For Sale: 1973 SPS Straightly in Morgantown, Pennsylvania

1973 SPS Straightly

Lynton Wright Brent, (August 2, 1897 - July 2, 1981), was an American film actor and a writer. He appeared in over 240 films between 1930 and 1950. Brent is best known for his prolific work with Columbia Pictures in the Three Stooges short subjects such as A Ducking They Did Go and From Nurse to Worse. In addition to his film career, Brent also wrote a number of literary works, notably Lesbian Gang. Though little recognized when first published in 1964, it has achieved notoriety among a niche queer audience in Peckham, England. His first novel was The Bird Cage. ( A theatrical novel about Tombstone Arizona and not the Movie Adapted title.)

In 1972, a movie penned from a screenplay adaptation of "The Daughter of Bonnie and Clyde" by Norman Hudis, Layton Brent wrote a book which was a movie adaptation of this book, but it never made it to the public. Little can be found about this book although it is available from Amazon. For the movie, another mysterious man named John Levingstpon had built a one off custom car for this big screen production which in this writer's opinion, (given that this opinion, and $1.25 will get you a cup of coffee!), has a look only a mother could love, but I digress. If you look carefully at the book cover you can see shades of this car with headlights that have been modified since that picture for the book. We give you a one off custom build which has plenty of mystery and muddied "facts" surrounding it.

Exterior
Fashioned from aircraft aluminum, the car is fully custom taking on a look of an amalgamation of many car cues from the past. It has an aluminum radiator surround canted forward, reminiscent of the early cars from the 1920's. A single headlight is floating just above a bumper, which has parking lighting on its edges, and said headlights are encased in chromed bullet styled casings. A cowled hood with some side venting and a kneeling winged goddess for a hood ornament are noted. Squared off fenders and running boards are fashioned on either side of the dual opening cockpit body. The back of the car takes on a more curvaceous style with the rear fenders gracefully making a downward plunge and flanking a boat tail back end to this creation. There is an abundance of tail lighting counting not less than 3 sets of tail lights and reflectors from various automotive eras including the 40's, 50's, and 70's reflectors. Large dual exhaust peek out of the back from under the squared off rear roll pan. Deep chromed trim edged wheels sprayed in silver have a badge central moon cap with a Str8ly central red painted badge. All panels are straight rust free and have plenty of riveting holding them to the chassis.

Interior
Taking a ride in this creation subjects you to the elements as there is no top. Just aircraft style seating with dual cockpits reminiscent of the Stearman biplanes of yore. Low back bomber style buckets, (fitting!), are in front facing the custom aluminum spun pattern dash. These chairs feature uppers with black tuck and roll and smooth red vinyl lowers. A large center console with a storage tray and cupholders is between the buckets. Padding covered in red vinyl lines the edges off the swooping down edged cockpit. That dash has blackface Stewart Warner black faced gauges with vintage looking pointers. A few additional knobs and toggles as well as some lights are inserted here as well. Fronting the dash is a vintage 50's styled steering wheel in white and red with a central chevron center. Red carpeting covers the floors. In the back, we can climb into a private full rounded back bench also in red vinyl with black tuck and roll toppers. The sides are also padded red vinyl but with no doors, it's a climb.

Drivetrain
A flip of the standard hood reveals a 331ci Hemi V8. It sports a single Holley 4-barrel carburetor and a 2 speed Powerflite transmission on back. Seen wayyyyy in theback is an 8-3/4 inch rear axle. All is looking good and has industrial gray and silver surfaces for this mill.

Undercarriage
All built on a 1955 Chrysler chassis we see black heavily undercoated steel framing and floor pans. It does have a peppering of surface rust throughout. Independent coil springs are in front, and leaf springs oil back provide the ride. Power drum braking is all around and dual exhaust are noted featuring Smitty Mufflers.

Drive-Ability
The car fired right up and ran like a champ. I made my getaway from the CAM building in short order and it handled well, has smooth acceleration and easy 2-speed automatic shifting. All functions were working at the time of my test drive, (flight?).

Certainly one of a kind, custom built for a movie almost no one has ever seen. It is supposed to have a fairly famous ownership history, but the paperwork and documentation does not come up with any names to support these claims, so in true Classic Auto Mall style we give you just the facts ma'am. But you WILL be the ONLY ONE with one of these!

Classic Auto Mall is a 336,000-square foot classic and special interest automobile showroom, featuring over 850 vehicles for sale with showroom space for up to 1,000 vehicles. Also, a 400 vehicle barn find collection is on display. This vehicle is located in our showroom in Morgantown, Pennsylvania, conveniently located just 1-hour west of Philadelphia on the I-76 Pennsylvania Turnpike. The website is www.classicautomall.com and our phone number is (888) 227-0914. Please contact us anytime for more information or to come see the vehicle in person.