Otis Chandler and Jay Leno: Tale of two Mercers

O.K enough Altadena Bickering. Back to what we are supposed to be doing here, writing reminices and about nice stuff like Architecture and water and so on.

Long long time ago when I was about 16, Joe Runyan, who was a car restorer and hot rodder who lived a couple blocks away and whose driveway and garage I would haunt, invited me to go to the Los Angeles Concourse De Elegance at the Ambassador Hotel lawn with him, his daughter Connie and Son Josh. I had been to car shows and such but I had never seen anything like this event. We drove Joe's 1930 v-16 Cadillac Dual Cowl Pheaton to the Ambassador. Joe's Cadillac had been one of the first V-16's restored and she was in all the Cadillac books. She was black and Joe had actually painted her as he did all his cars, under the tree in his back yard. The finish was deep, smooth, and totally flawless except for a teensie rub through spot on the drivers rear fender where it joined the bottom of the body. Bob Lee, the great Hot Rod upholsterer, did the interior in green and the rugs in red. The car had a natural canvas top and sidemount covers. Joe kept the canvas natural and the whitewalls a not super fresh cream color. White clashed too much with the top and was "Too Beverly Hills, not very Pasadena, and these were Pasadena cars" or so Joe said, and many of the great classics were indeed bodied in Pasadena and owned there and here in Altadena.

At the Concourse Joe had me go around and look at all the other Cadillacs. Joe had noticed that I had an annoying eye for perfection and had observed slight imperfections in his Cadillac and his hot rod 1940 Ford Coupe that no one else had noticed. So there were a bunch of caddys, and they all had various problems,except the maroon and sliver V 16 1930 Cadillac Dual Cowl Pheaton.

It looked pretty darn good. The whitewalls were the only other ones that were not bleached to white, but were a creamy color. The guy who owned it was a tall blonde handsome rugged looking guy who said hello, noted that I was with Joe Runyan and this gentleman asked me what I thought of his Cadillac. I walked around it quickley and came back to say "The paint is very fresh and should be rubbed out and polished a couple more times before its shown and Maurice did the body, it's not original." "Yes he said, Maurice did do the body, how did you know that?"
"See this angle on the curve of the top mouling at the front of the cowl?"
"Yes"
"Well Maurice did a roadster body for Joe's spare chassis, that angle on that body is wrong and it's the same and wrong on your car, so i figured Maurice made it."
"Wow. You are the first person who noticed."
"Yeah thats why Joe sent me."

Later in the day, most of the awards, including best in class for the class v-16 Cadillacs were in were given to the guy who owned that V-16, Otis Chandler. The LA Times sponsored the Concourse, but honestly most of Otis cars were excellent, but not that had an obvious "problem", at least to me.

About fifteen years later, I was at the start of the Horseless Carrige Club's Holiday Motor Excursion. There in the parking lot was a 1912 Mercer Type 35 Raceabout. The wheels and tires were clearly new, the wire wheels having been painted and the spokes trued. The brass was not polished, it had a patina of green brown oxide on it. The maroon and oxblood body had paint that was faded and spiderwebed. It was old,unrestored, and in marvelous condition. I was leaning over the thing gettting as close as I could to every detail without touching the car. It was a feast of original well preserved automotive art. A man leaned over me and said "Maurice didn't do the body on this one." It was Otis Chandler. He offered me a ride. He didn't have to ask twice. Otis cranked her over and she spun slowly to life with a sweet low rythmic throbbing. Otis climbed on, let out the clutch and moved thew throttle forward on the quadrant. We flew across the parking lot, made a tight hard left onto Foothill Blvd. and sitting low to the ground and open to the world, forty or fifty seemed awfully fast and awfully fun. Otis opened the exhaust cut out and opened her up all the way to Rosemead, up rosemead and back round to the parking lot. He eased the Mercer in slowly as her exhaust pulses throbbed on the black macadam. It was over too soon, yet I get to enjoy that ride in my mind all the time.

About ten years after that, I was again at the Holiday Motor Excursion. Again there was a Mercer Type 35 Raceabout sitting in the parking lot. This one was the yellow and black most often associated with Type 35 Mercers. It was a car that was brightly polished and had perfect paint. I was again drooling and taking in every detail. As I was doing so, I noticed that the car sat about 1 1/2" lower than it should. "Ah Balaou's car!" A hunched backed giy in a white duster witha roadster capa nd goggles on came up, opened the bonnet, and began to start oiling things under the hood with an oil can. I asked "Sir, are you the owner?" He shook his head yes. I said "O.K." "Sir, is this the car Balaou had made in the 1960's by sectioning a touring car chassis, Moving the suspension points and building a body?" The man turned around, stood up, and I recognized Jay Leno. Jay said "How did you recognize this car?" "The spring shackles are longer than stock, it sat low, I knew that Balaou thought the only thing wrong with the Mercer was that it sat an inch and a half too high, at least thats what the Article in Classic Car said he believed, I never knew him."

'Well this is his car, and you are right, she sits lower than other Mercers, and the shackles are how that was done." Jay took off his glove and shook my hand. He didn't offer me a ride.

How many guys get to see and hear two Mercer type 35's in one lifetime, and get to ride on one?