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The new GMP Peachstate Special Salt Flats Roadster is a “What if?” image. Why do I say this? Well, what if the Pierson Brothers had decided to make a roadster instead of a coupe to go after the speed record at Bonneville? And, what if Pork Chop and Paw-Paw, down there in Winder, Georgia, decided to build a slat flats roadster instead of a blown-Hemi Coupe? Then, we’d have something like the Peachstate Special. In the tradition of the salt flats Highboys that, even now, scream over the salt at Bonneville and El Mirage, the Peachstate Special lacks a roof—heck, it even lacks a windshield! With its tonneau cover installed, it sure is a strange looking beast. Would it go as fast as the original Pierson Brothers Coupe? It’s my guess it would—but only with the tonneau cover in place. Otherwise, it’d trap too much wind. There are drivers out there today regularly driving 4-banger roadsters at speeds exceeding 200 mph. I’d want a helmet with a full face shield, however, were I to drive a windshield-less roadster at those speeds, since the sound of my cheeks flapping in the wind would probably be deafening!
GMP has done its usual 5-star job on this dream roadster. Using the same body as the P-B Coupe, they neatly removed the roof. Everything under the hood, in the cockpit, and in the trunk is essentially the same, but with the following differences: The aircraft steering wheel has been replaced by a four-spoke round one. The gearshift has an additional bend at the top, and is shorter to stay below the cowl. The fabric (soft plastic on the P-B image) on the doors has been replaced with sheet aluminum. The gas tank and the instrument panel have been chromed. Last, a small, driver-only rollbar replaces the full-width rollbar of the coupe. When you lift either of the hood leaves, or the trunk lid, the view’s the same. The suspension hardware’s also identical.
Instead of the red-white-and-blue paint job, this image is painted in a gorgeous ruby metal-flake and gold color scheme. The 2D insignias on each of the doors have been replaced with 47D insignias. The only other lettering on the image are the words “Peachstate Special” on the nose shroud. The baby moon hubcaps have been left off the gold-painted wheels and the Firestone lettering is missing from the tires (though the Firestone logos remain). A license plate in the rear (not that this thing’s street-legal) reads “Georgia 55” on the top, “Peach State” on the bottom, with TL 426 in the middle. GMP’s little secret here is that the TL stands for GMP head honcho, Tom Long, and the 426 equals his birthday month and day (shades of Thomas Kinkade!). If you decide to send Tom a birthday card, don’t let on I told you the secret.
GMP’s efforts on its stable of salt flats racers has made a fan of me and I hope the trend continues. These images (the SoCal Coupe, the Pierson Brothers Coupe, the Pork Chop Coupe, and the Peachstate Roadster) have loads of detail and are beautifully done in the larger, 1:18 scale. They also ably capture the romance of a long-gone day when so many brave men, those “pioneers of speed,” took creations of their own design to Bonneville and El Mirage to streak across the salt—and into the record books.
(06/15/2005)
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