Ed Roth's Mysterion is gone, but one superfan built his own and it's up for auction

FoxNews.com/Cars + Trucks ^ | Nov 4, 2018 | Jeff Peek

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Jeffrey Jones wrote the book on Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s radical twin-engine Mysterion hot rod. Actually, he wrote about his journey to replicate it. Two years after Jones’ book was published, his actual replica car could be yours.

RM Sotheby’s is offering the exceptional recreation at its Petersen Automotive Museum Auction on December 8. There is no reserve or pre-auction estimate, but the hot rod is expected to go for six figures.

Roth’s innovations and creations made him a major player in 1950s and ’60s Southern California car culture. His first “famous” custom car was the futuristic Outlaw. He is also known for the Beatnik Bandit, Orbitron, Surfite, and Rotar. His out-there customs often became Revell scale-model kits. A talented illustrator, Roth also created the cartoon character Rat Fink, which he referred to as “Mickey Mouse’s evil twin,” and he successfully sold Rat Fink-themed t-shirts and memorabilia at shows.

Mysterion is Roth’s most famous and least documented show rod. Built in the early 1960s, it appeared in numerous magazines but few build specs or detailed photographs exist. And the original car is long gone.

Jones says he fell in love with Mysterion as a teenager, and car show promoter Bob Larivee was obviously a big fan as well. According to Jones, Larivee owned Beatnik Bandit and Orbitron, and in 1965 he convinced Roth to trade Mysterion in exchange for the pair. Larivee later traded Mysterion back to Roth, but it never made it to Roth’s shop intact. Roth only wanted the front and rear axles, and the rest was parted out.

Jones vowed to build a Mysterion of his own someday, and in the early 2000s he finally got to work.

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“The Munster Koach is the family car that was used in the television series, The Munsters. The show’s producers contracted George Barris to provide the Koach.

Barris paid prolific show car designer Tom Daniel $200[1] to design the car, and had it built at Barris Kustoms, first by Tex Smith, but finished by Dick Dean, his shop foreman at the time.

The Munster Koach appeared in over twenty episodes throughout the series’ two-year run, and was also seen in Munster, Go Home! using different wheels.

Tom Daniel’s original drawing of the Munster Koach had it supercharged with a hood scoop and thin, round disc lights. Barris chose the ten-carburetor setup with the ten air horns and lantern lights.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munster_Koach

[Carriage Hill]

You’d get fried in summer with that bubble-covered cockpit.

[a fool in paradise]

Did he bake the dome in a pizza oven?

[a fool in paradise]

That last one in blue is a rebuild by someone else who tracked it down to Mexico

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Ray Farhner’s Boothill Express

Est. 450 hp, 426 cu. in. Chrysler Hemi V8 engine with Hilborn fuel injection, Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission, CAE tubular straight front axle with transverse leaf spring, live rear axle with full-elliptic leaf springs, and two-wheel drum brakes.

To thousands of custom-car fans who grew up during the 1960s, Ray Fahrner created some of the most memorable and radical show rods of all time. Fahrner, who sadly passed away in 2005, first came to prominence in the late 1950s with his groundbreaking 1932 Ford Roadster Pickup dubbed the Eclipse, which somehow managed to bridge the rapidly growing divide between custom and hot rod vehicles.

Once on the map, Fahrner’s Independence, Missouri-based custom shop continued to push the edge of the custom-car design envelope during the 1960s, with his work truly echoing the unbridled creativity and experimental nature of American society during the turbulent 1960s.

By 1967, Fahrner completed what many believe to be his signature creation, the outrageous “Boothill Express”. As a basis for this stunning vehicle he chose a circa-1850 horse-drawn funeral coach by Cunningham of New York, which reportedly carried James Gang member Bob Younger to his grave on “Boot Hill”.

Featuring solid and stately construction, the exterior of the wooden hearse body displays ornate carved moldings as well as a set of brass lamps reportedly dating to late 18th-century India at the front and rear of the vehicle. Inside, the hearse is fitted with proper funeral equipment, including tasseled velvet curtains and a set of polished coffin rails.

The chrome-plated suspension features a gasser-style CAE tubular solid front axle and hairpins, along with a simple, yet effective steering system from a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle up front. At the rear, a pair of full-elliptic leaf springs, a 1948 Ford rear end and a pair of drum brakes round out the suspension features.

The engine is completely outrageous – a 426 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi V8 topped by Hilborn fuel injection, with extra-tall velocity stacks jutting through the top of the hearse body, while eight individual pipes route the spent exhaust gases to the rear of the vehicle. A stout pushbutton-operated Chrysler A-727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission handles the engine’s output, while the car’s aggressive rake is provided by a pair of E-T 10-spoke spindle-mounted front wheels, along with taller and wider Cragar S/S wheels and Goodyear Blue Streak slicks at the rear.

Other features include a Ford Model T steering wheel, a Moon hydraulic throttle and canister-style fuel tank as well as an instrument cluster fitted with Stewart-Warner gauges. The open bench-type front seat features black diamond-tufted upholstery.

Following its completion, the Boothill Express formed part of Fahrner’s “Boothill Caravan” travelling show, which toured dragstips and the auto show circuit nationwide during the late 1960s, thrilling countless spectators nationwide.

