Topic: SOLVED: FW #90 Alexandra Special, Thunderado, Spook, based on '49 Ford by Ikered

[fromwien]

Some more pictures

[fyreline]

No problem. Appreciate your puzzles.

[fromwien]

Thank you very much for your appreciation.
I will move up this puzzle to the 'Professionals'. Let us see, what happens..

[Carnut]

Another picture:

[fromwien]

Dear 'Carnut',
this is the same magazine-cover 'fyreline' found sometimes before. This cover shows the puzzle-car for sure. As I told to him too. I didn't award 'fyreline' with the point by now, as I am still waiting for the remaining answers.

I took the car out from another 1-page-article from an different magazine.
With a complete different name. Furthermore I ask for the base, builder and owner of the car

I cannot be sure, which of the two sources shows the correct name.

For owner and base car I have two identical sources.

[Carnut]

Yes, I only posted the picture so it showed within the thread rather than via link posted by fyreline, which in time will disappear off the 'Net.

I did find this about the Thunderado though:

"The man George Ikered , that built the Thunderado / Spook, had what we'd call cool out of the box thinking".

Seems it's also referred to as The Spook, although most places the car is featured do call it the Thunderado for obvious reasons.

[fromwien]

Now we get much closer to the solution:
1) Yes, George Ikerd is the builder of the car.
2) To find the owner will be a very easy task now..
3) Which chassis was the car's base?
4) For the name: Yes, I know about these two names.. Thunderado and Spook, but sadly, there is a third one..
LOCKED for you

[Carnut]

Thanks.
I'll see what if I can find if you can leave it with me for a few days.

[fromwien]

Yes, fine 'carnut'

[Carnut]

Thanks. These are the answers I can find:

1. The car was built by George Ikered at his Ikered Custom Auto Body workshop in Miami, Florida and was commissioned by Clark Alexander.
2. Is the owner Phil Sheehan? (But see below). It most certainly isn’t easy to find the name of the car’s owner!
3. The car was built on the standard Ford chassis of the time, on which all US Fords were based. The standard wheelbase was 115.5 inches but it was shortened to 104 inches for this car.
4. Fyreline has supplied one name and I have supplied another, both names the car has been known as during its lifetime. Despite extensive searching I have failed to find a third name for it. I thought I might have succeeded when I found another Thunderado which was also known as the Eldo Bird (or Eldobird), but that is a different Thunderado based on a 1965 Ford Thunderbird with a Pontiac 389 cu. in. V8 so it can’t be the third name of your puzzle car.

As an extra piece of information the puzzle car is/was powered by a 1955 Cadillac V8.

I would just say that in your original post you asked “Please identify this car for one point”. Fyreline answered that question correctly to start with and provided the name it’s called in most articles. I then gave another name which the car was apparently known as soon after it was first built, although I can’t find a single article which refers to the car by that name. So both fyreline and I have answered your original question, giving its two most common names.

You must ask all the questions for which you need the answers for the point in your original post, but you can of course introduce more questions later if you find out more information you didn’t have when posting at the outset; in that case you must give a point to whoever answers your original question/s correctly and then a further point for whoever answers your new questions.
I don’t mind looking for the owner or for a third name at all but they are not questions you originally asked so you must acknowledge that your original question has been answered and award points for solving your (excellent!) puzzle.

[fyreline]

I entirely agree with the above post by Carnut.

[fromwien]

Dear Carnut:
ad 1. In my opinion, partly correct
ad 2. Phil Sheehan: No, isn't easy to find: Yes
ad 3. It was not built on a 115.5 inches Ford chassis of the time. But shortened to 104 inches, yes... So Fyreline's theory, a '56 T-Bird chassis has been used, comes up with a math problem: The '56 T-Bird-chassis' wheelbase measures 102 inches
ad 4. Due to my profession, it is sometimes necessary to investigate more closely. The first approach is not always the right one. That's why I like to set puzzles where I know from the start that there are several possible answers. In a discussion, it would be quite possible to get a result. However, that doesn't seem to be possible on this page.

Cadillac engine is correct!

Answer to: ...your original post you asked “Please identify this car for one point”. Fyreline answered that question correctly....

Yes, I admit a mistake here, as I assumed that a puzzle-car isn't identified with a simple attribution. On the other hand, I am happy about it, as I will point this out in future answers to puzzles in order to get rid of senseless cheap points.

Assumed that this is a community that is interested in cars, not just in worthless points that you put on your shirt without actually understanding the purpose of the game

I was in need to remove some of my puzzles, due to this common question-text “Please identify this car for one point”, I used for them. As you say in your statement, I have to add all the questions I am asking for, as soon as I start a new topic! Perfect! I will do so. Will take a little bit longer, to specify every new puzzle, will be less fun and quite a lot of additional work, but you will get a legally correct puzzle-text. It's only for pure pleasure.

In the future, too, I will take great care to only answer those questions that are correct and complete in the question text when puzzling others. No more!

So, now to the world championship point distribution, the real purpose of this puzzle.
No matter what is right or wrong,
...'fyreline' gets one point and
...'Carnut' gets one point

But you are welcome to look at the appendix to this puzzle. Whether right or wrong remains a mystery, as I do not want to and will not write any further comment

[Carnut]

Thanks fromwien.

Alexandra Special!  I don't know if it was called that anywhere else so it may or may not have been a name that was actually used.
I note that magazine is not too good at spelling: other sites say the car was commissioned by Clark Alexander..
Also that magazine calls the builder George Ikerd, whilst his name was actually George Ikered.
I'm not sure that name is 100% reliable!

When I first started at AutoPuzzles in the dim and distant past I was taken to task a few times for wanting answers I hadn't asked for in my initial post. Hence you will notice I always ask for every item I need (e.g. "What is this car, built by whom, when and powered by what?") so that everyone knows what they have to look for..

[fromwien]

Will do so with future puzzles.
Will deal more again with real automobile historians and enthusiasts. Some of whom I found here and closed very nice acquaintance, which I don't want to miss anymore,...

This is the glory side of AutoPuzzles.com