OLD RACE CAR | Packard Powered 1959 LaDawri Conquest Race Car with AMAZING Custom Tube Chassis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- American Specials of the 1950s were often chosen by race car enthusiasts of the era because of their lightweight fiberglass construction. Paired with a well designed chassis and a big V8, the power to weigh ratio propelled these cars into the spotlight and often into the winner's circle at races.
This 1959 LaDawri Conquest was built by David Simon and did quite well during its racing years. His nephew, Gene Simon helped work on the build and we were able to connect with him for more history and his personal experience. Let's hear from him in his own words:
"Much of what I know about the car is already documented in the article published in the “1960 Sportscar Specials” magazine. Some of the same specifications were on page 46 in the Vintage American Road Racing Cars 1950-1969 - Harold Pace & Mark R. Brinker.
The owner and builder of the car was my uncle, David N. Simon. He lived on Indianola Road in Youngstown, Ohio. He lived with his parents (my grandparents) and just next door to my family. The Simon family involvement with Studebakers started when my father bought a cream colored new 1953 Studebaker Commander Coupé. To my mother, this purchase didn’t make sense, because we
were a family of six (four kids).
My Uncle David must have liked our 53 Stude, because when he graduated and came home from college at Kent State, he bought a new all green 1954 Studebaker Commander Hardtop. He then traded in the 1954 Studebaker, for an all-black 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk, that essentially came with 352ci Packard engine.
Over the next couple of years, he drag raced the car at Howland Dragstrip with pretty good results. During this time, the engine was modified in steps to the configuration indicated in the magazines stated above. Before the two 4-barrel Carter carbs, he had a log manifold with six Stromberg 2-barrel carbs.
With this configuration, the hood would not close all the way, so it was propped up a little with a block of wood and held down with a strap. I remember Uncle David porting the heads in the cellar with a grinder. When drag racing with this engine, it blew at least once by spinning a bearing. I think these Packard engines inherently have an oiling problem that he somehow solved.
While drag racing the Golden Hawk and possibly before, David became interested in sports car racing and mentioned Max Balchowsky’s Old Yeller. I think he also mentioned the possibility of building a race car with multiple helicopter engines and went to Akron to talk to the Arfon brothers.
Uncle David was an architect by trade, but designed the race car, utilizing the modified Studebaker/Packard engine from the Golden Hawk. The race engine came out of the Hawk and was replaced with a stock engine. I believe there was probably a lot of collaboration in the car design between Uncle David and Dave Dangerfield, who did the fabrication and all the welding.
When it was dropped off in the driveway, the open shipping container/frame was broken and the flimsy fiberglass body was sagging. I don’t remember if it was the plan all along (doubt it), but I think he paid me $1.00 an hour to install the Conquest body on the race space frame.
Except for a little Bondo work on our street cars, I was just a kid with zero experience working with fiberglass bodies, cloth or resin and neither did my Uncle. Some books and magazines helped along with the instructions that came from LaDawri with the body. The race car chassis was transferred from Dangerfield’s shop to my Dad’s kitchen cabinet shop on South Ave. in Youngstown, along with the crated Conquest body from my Grandfather’s driveway.
I rigged up a method of raising and lowering the body with a rope block-and-tackle that my Dad had. The first step was to get the body back to its intended shape. Because the shipping crate broke, the shape was squashed and non-symmetrical. Plywood was used as baffles and mounting points for the body to tube frame. The aluminum floor was already installed, but I did some of the aluminum around the engine compartment. David’s intent was to have the car painted yellow like the wheels, but it never happened.
Even though the dash with all gages were not hooked up yet, the engine could be started and the car driven in and out of the building. Of course I did this much more often than necessary to do the job. This probably wasn’t appreciated by the some neighbors, but the cops never came."
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Thanks for watching the video OLD RACE CAR FOUND | Packard Powered 1959 LaDawri Conquest Race Car with AMAZING Custom Tube Chassis
While I enjoy all your videos, as the current caretaker of the "Southern Illinois " VW based Sebring, LaDawri's always are my favorites. Thanks for what you do in keeping our treasures alive.
Nice to have another person in the LaDawri club! Are you a member of the Facebook group we have for LaDawri owners and enthusiasts? I’d love to see the car too if you’d like to send me some photos, mike@undiscoveredclassics.com
Hello, My name is Mike Simon and my father David built that car. We have been looking for it for several years. I'm glad to know it still exists and wasn't crushed after the tool the Corvette transmission out of it. I would love to talk with you about it more.
Just posted our email addresses to your other comment. Thanks
I lived in Ferndale Washington 1957-1961 and remember the PNE in Vancouver Canada. I was 8 in 58 but remember attending the car show each year. The displays with spun glass around the tires and the candy apple paints. That’s when I started building Johan, AMT, Revell etc auto kits. I still have most of them. Route 66, 77 Sunset strip, and Sky King were my favorite shows. Fun times
That’s fantastic! Thanks for sharing
I love me at race car.. great find! actually the Pikes Peak LaDawri that my buddy had is the one that got me into the vintage glass and sports racers…
Would that be the LaDawri Daytona Brunning Special? Glad to have another convert to these cars in our ranks 😎
Very cool car great lines love to see it restored 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
It’s on the list! We want to see it screaming around the track once again
Cool history Geoff. Looks great in white. Hopefully our buddy Nadeem gets his red on sorted and back on the road soon.
Nads seems to be making good progress on his so it’ll be awesome to have another tooling around town. Glad you enjoyed it!
