1953 Leson Simca Special

Progress is not always a good thing. In the early 1950s, if you wanted to go racing in America you could build yourself a car or have one professionally constructed to your exact specifications. Sure, that meant some homebuilt, crude and dangerous machines were flying around racing circuits, but it also meant that some one-of-a-kind “American Special” masterpieces were born.

Seymour “Chick” Leson was a serious sports car guy. In the 1950s, he raced an OSCA MT4, a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, a Porsche 550, an AC, some Alfas, and even a Maserati 150S. And he was apparently very good. In April of ’54, he drove an OSCA MT4 1350 to victory at Pebble Beach, beating John von Neumann’s Porsche 550, Cy Yedor’s MG TC Special, Ken Miles’ R-1, and Pete Lovely’s Volkswagen-Porsche. But before all that, he raced a very special American Special, which was conjured up based on what Leson believed a racing machine should be.