And in the best 1960s show-rod tradition, the Boothill Express was immortalized with the 1967 release of a 1:24-scale plastic model kit by Monogram, complete with a skeleton packing a six-shooter and wearing a 10-gallon hat. In fact, due to strong public demand, the model kit was reissued in 1994.[1]

https://www.kustomrama.com/index.php?title=Ray_Farhner%27s_Boothill_Express

[ColdOne]

Thanks...love cars!

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The Orbitron is a custom car built by Ed Roth and feared lost until
its rediscovery in Mexico in 2007

The Orbitron is a custom car built by Ed Roth and feared lost until its rediscovery in Mexico in 2007.[1]

Construction

Built in 1964, the vehicle was powered by a 1955 or 1956 Chevrolet V8 and was backed by a Powerglide automatic transmission. The body was hand-laid fiberglass, hiding Roth’s extensive chrome work to the chassis.

The cockpit, set at the extreme rear of the vehicle in the manner of a dragster, was lined with fake fur and featured an 11-inch General Electric “1-Touch” portable television inserted in the console.

Topping the cockpit was a custom-made, hydraulically operated Plexiglas bubble top.[2][3] One of a series of ordinary doorbell push-button switches atop the hood activated the top from the outside.

Other mechanical features included a 1956 Chevrolet rear end, dropped Ford front axle beam, Buick brake drums and early Ford brakes. The frame was handmade of rectangular 2x4 inch steel tubing.

The engine was a leftover from one of Roth’s 1955 Chevrolets, having been removed to make way for a then-new Mark IV big-block given to him by General Motors. It was one of the very few completed cars Roth deemed to be a “mistake” because he felt the car did not show well since the heavily chromed engine and most of the chassis were hidden.

The Orbitron was, in fact, one of his few customs to have a hood. Reportedly, the hydraulically operated hood did not fit well due to rushed fiberglass work.[4][5]

The vehicle’s most distinctive feature was its asymmetrical front end with red, green and blue tinted headlamps. It was thought that the three beams when combined would produce an intense white light; the idea came from the then-new medium of color television.

Ownership:

Fellow automotive customizer Darryl Starbird purchased the vehicle from Roth in 1967 for US$750.00. Starbird traded the vehicle some years later to an unidentified collector in Texas.

From Texas the Orbitron was traded to a carnival owner in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico in or around 1991.

By that time the asymmetrical nose had been cut off and discarded, possibly for additional air flow to the radiator for the car’s use in and around the carnivals.

Automotive restorer Michael Lightbourn, who heard rumors of the car’s existence in Ciudad Juárez, discovered it parked in front of an adult bookstore for use as an advertising aid.[1]

The car had been sprayed in faded black primer and was basically complete except for the hood, the tachometer, the television, the fur lining, the long-missing nose and the bubble top, believed destroyed in the early 1970s when it became stuck and trapped the car’s then-owner.

The family who owned the bookstore had also owned the carnival in which the car was used. After intense negotiations with the family (who were reluctant to sell the deteriorating vehicle for what they said were sentimental reasons), Lightbourn was finally able to return the Orbitron to the United States.

Upon its return, the Orbitron was sold to Beau Boeckmann of “Galpin Auto Sports” fame.[6]

Restoration

Cockpit of the Orbitron. The General Electric television is an identical replacement obtained on an eBay auction. The steering wheel is the restored original.

Boeckmann completed the restoration of the car in approximately 100 days. All original parts removed from the car, including the frame which was too rusted to reuse, were retained and archived by Boeckmann.

Accuracy of the project was supervised by former Roth designer Ed “Newt” Newton, who assisted in the original 1964 design.

The restoration includes a television of the same type originally installed in the console. A small reel-to-reel tape recorder hidden in the cockpit and which was intended to play a musical recording of the car’s features was discovered along with the original tape during the restoration process and is in working order; the recording was reportedly done by Tex Ritter.

Planet Plastics of Chino, California, the original company contracted to create the bubble top, was contracted to create a replacement. Evidence of the car’s original “candy blue” color (similar in execution to “candy apple red”) was discovered within the interior and was used as a basis for matching the replacement finish. Paint work was overseen by Larry Watson, who painted the car in 1964. Watson was joined by his original assistant, Bill Carter who applied the new finish.

A descendant of the individual responsible for the pin-striping applied the new pin-striping to the vehicle upon its completion. Interior restoration was by Joe Perez who was responsible for the original upholstery work as well. The original Chevrolet engine with its rare Stromberg 97 triple carburetor setup and Chevrolet Corvette finned aluminum valve covers has been rebuilt and reinstalled.[7]

It is the cover subject of the March 2009 edition of Hot Rod Deluxe, a “retro” version of Hot Rod Magazine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbitron

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Orbitron

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[Carriage Hill]

That’s a “Broasting Machine”...

[Chode]

Finks FOREVER!!!!

[Jimmy Valentine]

Interesting to see how often he used “suicide”front ends.

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[Chode]

i remember all of them

[aligncare]

Me, too. Well, perhaps not all of ‘em. But, I remember the impact that car culture and people like Ed Big Daddy Roth and George Barris had on me and my friends in our youth. In fact the entire SoCal, Beach Boys, Little 409 thing, had this Brooklyn boy California Dreaming. As luck would have it, got stationed at Beale AFB after a tour in Vietnam, so I stayed 25 years around central and Northern California. Loved it, though I’m back in Brooklyn now.

[Chode]

it was a wonderful time to be young