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Keith Moon drove a Ford T-Bucket Roadster!

Hot Rods and Rock n ‘Roll are two of the greatest and best inventions of the 20th century. They seem to be soldered like two sides of the same coin! I guess since they were both practically made up by unruly American kids as self-expressive statements, they have to be magnetically linked! But not all good music and cool cars are American. The British have given us a lot of both. In particular, I’ve always been drawn to the music of “Who”. Most people think of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey when the group is mentioned. Me, I think back to the early days and The Who’s first drummer, Keith Moon. Now most people know it was a bit wild. What most people don’t know is that he also liked cars. Not just anyone because either! Keith Moon drove a Ford T-bucket roadster! This is the story of Keith and his cool, anti-American hot rod.

So what is a T-cube? Well, the T-bucket roadster is a hot rod built from a Ford Model T production car (or Model T replicas). That’s right, these wonderful hot rods are modified, custom, and custom versions of Henry’s mass-produced car; became famous for being an accessible car that Mr. Ford made in any color you wanted, as long as that color was black!

But as I mentioned at the beginning, this article is about a specific guy and his specific car, so let me continue with the story as it was told to me. In the early days of The Who, not all of the music they recorded was original. Like most early bands, they covered other people’s material and gave it their unique touch. Well, someone thought it would be a good idea for the Who to cover a Jan and Dean song called “Bucket T”. This song has been covered by at least three bands that I know of. Frankly, The Who’s version is the ultimate in listening ability as far as I’m concerned. Which goes to show that not all creative ideas should see the light of day. As an added touch, to really ensure the limited success of this version, Keith took a rare turn as lead singer! Ringo Starr eats your heart!

I can only assume that Keith actually took this photo into the limelight a little seriously. He ended up deciding that he needed the car to go along with the song. In true wild style, Moon found a finished car (built by legendary British hot rodder Mickey Bray) and bought it to add to his existing group of vehicles. The only fly in the salve was that Keith was no longer in possession of a valid driver’s license due to bad boy antics on his part! Basically at the same time Keith was also doing his own version of Sammy Hagar singing “I can’t drive 55!”. So there you have it! This is how Moon got his T-cube.

So what about the car? Like I said, this was a built car. Bray, who was a heavyweight on the British hot rod scene and later also a founder of the UK’s National Street Rod Association, originally built this fiberglass-bodied T-bucket with a small Daimler Hemi V8. I’ve seen “before” photos painted red with white pins and a white rag blouse. The car received a makeover at some point. Its engine was swapped out for a 273-cubic-inch Mopar mill and then given a psychedelic paint job. It was in this finished state that the legendary drummer got it done. Oh yeah … yeah, it was right hand drive!

This story just goes to show that not all historically significant hot rods were built on American soil by good Yankee ingenuity. Truth be told, the craze for building T-cubes developed almost simultaneously in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia / New Zealand. Rockers on all sides of the “puddle” have been bitten by having one outside of the radical walks to complement their radical lifestyles.

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