“Jim Busby”

This 1932 Ford began its hot-rod life in the mid-1950s as a chopped, Cadillac-powered, street-driven coupe that was parked every day in front of Hart’s Automotive Texaco station in Pasadena, California. When Jim Busby’s mother drove him to junior high school, he saw that car and thought it was the most perfect hot rod his young eyes had ever seen. In the years that followed, the car was drag-raced and was continually modified along the way to squeeze out the most performance. In its final days, the car had become a stripped, Chrysler Hemi-powered  drag car with an altered body. It was soon retired when it was no longer competitive and was then forgotten. Forty years later, Jim Busby, now a well-known hot rodder and accomplished road race professional driver (two-time LeMans GT class winner in Porsches) visited his hot rod buddy Will Moore who had just bought a beat-up old drag car. Upon seeing the car, Busby realized he was looking at the remains of the old Hart’s Automotive 5-window coupe he saw when he was in school. He bought the car from Moore and began collecting every original period component he would need to restore the car as it had been, including a 1955 Cadillac V8. Painstakingly restored in Busby’s own shop, the end result was so perfect that it was the centerpiece of the opening night party at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2000, and then won the Street Rodder Top 10 Award at Pleasanton. It became part of the 3 Dog collection in 2025.