Tommy approached Frank with a project. He wanted the best looking and fastest hot rod in Southern California… and he wanted Frank to build it.
Frank thought the Cord was a smart look and Tommy agreed. Frank felt a Cad motor would be appropriate, but Tommy balked. He wanted the best of the best and that meant this car was going to get a 318-inch Offy. A direction was set and work began.
Frank started with a 1936 Ford chassis and Cord front and rear fenders. From there, the car just blossomed into something VERY unique and VERY fast
Don left millions to his son Tommy, who at age 45 jumped from the 12th story of the Wilshire hotel, leaving 10 million to potential heirs to fight over
Tommy’s roadster ran on the dry lakes of Southern California with limited success. Improvements might have been made and potential realized if not for a tragedy that happened just prior to the war. On an intersection in Hollywood, CA, Tommy was t-boned by a truck and he was badly injured.
Tommy lived the rest of his life in a great deal of pain. He tried to play through and continued buying a number of hot rods and race cars as well as a few fighter planes (p38). But the joy of speed just wasn’t enough to overcome the pain.
On January 13, 1950, Tommy had his driver take him to the dentist. He got on the elevator and went to the 12th floor roof. He then jumped to his death leaving behind a 10 million dollar fortune, a huge automobile and aircraft collection, a radio station, and a television business http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=7365
These are screen shots from the 1940 Harpers Dry Lakes racing video that Dave from http://www.seabrighthotrods.com/ just added to youtube
notice that the street exhaust is different from the racing exhaust
these last two images from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=7365
For the other Don Lee Special that I posted this summer http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/06/don-lee-special.html
Interesting car and story - if rather sad. There's at least two other Don Lee Specials too - a beautiful Alfa and an Indy car. Any others?
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ReplyDeleteDon Lee Special? Not this car. This is the Tommy Lee Special. This car was built for Tommy Lee by Frank Kurtis after Don Lee died. The car still exists today in a collection in Alberta, Canada.
ReplyDeleteGood point... I did have the text in the post correct, but the title is definitely wrong. Did you read the text? I mentioned who built it, when, and for whom. So... why did you spell that out in your comment?
DeleteAll his race cars were called Don Lee specials, including the Mercedes GP car he ran at Indy. He also had a '32 Ford roadster with lots of Bugatti parts. I wonder what ever happened to that car. A side note the hill the Hollywood sign sits on is called Lee mountain and was owned by the family at one time.
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