Great show I really like the history of these cars
Thanks so much! It’s all about the history for us so we appreciate when others love it too
This car is a golden memory of my youth in the 1950's
These bodies often went on very basic non advanced frames and Volkswagen
front ends. So cool look especially for the early to🎉 mid 50's... These cars really needed a bored out hemi or a cad or Olds hot engine.
You may be thinking of the later kit cars of the 1960s. Lots of the 1950s cars like LaDawri, Victress, Glasspar, etc. were flathead powered and several were Cadillac and early Hemi powered
I'll be gosh darned if I didn't see that car, or a reasonable facsimilie at the Paramount ranch races! Oh, and by the way. Gordon Schroeder of Schroeder Engineering fame. (He built the the Blakely Oil Special for owner John McDaniel to enter in the 1951 Indianapolis 500. and much, much, more.) Was a pioneer of steering boxes and quick release steering wheels with a clever hub design. Don't know if your car has this. It very well may not as I believe the Schroeder hubs came into full swing in the early/mid 60's. Nice find there. Looking forward to seeing its progress.
Do you recall when about that may have been at Paramount? I’ll have to check the technical specs and see if the steering is mentioned
Another informative history class at, UDC University.
Ha! Thanks 😎
@ Will there be a pop quiz, later - professor?
If we can ever figure out how to do a live stream maybe we can do a Q&A if not a pop quiz 😎
About 1958/59 Motor Tren put out a booklet with several custom boody project cars,one of them being the LaDawri. This is only the second one of this lovely car that I have ever seen The last was a eletric powered project I wanted one but had to settale for a Panther J 6 I hope that this does not end up covered by weeds and leaves like somany other...
Many of our car models were cover cars or feature cars in Motor Trend, Road & Track, etc. in era which is pretty cool. Would love to see the J6 you bought!
The electric LaDawri is actually owned by me and is fully functional again. We did a video about it on the channel, here’s the link: th-cam.com/video/RHWDuq-1RsQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=8lxU6fgZx8mgAke4
I like the Panther J6
It’s a great looking car!
It has such a great frame for sure! What trans is in it?
The historical photos were excellent.
According to the vintage articles, a 1954 Packard transmission
IMO the power hawk Studebaker that had that motor in them were the first American Muscle Cars
Big motor in a midsize car, And nothing could touch it... the Chrysler 300 had a higher top speed, But that's it.
That's gonna be a lot of fun when you get it running 👍🏁
I’m sure it’ll be a blast to drive and scream around some corners
Any updates on the stiletto? I'm not sure why but that car really caught my attention
Everyone loves the Stiletto! It was in a recent video we put up featuring our friend Steve Cowdin’s collection. He’s the steward for it now and he threw some Studebaker wheel covers on and has been amassing parts for the build. It’s a few videos back if you haven’t seen it already, the Stiletto is the thumbnail photo
Hello, I'm Mike Simon and I've been looking for that car for years. My father David was the builder and we were very sad when it escaped the family. I would love to talk with you about it at some point.
Hey Mike! Feel free to send Geoff and me a message via email, Geoffrey.hacker@gmail and mike.j.puma@gmail
Looks like a Cicitalia behind you. Is it a LaDawri also
The green coupe? That’s a Victress C3, which does have some history with the Cisitalia actually
The dash looks similar to a Corvette
Yes, definitely could have been included by the Vette dash
Reminds me of bmw 507. The only good thing I can see is tubular frame. The Packard engine also was nice to have. To me it's just a warmed over bmw 507. There aren't even any wire wheels nor windshield it's a shame. That tubular frame is worthy of a more carefully styled body. I hate to be sour grapes but I call em like I see em. Someone wanted a bmw 507 so decided to build a lookalike and call it their own. The tubular frame is nice and I like tubular frames but what about the method of suspension?
I can see some of the design similarities between the Conquest at the 507. There were many other fiberglass car bodies on the market at the time so the fact that he chose this one over the others makes it special in our mind. We love the LaDawri models
Hey Undiscovered, Your videos are so beautiful. I really like it. Do you know why your videos are not reaching your target audience?
Because your video SEO score is very poor. You need to SEO the videos properly. I can talk to you about this in more detail if you want.
I’ve actually been working with some on SEO improvements, but always interested in learning more. Send me an email, mike@undiscoveredclassics.com. Thanks
@@UndiscoveredClassicsUSA I would be easier for me to explain you the improvements through a short virtual meeting. Tell me your availability please. I've also mailed you, kindly check it as well.
Will do
You guys don't care for the fiberfab kit car's of the sixty's to seventys?
Quite the contrary, we like those as well. In fact, Geoff has helped to put on an exhibit at the Savoy Museum opening in March 2025. I just picked up a 1966 Banshee myself that’ll be on the channel sometime soon
What in the living hell is wrong with the greenish gold volvo 1800 ish car in the background? It looks like the passenger fender is bigger than the drivers . Strange looking....
Are you referring to the coupe with the Corvette grille?
@@UndiscoveredClassicsUSA yep - fenders at different angles.
Might just be the camera angle making it look worse. That’s a 1955 Victress C3 coupe. We have another video of it on the channel with the man who originally designed it, Merrill Powell. He’s 94 and going strong!
@@UndiscoveredClassicsUSA maybe an optical illusion, or the fender may be sitting cock eyed, not bolted in. Definitely doesnt match the other one lol
Here’s the video about the car if you’re interested: th-cam.com/video/TFWVGwghZTw/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PeLG3gzJR_JvU6-q
This race car doesn't look at all formidable. Today's average nini van will probably out handle it.
Most modern cars would outpace cars from 70 years ago, but in era this thing was pretty formidable