Photos courtesy carsindepth.com
It’s a rare non-1930s car that wins the Detroit Autorama’s Don Ridler Memorial Award; in the last 20 years, just four cars from other decades have taken the Ridler, and none of them have been 1950s cars. But with three of the eight finalists for the award hailing from the doo-wop decade at this past weekend’s Autorama, it was almost inevitable that one of them take the $10,000 prize, and indeed, the 2011 Ridler went to Suncammer, a 1956 Ford Sunliner owned by Bruce and Judy Ricks from Sapulpa, Oklahoma.
The Suncammer, built by Steve Cook Creations of Oklahoma City, gets its name from the Ford SOHC 427 “Cammer” under the hood, fed by dual Autolite inline four-barrel carburetors on a cast-aluminum intake manifold. The engine is backed with a Tremec five-speed manual transmission and slowed with six-piston Baer brakes on all four wheels. While the body looks fairly stock, Cook and his crew actually wedged, channeled and chopped it, pancaked the hood, reshaped the front fenders, leaned the A-pillars back, added full belly pans and created custom bumpers and side trim.
Also in contention for the 2011 Ridler at this year’s 59th Detroit Autorama were Mike Lethert of Roseville, Minnesota, with his 1939 Ford convertible; Tim Gunsalus of West Alexandria, Ohio, with his 1947 Chevrolet pickup; Bruce Milyard of Grand Junction, Colorado, with his 1962 Corvette; Kenny Frederick of Greismer, Louisiana, with his 1957 Chevrolet; Kenneth Tallent of McKinney, Texas, with his 1949 Ford coupe; and Derrick Samson of Marshall, Missouri, with his 1951 Chevrolet coupe.
