0_Pebble_Beach_Portfolio-Maverick

1 Overview: Elevator Speech 1953 Maverick Sportster by Sterling Gladwin — “ The Maverick Sportster is a Land - Bound Pegasus with airborne power and cloud - like riding quality ” — Maverick Sportster brochure, 1953 The Maverick was designed by Sterling “ Smoke ” Gladwin Jr., of Mountain View, California who was an aeronautical engineer having worked for Boeing and Lockheed. Inspired with the elegance of pre - war automobile design, Gladwin built a postwar boulevard sports car with modern power and classic lines. He envisioned a grand cruiser for the vast Southwest that would appeal to the wealthy and famous. His first Maverick was built on a 1940 LaSalle chassis and utilized a flathead Cadillac V8 motor. His company, Maverick Motors, built 6 more customer cars using postwar Cadillac chassis ’ and 331 cubic inch Cadillac motors. A total of 7 cars were built in the early to mid 1950s. The Maverick first appeared on the public stage at the 1953 Pebble Beach Concours d ’ Elegance— a time when new cars such as the Maverick competed and were shown with vintage automobiles. The Maverick also appeared at the 1955 Pebble Beach Concours d ’ Elegance. Magazine and newspaper articles were plentiful and articles about the Maverick were featured in Motor Trend, Cars, Modern Plastics, Car Life, Motor America and others. This Maverick was originally owned by Smoke Gladwin and his wife Myrtle. The Maverick Sportster is known as America ’ s last boattail speedster and is often regarded as America ’ s Postwar Duesenberg.