For  Sale
1954  Venus
Motor  Trend  Cover  Car  From  Texas

—   1 of 6 built – just 2 exist  —
—   Born and Bred in Texas  —
—   3-xxxxxxxxxxal  —

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Pricing  /  Availability

The car is located in Tampa, Florida and is available for purchase at $9,900

Contact  Geoff  Hacker  at  (813) 888-8882  or Geoffrey.Hacker@gmail.com

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Description

The following information is taken from an article published in Kit Car Magazine in November, 2007

Frankie Avalon was thinking about the Roman Goddess of love when he penned the lyrics to his hit song Oh Venus, but there was another Venus that continues to inspire followers to perform great deeds. It was long, lovely and made of fiberglass.

Ken McLoad was a hard-core car enthusiast who wanted to design and build his own car. Nothing unusual in that, there are thousands who constantly think and talk about their dream car project. The difference is that McLoad actually built his. He started the design work in the late 1940s when he was a young geophysical engineer in Dallas, Texas, and when he moved to Houston in 1950 he took the idea with him. He spent the next few years finalizing the details and gathered up two partners, D.Y Gorman and E.F. Rockett, to help bring the project to fruition. Gorman brought business expertise to the operation while Rockett was an experienced  pattern maker. Gorman’s teenage son DeWitt also pitched in when the prototype was built. In 1954 the partners formed Ratio Manufacturing Company in Houston and set about launching their new kit car venture.

The first model was named the Venus, and it was a looker. It was a two-seat sports car with no top or side windows. The fiberglass bodies were designed to sit on full-length (114” wheelbase) 1949 to 1951 Ford chassis and were priced at $875. The Venus sales flyer revealed that any Detroit V-8 would fit under the long hood and that the engine could be moved back 18”. The body included two mounted doors, a mounted hood, instrument panel, firewall, floor boards and polished aluminum windshield posts. Ratio also offered to assemble turnkey cars for buyers who didn’t want to build one themselves.

There were at least two prototypes but best guesses are that less than 12 body units were sold by Ratio. One was featured on the cover of the May 1954 issue of Motor Trend and this resulted in more potential business that the three young partners, who were also raising families and holding down full-time jobs, had time to deal with (be careful what you ask for, etc).

Instead, in 1955 they sold the rights to build the Venus to the Venus Corporation, a new publicly-held company set up by Frank Schulgen and Eddie Kovar specifically to build the car. Kovar was experienced in the fiberglass business, but after developing the car and molds for volume production the project was abandoned in 1957. Although contemporary newspaper articles said 17 cars were sold by the Venus Corporation, this has been debated by former employees who believe only a few, or maybe even zero, new cars were ever sold. Venus had developed at least one prototype with a folding top.

THE NEXT GENERATION

The history of the American specialty car industry is littered with the carcasses of small manufacturers that expired without having built much more than a prototype. What makes the Venus story special is that two sons of principals involved in the Venus saga are currently restoring the only two surviving examples, and yet until recently neither knew the other existed!

Patrick McLoad was only a kid when a Venus shared the family garage in Houston. His dad, Ken, had kept one of the prototypes when he sold the rights to the design, and held onto it until the early 1970s. Patrick had wonderful memories of the Ford flathead-powered machine but by the time he was old enough to start restoring classic cars for a hobby he held out little hope of ever finding a Venus of his own. He had searched for the one his parents had owned, but it had been sold to a business associate who moved to Florida and the trail was cold. But in 2003 Patrick heard that one was for sale in Massachusetts and, after protracted negotiations, he brought it home to Houston.

That was when he started finding out more about the cars his now-deceased father had built. It turns out there were two grill configurations, one with a central vertical bar and four spears radiating outward, and a second with a squared-off egg-crate grill. At least one sported a Continental kit on the back to hold a spare tire. All had large external door hinges and 1952 Ford bumpers (narrowed 3” in the rear). The tall tail lights were borrowed from a ’52 Packard and the teardrop head lamps were courtesy of a ‘53 Buick. The thick, sturdy ‘glass body weighed in at 395 pounds and the completed cars was expected to weigh in at 2,590 pounds dry (depending on engine and accessories).

The flathead engine in his car was complete but everything was in very poor condition and some of the running gear and bodywork had been crudely modified, so today it is still a work in progress but coming along nicely. McLoad started a section of his web site, www.mcload.com, to provide the history of the cars and show his extensive resto in step-by-step form.

It was during the research phase of his project that McLoad located Jack Kovar, son of Eddie Kovar who had been a partner in the Venus Corporation. Not only did Kovar have stacks of photos and documents relating to the Venus, he even had a car of his own he picked up in 1965 from an ad in the Auto Trader! It was also undergoing a thorough restoration. Remarkably, both Venus owners live in the Houston area and hopefully the two surviving fiberglass goddesses will soon be making their owners’ dreams come true!

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This  Car

This Irwin Lancer marks a significant time in postwar America when what was considered an American Sports car was still being defined.  A perfect fit for an automotive museum as well as a private collection needing a rare American stand-out sports car.  No doubt this will be the only Lancer seen at a concours or car event or on display in any museum across the world.

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Body Design:

• Body  Design  By  Eric Irwin

Drivetrain:

• 1947 59A Ford Flathead V8, 258ci (bored 0.125 over and a 3.75in crank), relieved and ported,  period Weber F4B cam, period Weiand “S” heads,  period Weiand dual carb intake with Candler Groves 94 carbs,  period home made headers and mufflers, modified 49 Mercury radiator
• 1938 Lincoln Zephyr  3 speed gear box
• Columbia 2 speed differential (4:11 and 2:94) actuation lever on the trans tunnel
• Modified shift linkage
• Mechanical fuel pump with an electric backup.
• Dual exhaust
• Original 6v electrical system and ignition

Chassis, Suspension and Brakes:

• 1939 Lincoln  axles
• Split front wishbones
• 1939 Lincoln 2inch brakes front and rear
• Wheelbase:105 inches
• Track Front: 55.4 inches
• Track Rear: 58.3 inches
• Stock 1939 Lincoln steering
• Custom perimeter frame designed by Eric Irwin using 1939 Lincoln front and rear frame horns.

Exterior:

• Single Piece body
• No doors or trunk lid for a streamlined look
• Single opening for the engine bay with Hood scoop
• Custom-made V shaped windshield : plexiglass and aluminum
• 1954 Chevy tail lights with Custom lenses
• 1953 Buick headlights

Interior:

• Custom Naugahide covered panels, seats and dash. Red
• Custom folding seats on sliders
• 1940 steering wheel
• 1939 Cadillac speedometer and guages
• Hi-beam floor switch
• Horn button, ignition,  choke lights and starter button on the dash
• Trunk access through the interior door.

Additional  Features:

• 1954 Plymouth hubcaps
• Parking lights
• New 1935 Chevy fuel tank
• New Coker Bias ply whitewall tires
• 1950s Ford 15 inch wheels: 5×5.5

Production:

• Believed to only be 6 production cars,  this is one of the 6

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