We use the term “Holy Grail” a lot around here, referring to a car that possesses a rare and unusual set of traits and characteristics that makes it something rare and desirable and unquestionably fascinating. These cars can come from any part of the automotive world, from tiny econoboxes to genuinely exotic things. And yet, I’m not sure we’ve ever told you about a car that holy grails as much as this Holy Grail holy grails. It’s something that is almost literally the definition of a Holy Grail: impossibly rare (it’s one of one), is shrouded in myth and legend, and has required a genuine quest to find it, since it has been deliberately hidden for about half a century. It also has a strange beauty all its own, just like that famous cup. It’s the legendary show rod Uncertain-T, and it has finally been found by our very own Autopian co-founder Beau Boeckmann, and will be restored by hot rod restoration guru Dave Shuten.
In the hot rod/show rod community, Uncertain-T is something that has taken on the status of a legend. The car itself is absolutely remarkable as a work of art and engineering, but the story behind the car is equally incredible.
The seed of what would become Uncertain-T was born in 1960, when high school student Steve Scott of Reseda, CA saw a cartoon drawn by a friend of his in an advanced physics class. The cartoon portrayed a highly stylized Ford Model T-style hot rod, and the image so moved Scott that he decided he was going to turn that crude sketch into reality, and began work on the car in his parents’ one-car garage that very night.
It took five years for Scott to finish the car, but when he did, it was a masterpiece. The overall design was simple but striking, with a fiberglass body that looked like a “phone-booth” Model T coupé, but canted forward at a really shocking and rakish angle, evoking the look of a hat worn shoved forward. Real Model T headlamps and a wind-up key at the rear completed the surreal look, and everything was mounted on a boxed aluminum frame. That frame even had coolant circulating through it to help keep the fuel-injected 1957 Buick “nailhead” engine running cool.
Unlike a number of show rods of the era, Uncertain-T was very drivable, with an MGA rack-and-pinion steering setup and big finned drum brakes at the rear. The car made at least one drag strip run in 1965 at the Bakersfield Fuel and Gas Championships. That’s pretty astounding on its own!
When it came to shows, Uncertain-T wowed everyone, leading to an infamous event in the history of show rods. At the. 1965 Winternationals show, Steve Scott, barely in his 20s, and his Uncertain-T took home the coveted Special Sweepstakes Award, beating out perennial favorites like George Barris. Barris did not take the loss well, slapping Steve in front of everyone at the show.
Steve took Barris to court, winning a restraining order against Barris that would keep him 100 feet away at all times, and inspiring Big Daddy Roth to draw this hilarious rendering of the Uncertain-T, piloted by one of Roth’s trademark monsters holding a rolled-up court summons reading “Big George, Notice to Appear,” referring to Barris. Amazing!
The Uncertain-T became a model kit from Monogram in 1966, but was only on the market for a few years. Scott went on to work at Car Craft magazine, then later for Petersen publications, but in 1967 experienced a major shift in his interests. According to this quote from Scott in Kustomrama:
“One day driving home from my job at Petersen Publishing Company, I suddenly, and very noticeably, totally lost all interest in anything to do with the automotive world. It just happened. It was like the channel on a TV just changed while I was watching a program that up until that moment was everything I had lived for, and I was left with a total understanding of what had happened, and why, and no desire whatsoever to try to change the channel back. I knew that even if I had tried to change the channel back, the program wouldn’t be there. I gave notice the next day that I was quitting, and from that moment on, I just simply went about my life with very different interests and focus.”
And that was it for Scott and his amazing show rod building career: he built one show rod, it became an absolute legend, and then he was done. That’s that.
The fate of Uncertain-T gets very murky from this point, which is where this latest chapter in the saga begins. By the early 1980s, the car’s whereabouts was unknown, with the car being allegedly sold to a friend of Scott’s, but then actively and deliberately kept hidden for decades, sometimes moving locations if the owner sensed people were too close on its trail.
