Chavik Indy Roadster

Successions of Shafer 8s followed, sporting Buick engines and the same golden-age racer form: a tall, horse-collar grille leading to a long, cigar-shaped body atop a naked steel frame, the tiny cockpit just ahead of the wasp tail. In period photos, fleshy Firestone balloon tyres on knock-off wires sit at the corners of Shafer’s cars, while the eight short exhaust stacks feed to a single pipe slung along the left side. Chavik marvelled at the photos of the originals back in the day, plus the various recreations that have been built over the years by collectors such as Corky Coker, the vintage-tyre king of Chattanooga, Tennessee.