Legends of Hot Rodding – Ermie Immerso’s Golden Star T and its two AMBRs
What do you get when you combine a 1925 Model T with a DOHC Indy V8 engine? In the case of Ermie Immerso, you get two AMBRs!
Calling someone a “car guy” is a cliche. But as most of us know, cliches often are rooted in reality. One exemplary example is the late Ermie Immerso, an old-school hot rod enthusiast who checked every box of the Fuel Curve milieu. Consider: In the 1940s, Immerso raced in the rough ’n’ tumble jalopy circle tracks of Arizona and California. In 1954, he crew-chiefed at the Indy 500; he built engines for Carroll Shelby; and he first joined the Bonneville 200 MPH Club in 1956.
More salt flat exploits followed: a self-built and self-piloted belly tank that hit 213.190mph; a streamliner, propelled by a quartet of Ford 427 V8s, that reached 302mph. He also founded Thunderbird Products and its famed Smitty mufflers. And he crafted two custom hot rods that earned three America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) awards.
Which is where this column comes in, as two of those AMBR kudos came from the same car — his Golden Star 1925 Ford Model T roadster. It’s one of only three vehicles to ever win the big trophy twice.
No less a light than Hot Rod’s Gray Baskerville once described the Golden Star as “a masterful fusion of early American race car aesthetics and sophisticated engineering.” No argument here.
Immerso channeled his familiarity with early jalopies to craft the roadster’s aesthetics. At a glance, the Golden Star looked like a track-nosed 1925 Model T track roadster. But underneath, the mechanicals were built around a purpose-designed competition chassis and powered by the same Ford double-overhead-cam engine that dominated the Brickyard for a decade, winning seven times, first in 1965 by Jimmy Clark and in 1977 by A. J. Foyt. And only Immerso could have pulled this off. He had squirreled away dozens of blocks, cams, and heads — arguably the biggest single stockpile of Ford Indy V8 pieces in one place.
Moreover, there’s no record of Henry Ford ever making an aluminum-bodied Model T. Six decades later, Immerso’s roadster featured a gorgeous, handcrafted aluminum body, replete with a chrome nerf-bar-protected track nose, a mini aero wing afore the wide rear tires, and a brilliant crimson hue accented with purple flames.
The chassis featured custom suspensions, disc brakes, a precision steering box, lightweight aluminum racing wheels, and numerous one-off fabricated components that blended a vintage vibe with contemporary craftsmanship. Its signature was the eight polished injectors jutting out of the hood, like a platoon of soldiers marching toward victory lane or another AMBR trophy.
In other words, the entire package demonstrated Immerso’s commitment to creating a genuine track roadster rather than simply a show car.
Still, Immerso had a knack for showing up the show-car regulars, especially at the Grand National Roadster Show. In 1988, Immerso’s all-Ford, all-old-metal Orange Twist ’32 Ford roadster took the AMBR award. The Golden Star did likewise, it securing AMBR honors in both 1989 and 1991.
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- Photo courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum
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- Photo courtesy Petersen Automotive Museum
Immerso passed away in at age 78 — but his passion for cool automobiles never wavered. His hot rod legacy is and will be long remembered. He did, however, leave behind his 30,000 sq-ft warehouse in Rancho Dominguez, California, filled with jaw-dropping treasures. An auction followed, with both the Orange Twist and the Golden Star as the headliners.
More than 300 gearheads showed up for the auction. Countless tools and parts were sold off. The denouement of the festivities was the auction of the AMBR winners. The Orange Twist Deuce was up first up and bidding quickly rocketed into the financial stratosphere, with pretenders falling away like a spent SpaceX Stage One booster.
Thankfully, Dick Messer, director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, was on hand. A man with a mission to add to the museum’s vault. He scored the win, with a shocking bid of $522,625. A murmur of disbelief rippled through the crowd. Up next, the Golden Star. Would the Twist’s more exotic and famous sibling go for more? Messer and Pete’s museum won again, this time with a winning bid of “only” $250,000.
Despite his status as one of hot rodding’s “greats,” Ermie’s personality never changed. He lived by the down-to-earth, “do-it-myself” ethic, all the while donning a fashion-forward ensemble of blue hat, blue bib overalls, and an orange T-shirt — the same apparel he was buried in.
Tayna Mank had been Immerso’s sidekick for 25 years. She “managed” both the Orange Twist and the Golden Star. “Ermie was like a grandfather to me,” Tayna explained to Hot Rod. “He would do things just because people would say it couldn’t be done. It’s amazing the level to which he could take so many things. It’s amazing how he opened so many avenues for himself. He liked to be the best at everything.”
There aren’t many of our Goodguys Legends who have scored an AMBR hat-trick. That’s the best definition of “best of everything” we can think of. His Golden Star custom T track roadster proved the point.