Uncertain-T was never truly found by anyone: eventually, the owner reached out to Beau’s late father, Bert Boeckmann, because Bert’s reputation for fairness and honesty made him one of the only people the reclusive Uncertain-T’s owner would even consider trusting. From there, Beau became involved, as he explains in Galpin Motors’ press release:
“This time, the Uncertain- T found me, I didn’t find it,” said Boeckmann, president and CEO of Galpin Motors. ”While this historic hot rod has been a worldwide phenomenon, with its whereabouts unknown for so many decades, I love that it was built and found in the San Fernando Valley right down the street from Galpin Ford. What makes it even more sentimental is the connection between the previous owner, Dick Nickerson, and my father, who all worked on the Mach IV four-engine Mustang Funny Car together in 1969.”
The re-emergence of this car from the unknown is truly remarkable. It will first be shown in its as-found at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona, Feb. 2-4, and at the Detroit Autorama in March, and then lead restoration specialist Dave Shuten will restore the car to the exact look, configuration, and design of its 1965 debut.
This is truly a Holy Grail of show rods, and is likely one of the last remaining unfound, unrestored legendary hot rods of the era.
yo from port antonio JA, here is my build of Uncertain T
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img922/9317/l8LZTL.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/img921/3028/81r9iH.jpg
jb
That’s quite well done!
This is just so cool! I’ve always had a fondness for these custom T’s not to mention Ed Roth’s RatFink-world. Somehow, I was unaware of Uncertain-T, not to mention the court-summons drawing.
What a great addition to Beau’s collection! I couldn’t help being reminded of the Hirohata Mercury, another amazing custom owned by Mr. Boeckmann that disappeared for a long while, complete with a connection to George Barris.
Can’t wait to see more – I’m guessing the restoration process is going to be fascinating. And when completed, yet another compelling reason I need to plan a road trip out to see the Galpin Speed Shop.
Came to talk about Big Daddy Roth, was not disappoint.
This article reminds me I need to visit Big Daddy’s compound before I move out of Utah.
It wasn’t found, it was revealed. Which to me is even crazier. When a lost classic is found in Mexico being used as a trashcan that is insane but someone able to keep this car hidden for 50 years with no one leaking the information is beyond that. Usually found cars are just sitting in garages under crap or someone has not idea what they have. Actively hiding this legend is another level.
I should hate this car. It’s against everything I look for in car design,…but I find it absolutely awesome! It hurts my brain to look at it, but my nostalgia brain remembers seeing images and Hot Wheels versions of it everywhere when I was a kid.
Seeing a reference to the HAMB Drags in an article about a legendary hot rod on The Autopian. My automotive enthusiast life has made a circle.
Love the HAMB reference as well – I was very active on there in the late 90’s early 2000’s, I still check in once in a while. Amazing place that was.
I was something ridiculously low member count-wise….like sub-200. Couldn’t believe how big it grew. At the same time, it lost a bit of that tight-knit feel. Haven’t frequented there for years…..
Me either. My handle/username there was TinyElvis. I logged in a while back, and had some DM’s from 2008 haha. I wouldn’t even know where to begin now if I were to get back in the mix. It was a very tight community! I met some cool people through there.
Hey Jason! Fellow Austin area resident here and I noticed a Facebook Marketplace listing for a ’91 Nissan Figaro convertible in what looks like fantastic condition over in Seguin. Thought you’d have fun checking out the listing even if you’re not trying buy another car like this right now.
https://www.facebook.com/share/sAu8WW41h9ejAnu2/?mibextid=kL3p88
(100% not my listing ????)
https://stevescottsuncertaint.com/main.html
And I quote “and then lead restoration specialist Dave Shuten”. I refer to the word “lead”. Do you mean in the donkey sense or the metal sense? The difference is considerable!
And here I thought the car was fiberglass!
Spoil sport!
Well you know the difference between a chemist and a plumber is how they pronounce “unionized”
I love how the Lady in green welcomes the Hot Rod with a nod. It’s rather rare that cars actually reply. This one does. It should have been named Poli-T.
The lead image looks AI generated. What a wild design
awesome. wonder how far out you have to pull in front of the traffic light to actually see it
You wait until the person next to you starts moving.
