Two Giants...and One Amazing “Little Mouse”
Part III: And Then Came the “Mouse”
And Then Came the “Mouse”
By 1981 or so many of my friends in the FOC were getting into this then still new activity called “vintage racing.” While the club ran a number of track day events in various locations, including the Virginia City Hillclimb and Riverside in conjunction with the Shelby Cobra Club, many members had cars which were really more suitable for race tracks than street driving, including makes other than Ferrari.
The Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) is one of the oldest vintage racing organizations in America. It was started in the 1960s by a group of California enthusiasts who owned old race cars and were looking for places to “exercise” them, starting with a now defunct track in Cotati. One of the founders of CSRG was David Love, an FOC member. It was thus not coincidental that the FOC members who were attracted to putting cars on track would look to CRSG, though by this time in the 70s the home track was Sears Point.
I convinced myself the Ferrari was too big, too heavy, and too expensive to fix to continue using it on FOC track days. So I began looking for a purpose-built 1950s racer which would address those concerns. Back then we were all looking at “real” race cars and not converted production models. Unless an MG or Austin Healey had significant and documented period racing history CSRG would not accept the car. But this early in the sport's development here in the US, real racers were available and relatively plentiful.
Once again I was after something “sexy.” I have always been concerned with how a car looks as much as how it performs. I just could not consider a car I thought ugly, no matter how quick it was or what history it had. I thus rejected an early Elva sports racer (which also seemed to have mechanical needs beyond my capabilities at the time) and another which was a lengthened mid-engined Formula Junior in white, which looked to me like a long refrigerator lying on its side with added wheels.
I also considered a gorgeous Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint Zagato “double bubble' coupe in silver, owned by a fellow FOC member. I had already become friends with Ernie Mendicki and knew he was an expert on most of the automotive world and so approached him for his input.
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| Courtesy netcarshow blogpost |
“Hell of a car,” he said, “but I don't think it's for you. It is very expensive to work on and has a lot of power for someone with limited experience. But I have an alternative you might consider...a Siata like mine.”
I am not sure I knew Ernie owned a Siata at that point. I am positive I had no idea what a Siata was. But I then took note of Bob Graham's pure blue one (ST420) as well as Ernie's red car (ST428). They sure were pretty...and they sure were tiny!
Ernie taught me about the car. He said they were rare, exotic, all aluminum, nicknamed the “Baby Barchetta” for their resemblance to that early Ferrari body style, made all the right sounds and feel, and were inexpensive to buy and repair. He even let me pilot his for a short drive on his street and went so far as to push it so I could “bump start” it when it turned out the battery was flat.
The acceleration did make my head snap back, and the growl of the exhaust and feel of the car was indeed exhilarating. I was pretty impressed...and of course Ernie just happened to know where there was a partially restored one nearby and for sale.
I don't even recall seeing the car at Dick McGovern's place, but I guess I must have. I later got two photos taken in Ernie's shop when he first got the car. Here is one of them:
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| Original Braje unfinned cam cover Sorry state but all there In bare metal including interior but all panes and upholstery usable as patterns |
Chris also provided a packet of photos with the car...one print showing it from the front next to another almost identical car, and a contact sheet made from 35mm negatives with shots of the car looking unbelievably ugly with a huge convertible top and front and rear bumpers looking exactly like iron head and footboards from an old bed. At the time and for decades after neither I nor Ernie knew where and when either of these were taken, though I could identify my car in the front end photo, and knew the car next to it was Henry Wessels ST403.
Some 30 years on, during Mark Bean's re-restoration of 403, I learned from Otto that the front end shot had been taken behind his shop when both cars, along with 401, were delivered to their new owners. He also said this was in April, though the original bill of sales both Mark and I had on our cars had a June 1 date...Otto explained that the invoices were made out later, which was not uncommon back then.
My own examination of the contact sheet revealed the back end of a Ford pickup in the photos...and looking though the internet for photos of Ford trucks seems to confirm the shots could have been taken no earlier than about 1971. But the license plate is not readable and I do not know who owned it at that time, though I suspect it was Aucott.
Anyway, as the photo at Ernie' show, it seemed intact though scruffy when it got to California for Mike Cotsworth. Mike's mechanical abilities were both rudimentary and lackadaisical. Like me Mike just wanted to race, not wrench, and he also had ambitions for more power and glory than I thought prudent, either financially or in terms of my family situation. So the car quickly passed to Dick, who had Mike Tangney begin restoration work.
Mike was a capable though “shade tree” worker. At the time he was racing a rarer John Tojiero special...the predecessor to the AC Ace. He redid the turtle deck which had been cut to accommodate the convertible top, and also cut off the iron bedstead bumpers, finishing the body and primering it. He also rebuilt the suspension and brakes and installed the steering. That was the car's status when Dick, who raced an AC, also lost interest and Ernie got me involved.
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| Car in Peterson's Shop Body finished and in primer Suspension and brakes hung |
And the rest, as the (modified) saying goes, “is (my) history! It was the first car and motor I “built,” as detailed elsewhere in this blog. I have been its loving custodian for 36 years and have never regretted a moment of that. It remains tiny, fun to drive, rare and exotic, and achingly beautiful.
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| Loade up for delivery to me Hard to see but I also got the plate from Dick's 57 "tow car" "52 SIATA" |
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| Spring of 2109 Newly Painted Sand Rollbar As Raced at Laguna Seca HMSA in March |
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