Alex Tremulis' First Car: 1935 Ford V8 with Miller-Ford Dual Carbs

1935 Miller-Ford Indy Car (copyright The Henry Ford)

An odd connection between Preston Tucker and Alex Tremulis goes back much further than Tremulis' design work for the Tucker '48.  As far back as 1934, Preston Tucker had the idea to race a production Ford-engined car in the Indianapolis 500.  Tucker approached Harry Miller and Edsel Ford with the idea that a relatively stock Ford engine could power a state-of-the-art Indy roadster and be competitive.  Ten cars would be built, but time constraints on their building and development meant they had minimal time to be sorted out before 1935's big race.  Only four of the ten cars even qualified, and each of those failed early due to seized steering boxes placed too close to the hot exhaust manifolds.  An enraged Henry Ford ordered the cars hauled away and locked up.  But by 1938, the cars and parts began re-appearing at Indy.  It was from one of these Miller-Ford efforts that Alex Tremulis obtained a dual carb setup and installed it in his very first car, a 1935 Ford Roadster.  By 1938, Tremulis had already been head of Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg's design department and had since found a job in Harley Earl's Art and Colour division working on Oldsmobile styling. 

Below, Tremulis retells the fun he had with the car that led to his early demise at General Motors.

Tremulis' Miller-Ford powered Roadster was photographed in 1938.  Along with the 24 year-old Tremulis are two as-yet unidentified fans of speed. 

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Alex Tremulis' modified 1935 Ford Roadster

Duesenberg side exhaust entering the front fender beside Tremulis.

Tremulis, on the right, with ?

Race driver, but who?

Builder/owner perhaps?

When Auburn Cord folded I went to the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors. One  of the first things they wanted me to do was to buy a new Oldsmobile at special  employee rates. I think they offered the car to us for $600. I still couldn’t  afford a new car so I kept on driving the same old 1935 Ford Roadster, the first  car I owned. 

I really liked that Ford, especially after I put on the twin  intake manifolds that came off of one of the 10 Ford Indianapolis race cars in  1935. At that time I had the only Ford on the street with dual intake  carburetors. And because I couldn’t afford a Duesenberg, I had two exhaust pipes coming out the side. I  had a lot of fun with that car. But unfortunately I did a dumb thing which was a  stupid mistake on my part. 

We had a big styling department picnic for the  Oldsmobile Division. All of the stylists had just bought their new $600 1938 Oldsmobiles. All of them had 6 cylinders except the boss’s car which had eight cylinders. On the way to the picnic, the boss went by  all the six’s, and then I made the mistake of going out after him, and passing  him. I guess he was pretty embarrassed.

The next day I was called in to my  supervisor’s office where I was told that what I had done had been in very poor  taste.  And that I should not have embarrassed the entire styling section with an old 1935 Ford.  They even accused me of cheating because my car was practically a  race car.  I was told I had to give up the car. This I refused to do.  In a matter of a month I was laid off. 

I guess Roy Faulkner  heard about me being out of work  so he called and asked me to come back to Auburn. The Auburn Automobile Company had folded up by now, but they still had a subsidiary which was steel kitchens.  There was a chap there by the name of Powell Crosley  who had just developed a fantastic washing machine... the one with the round window. He made this washer pretty successful and he also wanted to build an automobile. So Roy wanted me to go down there and build the car.

So I went to Auburn...

Does anyone have any idea as to the positive identity of these two gents posing with Tremulis and his car?  Some ideas have come forth, but still no positive ID.

And any clues as to which of the ten 1935 Miller-Ford Indy cars may have donated its parts to Tremulis' hot rod?

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