Most every family has a fascinating old car story—they make our world go around. Here’s the tale of Jon Arneson and his hand-built ’50s sports car.

This great little story came to us via our old friend Erik Arneson, VP of media relations at the Fox Sports network and the author of Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend. If you want to learn more about M/T, called by Hot Rod magazine the greatest hot rodder who ever lived, here’s your source.

Erik’s grandfather, Henry “Bud” Arneson, operated Arneson Chevrolet, a modest car dealership in Hudson, Wisconsin, a city of 12,000 just across the St. Croix River from St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1954, Bud’s son Jon Arneson was 16 years old, and naturally the teenager was in need of some stylish wheels.

Arneson Chevrolet Hudson, WI

Jon’s hand-crafted speedster was built by Lloyd V. Kester, a mechanic at Arneson Chevrolet. Starting with a 1941 Ford, the original body was discarded and a new structure was built up with electrical conduit bent to shape, then covered with sheet aluminum obtained from the local refrigerator plant. Superleggera construction, Wisconsin style.

The inspiration for the design came from the famed Mechanix Illustrated cover story of November 1951, “The MI Sportster.” This magazine article spawned countless homebuilt sports cars and specials in the 1950s, and also played a role in birthing the kit car movement in America.

Mechanix Illustrated November 1951

In the lead photo at the top of this page, also shown below, 16 year-old Jon looks sharp in a suit and tie behind the wheel of his personal sports car. In family lore, he’s on his way to a high school dance. By the way, one of the two air cleaners protruding through the hood was a fake, tacked on to give the service department special a high-performance look. The Ford flathead V8 powertrain was otherwise stock, apparently.

Jon Arneson age 16 

Now 76, Jon has fond memories of the car and its construction. “The seats were from a Jeep and reupholstered,” he recalls. “I drove the car—just the frame—sitting on a wooden box out a dike to the old bridge. The box wasn’t fastened to the frame.  It made for an interesting ride.”

Here’s one more family snapshot of the sports car, with Jon and his younger sister, Candy Arneson.

Jon and Candy Arneson