Hi Gang…

Le’ts go Ladawri!  Conquest, that is…

Here’s a great article about a car I’d love to find.  But Rick and I are finding too many out there gang.  Who wants to find this one? – it’s a beauty!  We need all the help we can find 🙂   So off we go and let’s take a closer look at Fred Beraud’s LaDawri Conquest.

Fantastic Ford
Speed and Custom: September, 1961
By Bert Lee

Although it’s hard to believe, this beautiful sports-rod was constructed from a ’51 Ford that was a refugee from a junk yard.  This sharp show car with plenty of go was built for only $1350.  No kid, but a mature adult with a responsible job as a Lighting Director at CBT, Fred Beraud built this hit of the ’60 Sports Car Show in New York.

With a fiberglass body from California on a ’51 Ford  chassis, he created a real crowd pleaser.  It was built in his spare time in one year.  The car has a removable hardtop and ragtop, weighs under a ton and has a power to weight ratio of 18:1.  The Fred Beraud Special doesn’t just look good, it runs like a rabbit too.

It features reworked Renault bucket seats covered with rolled & pleated naugahyde.  The body is a Conquest by LaDawri, featuring a six-inch ground clearance, with the cowl being only 36 inches high.

Summary:

What a fine job Fred did at building this car – a Conquest that I’ve not heard of before and one that could be stashed away at a location near you.  There are several points that are very interesting about this car but the fact that it was originally built with a ’51 Ford Flathead engine would sure turn some heads at any show – wouldn’t it?

Which leads to another interesting point, and that is that our category of sports cars – handbuilt fiberglass sports cars from the 1950s – represents the largest category of Ford V8 Flathead engined sports cars in the world.  Most folks consider ’50s sports cars to be SBC based since the Chevy V8 came out in ’55.  And of course, cars could have the Chrysler Hemi, Olds Rocket, Cadillac, and/or Stude mill.  But….the Ford Flathead wins the “greatest number” count each and every time.  Just something to ponder on 🙂

Go get ‘em gang and let us know what you find on Fred’s car.  We’d love to see this Conquest back in the fiberglass-fold and at a show near you or me.

Hope you enjoyed the story, and remember gang…

The adventure continues here at Forgotten Fiberglass.

Geoff