Bubz Winslow

More about the car

So in 1966, the three of them finally set out to do just that. Their original intent was for this to be a low budget project, it had to be. Jerry had just graduated and Tom and Paul were still in school. To start, they needed two basic components, a car and an engine. A classified ad in the Cincinnati Enquirer turned up an old 1946 Mercury coupe. The car was found sitting behind a barn out in Clermont County, Ohio. Apparently it had been there for years.
A local junkyard search turned up a 392 Cubic Inch Chrysler Hemi that would be perfect. The engine was taken from an old, wrecked 1958 Chrysler Imperial. The price back in the day…. $50 bucks! So now the two main components secured, the question arose, where will they build it?

Jerry Kanis soon approached his father Earl for permission to use his McLean Drive garage. Earl agreed, however just for a limited time. Little did Earl know he was not only making a three-year commitment for use of his garage but also for his assistance and expertise with the project. When the car arrived the body was in pretty rough condition but no serious rot.

First, the car was stripped bare. Then a tremendous amount of metal work and resurfacing needed to be completed. And to top it all off, the car was painted with thirty-six coats of brilliant Kelly Green metal flake paint, a very forward thinking concept for the 1960’s.

The engine had its own challenges. It required a tremendous amount of work to be adapted for racing. Instead of being converted to fuel injection, it remained naturally aspirated utilizing two Holly 750 CFM carburetors cross mounted on aluminum induction stacks. The block was bored out to over 407 cubic inches and was rebuilt to produce over 600 horsepower. With countless hours of blood, sweat and tears already invested, the project was now rapidly changing in scope, size and expense.

The car soon became a family project with all hands on deck. Even the younger family members got involved. At one point John Kanis’s sixth grade school teacher, Sister Margaret Ann Corbet, was overhearing talk out in the schoolyard about this race car. The nun’s brother, whom which she greatly disapproved, was into building and racing cars as well. The nun was becoming concerned about John’s growing interest with cars and did not want him going down what she considered was a road to ruin. One night she felt compelled to call John’s mother at home to express her concern. She told her, “Get that boy away from that car!” Needless to say, the nun’s detest did not deter John in the least.

After three years of working nights, weekends and holidays, the project was finally completed. The Coates and Kanis Gasser was a sight to behold and was ready for racing! As the 1968 season began, the car began competing at local drag strips.
The car was now running like a beast. On the last day of the season, the car turned an extremely competitive 10.45 seconds elapsed time @141.0mph on the quarter mile track at Edgewater Park Raceway.

The years went by and everyone’s lives went in different directions. Moves, marriages, divorces, children born, parents lost, life simply happened. Over time, the family eventually lost touch with the car that was the main focus of their lives for those few short years back in the late 1960’s. The Coates and Kanis Gasser was all but a forgotten memory.

Fast forward to the early 2000’s. One day of the blue one day Jerry received a phone call from his former partner, Paul Coates. Paul was excited to tell him that the old green coupe had been found! Apparently, it had been sitting out in the middle of a cornfield at the Ohio-Indiana state line for some time. Other than the paint coming off in sheets, the car was relatively intact. Most importantly the Chrysler Hemi engine, now a very sought after power plant valued at over $50,000, was still mounted in its belly.

The coupe eventually ended up in the hands of a gentlemen named John Ridgeway of nearby Milford, Ohio. John had purchased it with plans to restore it to its original glory. Ridgeway graciously involved the Kanis family and consulted with them during the entire restoration process. He wanted everything to be period correct even down to the original artwork. Jim “The Dauber” Farr, now in his seventies, was brought in to letter and stripe the car just as he had done some forty years earlier when he was a young art school graduate. Even the Coates and Kanis logo was recreated on the doors.

When completed, the car looked exactly as it originally did back in 1969. And in all honesty, probably even better. The car was restored strictly to be show car and was never intended to be ran on the drag strip or street. But no corners were cut; the Gasser was rebuilt to race ready condition down to the M&H Racemaster slicks.

At the reveal, with a crowd gathered, the Hemi engine was started and the ground shook. The Coates and Kanis Gasser roared like the beast it once was. The car showed well and won its category in every local event it was entered in that first year. By 2012, the car was showing nationally. That summer, while at the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Ridgeway was approached by the NHRA. They requested that he bring the car to the NHRA Summer Nationals in Indianapolis on Labor Day weekend for a special presentation.

So on September 1, 2012, with both Jerry and John Kanis in attendance, the NHRA ceremoniously awarded the Coates and Kanis Gasser the title of “One of the Top Ten Hot Rods of All Time.” The NHRA stated that the car was one of the finest examples of what an American enthusiast would build in their back yard during the glory days of hot rodding. It was quite an honor for everyone involved.

The car now resides with me Bubz Winslow and I am converting the full blown race car to be run on the street, Lots of sympathetic changes but all done with the admiration and respect to this Green Lady’s racing history. Still a little way to go but, almost there. The Green lady ULTIMATE CONFUSION will very soon terrorize the streets of Bethlehem PA. under her new Caretaker and Owner for life..

About the AHRF Hot Rod of the Month Contest

The Hot Rod of the Month Contest is a special opportunity available only to Foundation Members. Active Members have a two-week period EACH MONTH in which to enter a car they own by providing photos and a description of their car. During the following two-week period, all Members, whether they have entered a car or not, can individually vote for their favorite car.

The car with the most Member votes at the end of each month will be the AHRF Hot Rod of the Month and will be featured on the AHRF website and on social networks.

At the end of each calendar year, the Advisory Board of the Foundation will select one car, as the AHRF Hot Rod of the Year, from that year’s Hot Rod of the Month winners. The Hot Rod of the Year will be given special publicity, and the car will be maintained in an ongoing catalog of AHRF Hot Rod of the Year winners.