Voodoo Magic: Jerry Gardner's Voodoo Special

3 The Voodoo Gardner Special This one - off special was conceived in 1952 at the time when designing and building your own sports car in America was reaching its zenith. Jerry Gardner who designed and built this one - off sports car, was like many young men from the early ‘50 s. If you wanted a sports car – and an American sports car at that – you had to build it yourself. Those who had the enthusiasm and courage chose to build it themselves. And those most courageous of all, designed and built the body from scratch – as Jerry Gardner did. Jerry was born on April 9, 1934 and was 18 years old when he started his “ build ” and he wanted some- thing special. The body design of the Voodoo was heavily influenced by a coachbuilt sports car at the time - the Briggs Cunningham ’ s C1. Also, this particular sports car was built with Cadillac power and Jer- ry chose this same body marque to power his car too (although his was the Cadillac flathead version - all 346 cubic inches of it.) He continued working on the car from 1952 through about 1956. During these years, he was also in the military and spent time overseas in Europe. It was there where he had fabricator in German,y Friedrich Graepel, design and fashion the iconic front grille from scratch - a part that remains with the car today. Work stopped on the car around 1956 and kept the unfinished “ Voodoo Gardner ” sports car with him his entire life. Sadly he passed away never having finished his car. We ’ re proud to say that the 1952 Voo- doo Gardner was finished and restored by our Undiscovered Classics Team for Brian and Sue Ford of Christchurch, New Zealand.