Lean left slightly. In fact, it might work better to drive it like that. Go full ace ventura
Not sure where it started, but lead sleds with large external visors and seriously chopped rods would sometimes have a prism on the dash in which they could see the colors reflected.
—a buddy building a ‘29 T in the 90s located one at a swap meet and showed me an old custom magazine where he’d seen them. His had a black cover that slid on so he wouldn’t be blinded driving toward the sun
What a cool story, I can’t wait to see more from this project!
Holy crap. Just when I thought Beau’s collection couldn’t get any cooler…
I love it and the story is great. I remember seeing many photos and posters of this car through the years. However, it’s always looked to me until now like it was in the midst of snapping in half. The level chassis and severely canted roof break my brain.
As a car modeler, even the Monogram kit of the “Uncertain T” is a holy grail these days. Awesome to see the real thing turn back up!
With a little luck, this will inspire Monogram to re-release it!
There’s so much, umm, uncertainty about the old Monogram molds these days it’s pretty well up in the air. I’m guessing if Revell still had them or if they turned up in the molds Revell sold to Atlantis several years back it would have been released by now. There are resin repops out there, and there is always the possibility that Revell or Atlantis could clone the kit like Revell did years ago for the “Rommel’s Rod” halftrack. Licensing could be a challenge as well, but with originals going for several hundred dollars(!) these days there’s definitely a pent-up market for this model.
The full post by the Scott linked above says that he was told he could buy the tooling when they were done but they scrapped it.
Barris did not take the loss well, slapping Steve in front of everyone at the show.
George Barris, keeping it classy as always.
What an interesting story and a fascinating car (and yes, this really does count as a “holy grail” vehicle). I had no idea George Barris was such a putz.
But what happened to Steve Scott? What did he end up doing after he switched gears, as it were? Did he become a recluse and collect bus transfers (https://www.learning-mind.com/william-james-sidis/)? Did he become a kooky religious zealot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later_life_of_Isaac_Newton)? Inquiring minds want to know!
Barris was a major putz. His reputation in the 40s and 50s was largely based off of his brother Sam, who was responsible for the design of the classic Barris customs like the Matranga and Hirohata Mercs. George was shameless about taking credit for other peoples’ work and wasn’t a particularly gifted stylist himself.
A friend had the opportunity to accompany a documentary production to Dean Jeffries shop. Dean had choice words for George Barris.
I keep seeing that window reflection scene at the end of “Eddie and the Cruisers” when I ponder what became of Steve.
I didn’t realize it was an actual car, my dad had some of the Big Daddy Roth monsters and I remember that poster for sure and seeing some of the models but thought they were just like hot wheels imagination stuff, that’s so cool!
Hell yes it’s a real car. They all are. I’ve seen Dave Shuten’s shop, and it was like stepping into eight-year-old-me’s imagination. Absolutely incredible. I completely geeked out, probably made an ass of myself. But I don’t care.
It would be awesome even if it were just a showpiece. The fact that it drives (and made a dragstrip pass) is the best part!
Beau, you’re an automotive treasure and one of the great reasons this site is such a wonder!
Uncertain-T, IT’S ALIVE!
That is amazing, I thought it would have been parted out and scrapped half a century ago. A buddy of mine had a Monogram model, IIRC it met it’s demise as a strange slot car conversion.
Heh – “undertaint”
That’s really cool! I’m not really into those crazy show rods, but I love that this was built by a kid starting in high school, inspired by another kid’s crazy sketch, and was actually a drivable car. What a great story!
Yeah, the fact that it was actually designed and built to be drivable car is enough to kick it up several notches above most other show rods in my book, setting aside all the other details
For sure!
The best part of cars is their stories. This is a good one.
It looks like it belongs in a cartoon.
It’s CD must be giving you an eyelid twitch at the very least 😀
Some cars are efficient, some are practical, and some are ways around the rules. (In Toecutter’s case, all three in one vehicle.) But Uncertain-T exists for one simple reason… because it can.
Nicely put.
The best cars do.
Used to waste away school class time decorating the back pages of my notebooks with drawing of various Roth customs and derivatives from my imagination.