Hank Negley's 1932 Ford Roadster

A photo of Hank's roadster taken circa 1945. Photo from The HAMB.

A photo of Hank's roadster taken in 1946. Photo from The HAMB.

A photo of Hank with the roadster taken at El Mirage in 1947. Photo from the Gear Grinders Car Club Collection.

1932 Ford Roadster owned by Gear Grinders member Hank Negley. Hank entered his Class C Roadster at El Mirage in 1947. It ran as car no. 357, and it was entered at the May meeting with a Mercury flathead V8 that sported Cyclone heads and a Weiand manifold. Hank ran 115.53 mph at the May meet. He wasn't entered at the July or August 10 meet. At the August 31 meeting, he was listed as having A Mercury with Cyclone heads, but this time with an Evans intake and Smith & Jones cam. Hank only ran 114.97 mph this time. In September, he was entered again, but the program says he had a four-cylinder 1927 Chevrolet engine in the car. After running 123.28 mph for a 12th in class, he probably still had the Mercury in it. He was back in October with the program saying the engine was a Mercury again as he ran 117.03 mph. A photo of Hank's roadster from El Mirage in 1947 shows the car without fenders, windshield and headlights with a louvered hood and a filled and peaked grille shell. Tube shocks had also been installed by then.

Sold and Destroyed

In July of 2023, Hank's youngest son, Steve Negley, told Sondre Kvipt of Kustomrama that he was pretty sure that his dad never had a Chevy engine in the car. "The car looks black in the photo but was really a beautiful deep purple," Steve could inform. "My dad sold that car to buy our house in Garden Grove.....my mother was livid at him for doing it too. He bought a 1940 Ford coupe after that." Hank told Steve that the roadster was destroyed in an accident. "My dad continued his interest in racing and was building a Modified Roadster to run at Bonneville before he passed from cancer in 1993."