UC_Portolio_Book

33 1953 Maverick Sportster (2021) “ 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 a retired aeronautical engineer having worked for Boeing and Lockheed during and after World War II. Fascinated with the elegance of pre - war automobile design, Gladwin built a postwar boulevard sports car with modern power and classic lines. He built the first Maverick for himself using a 1940 LaSalle chassis and a flathead Cadillac V8 motor. His company, Maverick Motors, then built the remaining 6 cars for customers using postwar Cadillac chassis ’ with 331 cubic inch Cadillac motors. This Maverick was originally owned by Smoke and his wife Myrtle, and he retained this and another Maverick his entire life. The Maverick Sportster is known as America ’ s last boattail speedster and is often regarded as America ’ s Postwar Duesenberg. When we started researching the Maverick in 2007 only one example was known to exist. As of present, we have found and own two more. The Maverick shown here is a result of a partnership between Undiscovered Classics and a well - known collector/restorer in the mid - west. In the 1950s when Maverick Motors was producing these cars, Sterling showed a Maverick Sportster on the field of the Pebble Beach Concours d ’ Elegance in 1953 and 1955. This makes the Maverick Sportster one of the first fiberglass cars to ever appear at a major concours event—and it was new at the time too! Our restoration was completed in early 2021 and the Sportster debuted at the 2021 Amelia Island Concours d ’ Elegance with great acclaim. It won the Buddy Palumbo Award at Amelia— one of the top corporate awards that open to all cars on the Amelia field—quite an accomplishment for our first outing.