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You might remember Geoff Hacker found the McCormack Roadster at a junkyard back in 2011, one of the just 10 -15 that were built. For whatever reason, it’s taken a good 12 years to get started on this restoration, but I’m really glad it’s underway. This little 50s era fiberglass ‘sports rod’ fascinates me; Sort of a combination of early Corvette with some Barris Kustom flourishes.
A little history from the Hemmings story when it was discovered:
Built in 1955 by Henry McCormack of Orange, California; he debuted his car at the 1955 International Motor Revue Show in Los Angeles. According to an article on the car in the February 1956 issue of Motor Life, McCormack initially wanted it to be a four-place, rear-engine coupe that used “a DeDion rear axle and a reverse drive unit to get the engine as far back as possible, but space limitations and the expense of such an operation changed his mind to a more conventional design.” McCormack set the car atop a box-section tube frame with a wheelbase of 106 inches and adapted a Ford Thunderbird windshield and contemporary Buick taillamps. What exactly he used for a drivetrain, the article didn’t say, but in McCormack’s own cutaway drawing of the car, it appears to be a Cadillac 331-cu.in. V-8. While not an exact copy, it certainly looks like McCormack took inspiration from Jay Everett’s 1952 Astra coupe, the latter aluminum-bodied and Olds Rocket-powered.
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