1959 La Dawri Firestar

Road racing in America started just after World War II and rapidly grew into a phenomenon. While many of the cars competing on American asphalt were expensive jobs built in Europe, a great number of enthusiasts disappeared into the garage to build their own road racing specials. They bent tubes, hopped up American iron, and then thought about how to encase their creation. Making a body was not easy in those days and shade-tree mechanics often struggled with this portion of the project. From this need was born the cottage industry of fiberglass body manufacturing. Bill Tritt of Glasspar was the first to do it and Bill Devin was the most prolific, but somewhere in the middle of the movement was Les Dawes of Long Beach, California.

Dawes started La Dawri Coachcraft in 1956 and produced almost 700 bodies among 19 various models up until 1965. His most popular models were the Conquest and Daytona, both two-seat sports car bodies available as a kit for $395. Print advertisements for these skins ran everywhere, and they sold in triple digit numbers. As a result, the Conquest and Daytona remain relatively well known, even today. At the other end of the La Dawri spectrum is the Firestar. Built in minuscule numbers, the Firestar was conceived as an all-out racing shell for small bore road racers. And this was arguably La Dawri’s most interesting offering.