Great image! But what Make is the red sports car? I originally was thinking Nash Healey, But it is not. Any Ideas what it is?
Doing a Bit of research I think the red sports car is a Woodhill Wildfire the Los Angles company made around 10 complete cars and sold around 300 kits. The time line and dealer location seem to line up, The dealership in the picture is in Salt lake city, the picture dates to 1952/53. The Woodhill company made car/kits in 1952-60. The little info I found on the make says the founder was trying to sell franchises to dealerships in 1953-54. So I think the pictures catches the car on a sales call to the dealership. Very rare car to be sure. What do you all think? I am not 100% convinced I am correct, more like 90%. I have some questions about the upper dash area, splint windshield, and rear fender shape of the car at the dealership. But car in the image is so small, and it could just be lighting and angle differences, or a difference in a particular car.
THAT is Claude Short Dodge (and Plymouth, then). They were the closest Dodge dealer to me when I was growing up - only about 3-4 miles from my house to their dealership on Santa Monica Bl. in Santa Monica. The Plymouth franchise was separated out from them around 1957 or so. And that guy with slicked hair that's sitting on the front seat seatback is none other than bandleader Lawrence Welk, who lived in Santa Monica, was sponsored by Dodge, and bought all his cars from Claude Short. This is not the only pic floating out there of him picking up a new Dodge from Claude Short. The short bald guy might be him....I dunno.......