Ron and Deb Cizek’s ’40 Ford, “Checkered Past,” is the winner of the 50th annual RIdler Award at the 2013 Detroit Autorama.
The Cizeks’ ’40 coupe is the very first car turned out by Cal Automotive Creations of Omaha, Nebraska, whose owner, Andy Leach, is an alumnus of Troy Trepanier’s Rad Rides by Troy. Paint is by Charley Hutton of American Hot Rod reality show fame. Hutton also mixed the custom color, which is called Checkered Past Red, naturally enough.
Other favorites among the Great 8 finalists this year included Mark Willman’s Trepanier-built ’56 Buick, Alan Woodall’s ’65 Corvette, and the ’56 Chevy Cameo pickup of Alan Beers. You can view all eight 2013 Ridler contenders here.
A big-displacement flathead V8 with GMC 4-71 blower and an Isky 400 Jr. cam powers the ’40, which earned the name “Checkered Past” via its history as a drag car in the 1950s. The flattie runs a late-model 8BA-style distributor setup with electronic fuel injection, coupled to an open driveline with a Bowler T56 6-speed transmission and custom IRS.
Checkered Past’s many scratchbuilt components include the one-off wheels, shortened and reprofiled hood, and billet grille assembly built up from hundreds of milled pieces. Construction took two years and an untold number of man hours. Check out a few of the details in the gallery below.
For full coverage of the rest of the show at the 2013 Autorama, click here.
You can find a feature on the 2013 Autorama Extreme (aka the basement show) here.
To see a slide show gallery of all the Ridler Award winners from 1964 to present, click here.
Very impressive especially for his first build, great job.
The ’40 and the Buick got all the attention but the ’65 Corvette did not get enough IMO. Don’t know if it was Ridler worthy, just saying.
The ’56 Buick was my favorite in pictures and it was confirmed when I saw it “in the flesh”. Of course, I’m not an expert in this segment of the hobby but Mike is right, it had the biggest crowds.
We saw the all the cars on Friday, Checkerd Past blew us away!