Hi Gang…
I love finding Victress articles. I can’t get enough of them. And when I can’t find ‘em – I write ‘em! But today I didn’t have to.
The article I found today shows a beautifully built Victress S1A that has wire wheels to boot! This was a Mercury Flathead powered car as well, and that suggests it was built fairly early in the ‘50s.
Later builds would have tended to use a small block Chevrolet engine or other overhead valve motor.
Let’s see what Cars Magazine had to say about this beautiful beast of a car back in 1960:
Rod and Custom Pictorial: Cars Magazine, May 1960
Unclassified Stormer
By James Richards
The car owned by Harold R. Beck of Norwalk, California, can start an argument if you attempt to place it in a definite category. It could qualify equally as a hot rod, custom, and sports car.
The engine is a hot rod standby – a ’48 Merc flathead with the full treatment. This mill has been completely balanced, bored to 3-7/16 and stroked to 4 and 1/8 inches. A Howard M-16 cam actuates the oversize, sodium-filled valves through adjustable tappets.
Heads by Sharp give an 11.5-to-1 compression ratio. The fuel-air mixture is fed to hungry cylinders by three Stromberg 97 carburetors mounted on an Edelbrock manifold. A reworked Cadillac clutch couples the power plant to a ’41 Ford transmission.
The body is a Victress fiberglass shell stuffed with red and white Naugahyde upholstery in a tufted pattern. Reworked ’41 Ford bumpers and a reworked ’55 Chevy grille fit nicely into the overall design of the car.
Altogether the car is a potential winner on the show floor, track, or drag strip.
Summary:
We’ve found 20 Victress S1s and S1As so far and best we can tell….none of them are this car. Perhaps Harold Beck or family member will see this article and reveal the ultimate fate of the stunning early 50s sports car.
What a great addition to the Forgotten Fiberglass – and Victress family – this would be if found today.
Hope you enjoyed the story, and until next time…
Glass on gang…
Geoff
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This was my grandfather’s car. The story I got was he built this car, aside from the fiberglass body, himself. I’m sure he can give a better rendition of the story though.
Nice car, tho I don’t remember that the owner ever brought it out to the shop.
Merrill
I couldn’t help but notice the cover of the Cars Magazine – Shamrock VS Thunderbird