Legends of Hot Rodding – Ed Roth’s Orbitron; A Long Strange Trip It’s Had
If the early days of rods and customs had a signature iconoclast, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth would be the overwhelming vote-getter. From weirdo T-shirts and Rat Fink to the outlandish Outlaw and Mysterion customs, Roth fused a Beat Generation vibe with a wacky futuristic aesthetic.
One of his more unusual creations — and that’s saying something — was the Orbitron, a Jetson-themed show rod that featured a bubble-topped cockpit that hung behind the rear axle, a gussied-up Chevy V8, and a long hood and nose that culminated with six headlights! Beautiful in a distinct Rothian kind of way.
Roth created the car in 1964, sharing design duties with his frequent sidekick Ed Newton. The idea was to fashion a custom version of a slingshot dragster with modernistic styling atop traditional hot rod components. Hence the 283c.i. small-block Chevy that Roth yanked from his daily driver. It flaunted ’Vetted valve covers and a threesome of Stromberg 97s. A Powerglide tranny and Chevy rearend harnessed the horses.
The chassis was fabbed from 2×4-inch rectangular steel tubing, a stout platform for the four bar and transverse leaf spring arrangement locating the early Ford V8-60 tube axle, which was fitted with finned Buick drums over Lincoln brakes. Everything was chromed. Slotted Astro wheels were shod with whitewall cheater slicks and ersatz knockoffs. (Knock-off knockoffs?)
The exterior shape embodied Roth’s typical weirdness. Its hand-shaped fiberglass body showed off asymmetrical panels and a thin spiky fender profile. A local plastic fabricator molded the clear Plexiglas dome. Ingress and egress were controlled by a doorbell button on the hood that triggered a hydraulic system.
Roth dialed up the weirdness when he concocted the headlight scheme: There were six lights in all: three regular sealed beams, one each above the fenders, another off-center in the grille. Why offset? Because next to it was a bizarre cluster of three primary-colored Lucas headlights — red, green, and blue. Roth was enthralled by new-fangled color TVs, and the lights were to function like television tubes. When illuminated together the colored beams would blend into ray of white light.
Famed painter and Gazette Legend Larry Watson coated the exterior in a candy blue over white pearl. Later that color was updated to a more golden blue. The interior continued the blue theme — blue leather seat, blue shift knob, and blue gauge panel. Everything else was enveloped in a light blue fur that looked like a shag carpet on a growth spurt. And, perhaps the topper, a stubby console that held a vintage 11-inch General Electric portable TV.
The Orbitron hit the show circuit in September 1964 to a muted reception. Roth blamed The Beatles. “Once the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show,” Roth explained, “all the interest in cars stopped. Guys got guitars instead o’ cars.”
Realizing the car wasn’t a show winner, in 1967 he sold it to fellow custom car savant Darryl Starbird for $750. Starbird planned to showcase the Orbitron in his own traveling car show tour. From there, things got wild. Starbird sold the car to a doctor in Texas, who in turn swapped it to another guy who, according to journalist and historian Pat Ganahl, fell into drug trouble. To pay off his legal fees, he gave his barrister the Orbitron.
Later, another attorney and his bail bondsman took ownership. The lawyer’s nephew decided to drive it to school, a strategy that came apart when he was trapped in the cockpit for more than an hour before the bubble top could be pried open. Wait, it gets crazier. The lawyer/bondsman tandem hawked the show rod to a pair of guys in Mexico who wanted to use it in a carnival. That lasted until 1991 when one owner was allegedly gunned down in a drug deal.
Next stop: Juarez, Mexico, where the car was used as a dumpster in front of a porn shop. Really. The shop owner’s uncle had managed to lose that Orbitron’s unique nose. How it happened is open to debate, but one theory was someone attempted to tow its by fragile ’glass bodywork. In 2006, Michael Lightbourn, from nearby El Paso, was visiting Juarez when he spotted the Orbitron, still outside the porn shop, still collecting trash. It took a while, but Lightbourn convinced the store owner to sell it.
Michael owned the car only briefly before selling it to Beau Boeckmann, president of Galpin Auto Sports, a branch of Galpin Motors, the dealership chain that is home to one of the largest Ford dealerships in the country. Boeckmann and Galpin Auto Sports already owned a sizable collection of historic hot rods, show rods, and customs. Next up: The Orbitron.
Boeckmann wanted to restore the Orbitron back to its original condition. Thankfully, Ed Newton was still around and, being the car’s designer, he was an all-important resource. Fabricators Dave Shuten and Jimmy C. recreated the signature nose, grille, and three-light ensemble, while the aforementioned Larry Watson dug out the old paint formula and sprayed it again — using the paint booth of another Gazette Legend, Gene Winfield.
Hot rod legends come in many forms, sometimes a car, often a person, and occasionally a story. In this case, it’s all three.
