I’ve known Vince at J.V. Enterprises for about 10-12 years now. I met him by accident after buying a 1939 ford that I wanted to make a resto rod out of. I had rented a storage space and one day on my way over I noticed his shop. I stopped in to talk to him and ended up having him do all the work. In the subsequent years, he modified that 1939 3 times. He built a 1932 ford roadster with a viper motor which competed in the Grand National Roadster show, a 1934 ford coupe, and various other modifications to other cars.
Being a horsepower and speed nut I had always gone for straight-line performance. However, after getting into amateur road racing with the Viper Club I found it was more fun to turn corners. I had always liked the 1953 Studebakers. I especially like the hardtop models. I talked to Vince about some ideas I had and he told me his. We ended up going in the direction of a touring-type car but with lots of horsepower.
We decided on a direction and the search started for the car. I looked at a number of cars and finally came across my 1953 in Oakland California. I made the deal over the phone and drove up with my trailer to pick it up. The car was being stored on the docks in Oakland under a tarp but it actually ran. It looked quite good so I loaded it up and drove home.
