Legends in Hot Rodding – the Gray Baskerville ’32 Roadster – A Legendary Journalist’s Daily Driver
We profiled the prolific, wacky, and brilliant automotive journalist Gray Baskerville a while back. But Gray did more than pen memorable pieces in Rod & Custom and Hot Rod magazines, he also owned – and drove! – a full-fendered ’32 Ford hot rod roadster. The ride became as much of Gray’s ensemble as his buzz cut, Elvis Costello glasses, and all-climate flip-flops and t-shirt.
Gray was born with wordsmithing in his genes. His grandfather started Motorcyclist magazine in 1919, and after college Gray wrote for the same publication. By 1968, he found himself working in the Petersen Publishing (publisher of Hot Rod) book division. But not for long.
One day, Tom Medley, then publisher of Rod & Custom, spotted Gray’s ’32 Ford. “I pulled into Pete’s G3 parking lot,” Medley would recall, “and there was this red full-fendered ’32 roadster, a traditional hot rod. I was told that some guy in the book division owned it.”
Medley quickly tracked Baskerville down and recruited him to join the R&C staff. He moved to Hot Rod when Rod & Custom was killed in 1974.
“And there began the legend of both Gray and his ’32,” wrote Hot Rod editor David Freiburger in the June 2002 issue. “We estimated that he motored the thing 250,000 miles in 36 years. Much of that on assignment for R&C, and later, Hot Rod.”
Throughout his career, Gray was defined by that ’32 roadster, as much as he was by flip flops and his unconventional sentence structure. The Deuce was originally owned by Gray’s friend, Paul Horning, who put it together in the mid-1950s as a race car. When Horning died in a motorcycle accident in 1966, the estate sold it to Baskerville for all of $500. Eventually, the race motor gave way to a 283c.i. small-block Chevy coupled to a cast-iron Powerglide and ’52 Lincoln differential, and it became a daily driver.
In 2000, Gray decided it was time for a mechanical refresher. “It was too nice a car, but it was looking scuzzy,” he later explained to Freiburger. “I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, but I needed it to be right. The car is a rolling museum piece built almost totally out of ’50s junkyards. It’s almost identical to the way it was in 1966, and I don’t want any part I didn’t have on it before. Every part reflects one of my pals.”
The job was handled by Mike and the famed Art Chrisman, with strict instructions to just freshen it up. Leave the drivetrain and look of the car as is, same engine, same tranny, same everything. Chrisman pulled off the body and detailed the chassis, powder painted it, and had the axle chromed.
But while his beloved Deuce was getting new life, Gray’s life was threatened by a diagnosis of cancer. As his condition worsened, progress on the roadster continued and by the time it was completed, Baskerville was bedridden. Freiburger volunteered to pick it up with his trailer, but Gray sternly objected; it’d never been on a trailer before, he wasn’t going to allow it now. So, Art picked up Gray in Pasadena, hauled him to Santa Ana, and drove him back home in the ’32.
As Gray’s conditioned worsened, he began thinking about who should own it next. He and Pete Chapouris put together short list of worthy prospects, with Jim Shelton at the top. Now, Shelton was a longtime hot-rodder who had befriended Baskerville when he decided to model his own ’32 after Gray’s. Shelton kept Gray informed on the progress of his roadster.
After Baskerville passed away, Chapouris offered Shelton first shot at buying the car. Sure, the price was steep. But Gray, knowing Shelton had his own ’32, told Pete to pass along a suggestion – “tell him to sell that piece of shit and buy the real thing.”
Shelton did the next best thing: He bought Gray’s car, and he kept the other roadster, which was finished by this time. Hey, what’s better than a duo of Deuces?
In 2022, Pebble Beach invited Gray’s roadster to the famous Concours d’Elegance, primer blotches an all. Not unlike inviting Peanuts’ Pig Pen to the Met Gala. Shelton was on hand, and in a poignant touch, so was Gray’s daughter, Elizabeth. As she strolled on the manicured lawns and observed the blue blazers and red neckties, she quipped, “I don’t know if these would’ve been Dad’s people.”
Shelton still owns the car, and he’s driven it an additional 40,000 miles, pushing the overall total to near 300,000. He’s only done routine maintenance – battery, tires, and the like.
We spoke with Shelton, now 83, from his Las Vegas home to get his thoughts on the car. “I’ve always admired Gray’s ’32, which is why I used it as inspiration for my own ’32 project,” he explained. “To actually own the real thing, well, that’s a dream come true. In fact, my entire life as a hot rodder is a dream, too. And cruising in Gray’s car is beyond words.”
Somewhere, Gray Baskerville is smiling whenever that roadster rolls down the street.
