Last night a motorhome pulling a huge enclosed trailer appeared in the RV park. As the “garage” door to the trailer opened I noticed a large group of rather noisy neighbors peering in, with jaws dropped. The trailer was literally a stacker trailer with a drop-dead gorgeous 1933 Roadster on the bottom and a Mini Cooper on the top. Bruce and Debra MacDowell build and show roadsters and are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, area for the big “Back to the 50s” car show.
Bruce and Debra own a construction company in San Diego, California. Debra runs the business and according to Debra, “Bruce plays.” Half of their shop is dedicated to the business and the other half to “play.” Currently, they have four completed roadsters and they are taking this one to shows across the country. The next stop is Des Moines, Iowa.
Debra drives the motorhome with the trailer about six to eight hours a day. They made the trip from San Diego to Minnesota in four days (much quicker than we would have!). Their only trouble was in Oklahoma during tornado warnings. They said it was hard to find a safe spot with a 65-foot rig! This is their seventh motorhome and they have RVed for more than 40 years.
The car is a 1933 Ford three-window coupe with a 2007 366, 6.0 all aluminum Corvette engine. Bruce has done all the mechanical work and has pretty much altered everything. Debra mentioned that the radiator is in the back and it runs water throughout the body to the engine to keep everything cool.
Bruce finished this one in January of this year, 2023, and has shown it at Pomona Grand National Roadster show. It won the “Best Altered” award in Sacramento and won “Magnificent Masterpiece” in Meguiar’s Good Guys Rod and Custom show. The detailing is amazing!
RVing and creating custom rods is more than a dream—it is a lifestyle for Bruce and Debra MacDowell. You never know who you will meet in the RV park!
All photos copyright Nanci Dixon 2023
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Thank you, Nanci! That’s a lot of trailer to tow. I hope they have an excellent braking system on their trailer. 🙂
Wow! Thank you for sharing the article and especially the photos!!
We were staying in the city park cg in Sayre, OK, when a motorhome and trailer drove into the pull-thru next to us. After setting up, they opened the trailer doors, lowered the ramp, and backed out a beautifully restored Ford Model A. Then they drove into town for dinner!
My 32 3 window coupe looked NOTHING like that.
Leave it for a couple years outside and it’ll be a Rat Rod.
Don’t think Henry Ford would approve.
As an incurable nit-picker, I must point out to you that this is not a “roadster.” A roadster is an open car. This is an amazing coupe.
Thanks for sharing Nanci. Part of the fun of traveling is seeing and experiencing new things. Always interesting to see what is in some of these giant rigs going down the road. Appreciate you sharing.
I think that is awesome! Yes Roy, back in ’33 these were built legal at those standards. I appreciate all those (including myself) that bring back the history and recreate beauty! Thanks for keeping it alive!
(p.s. It has to be legal in order to get license on it, RIGHT?!)
I love classic cars, and modifieds are especially interesting. This one is a beauty!
Hmmm…. funky old car that doesn’t meet highway safety standards that is stored in a trailer…. article content must be hard to come by.
Lighten up, Roy.
But it is currently licensed for the road, according to the license plate on the back of the car. Many folks enjoy classic car shows and travel extensively for that purpose. Good for them!!! Enjoy what makes you happy! Not someone else.
Really dude! That’s your take away from the article?
Yeah, what an awful day it is for all of us when we are forced to see the love and the investment of sweat, or share in the passion of another when it comes to life. The owners should just put silly car in their living room and never show it to anyone ever again. Next they will tell us it won them a prize at a car show or something.
WOW. Yet you read it.