Talking with famed Indianapolis chassis builder

A. J. Watson, the question arises about the front, twin air inlets—the signature of the Watson Roadster. The first four Watson Roadsters, of 1956–1958, had a single air inlet and chrome grille, so why the change? Surely it had some advantage. Was it the result of wind-tunnel testing?

“Naw,” says Watson. “We went to Daytona in 1959 with Rodger Ward and he crashed. I sent the car back to California and told (fabricator) Wayne Ewing to straighten the nose. He straightened it and made a twin-holer out of it and didn’t tell me. So it was just his idea and it stuck with us and we had it ever since.”