Jim Ewing’s Texas T - No Brakes, No Shocks

If you’re any kind of a car person there are certain images that are just imprinted on your retina. I have dozens but one is a Don Emmons shot of Jim Ewing pulling a wheelie in his ‘Texas T’ bucket in the 1969 Street Rod Pictorial. Twenty years later Jim and I became good friends until he was unfortunately killed in an airplane crash but not before he told me great stories of gatecrashing the T into the Pomona drags shouting, “No brakes.” Jim also went on to found the Super Bell Axle Co., and in turn the suspension company Back then, Jim’s plastic bucket had tiny Hurst-Airheart front brakes to stop the skinny 12-spoke magnesium American Racing wheels but these days it has skinny wires and no front brakes. These days? Yes, Jim’s Texas T has been restored and is back pounding asphalt sans front brakes! T-buckets were all the rage in the 60s when hot rod luminaries such as Pete Chapouris, Gary Lorenzini, Dick Randall and Bob Hines had a club called Vintage Tin. Like most bucke