award, then appeared at Pebble Beach in the 2003 hot rod class. At the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance in 2004, it won the hot rod class.

Van Buskirk did it all with this car. He ran the Colorado Grand and the California Mille and competed at the Monterey Historic Road Races. This ’32 has won trophies at the Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance, at Eyes on Classic Design and at many other venues. It’s been featured in The Rodder’s Journal, Street Rodder Magazine, Rod & Custom, Old Cars Weekly, and Hop Up.

Eyes on the prize

In 2006, the Khougaz-Van Buskirk roadster was chosen as one of the Best ’32 Fords of All Time, joining an exclusive group of just 75 highly respected Deuces. The resurrected two-seater has been a relentless trophy-winner wherever it has been shown. It’s eligible for every historic hot rod show, all the 1,000-mile specialty events, and it’s ready to boogie over to the nearest local cruise-in.

When Van Buskirk first sold this car in 2007, it brought $385,000 (ACC# 46256). The buyer was Ralph Whitworth, who planned to build a hot rod museum in Winnemucca, NV. When Whitworth’s plans changed, he sold the roadster two years later for a bargain $214,500 at an RM sale at the Petersen Automotive Museum (ACC# 142753). The buyers were Texas collectors Chris and Paul Andrews, who in turn sold the car when they reduced their collection’s size this past May.

I was present at the Texas sale and thought the roadster would sell in the $250,000 to $300,000 range. But bidding started slowly and didn’t progress very high. Some Ferraris and classic Packards changed hands for seven figures in this sale. But hot rods — with the exception of an ex-Joe MacPherson ’56 Ford pickup with a “Cammer” V8 at $374,000 — sold for relatively moderate prices.

So what’s the problem?

While extensively promoted and in perfect condition, this car’s sale price was a surprise. This roadster had it all: impeccable history, great looks, impressive concours credentials, the works. One theory opined that there was nowhere else to take this car — that it had done it all. And to be fair, channeled cars aren’t for everyone, especially if you’re tall. They’re uncomfortable to drive, although in this car, the seat had been sunken into the floor a bit to make driving easier.

Interestingly, the ex-Tom McMullen ’32 Ford sold for over three times as much, as did the ex-Dick Flint ’29 Ford roadster, and neither of those cars had their original frames. You could argue that McMullen and Flint were better known than Jim Khougaz, but that’s splitting hairs. I think the few bucks-up hot rodders who could afford this car missed the opportunity, and with that in mind, I’d have to call it very well bought.

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.

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