Geoff Hacker gets plenty of good-natured razzing from us who know him about his ever-expanding collection of odd cars. Most of them are homebuilt (or home-assembled) fiberglass-bodied sports cars of the 1950s, and the vast majority of them don’t run. The Gougeon streamliner, however, is the exception to the former – it’s a rear-engined, aluminum-bodied “teardrop” car built in the 1930s – and Geoff and his friends have recently gone on a tear to make it the exception to the latter.
Built by Ronald Gougeon in Bay City, Michigan, from 1935 essentially until Gougeon’s death in 1963, the streamliner sits on a 1934 Ford frame and uses a 1934 Ford flathead V-8 engine for power. Geoff found it in 2008 near his home in Tampa, Florida, and over the last couple months recruited Tim Masters, Ben Emerson, and Ben’s friend Red Bartles to begin working in earnest to not only build wheelwells and a floor for the streamliner, but also to get the engine running once again. Last week, Ben and Red made enough progress to warrant a couple test drives around the block.
Next up, brakes! Congratulations, Geoff!
