Moss Excalibur? Not Quite…

Most don’t know that there is a small group of us with American made cars who rely on Moss Motors to help keep our vehicles on the road. I’m fortunate to have one of those, a 1966 Excalibur SSK roadster. The entire name is necessary to distinguish it as one of the early 97 doorless cars Brooks Stevens and his family business built in Milwaukee. Early X’s came with an assortment of Lucas electricals and we all well know where to go for replacements half a century later!

In fact, my “Flame Thrower” driving lights are branded with cast “MOSS” emblems atop them. Since they were apparently added after production and probably while my car was in Europe where it seemed to have spent most if not all it’s life before being repatriated, I was curious about them and contacted Moss Motors. For a while, back in the day, Lucas allowed today’s supplier of all-things-Lucas to sell the lights self-branded after Lucas stopped distributing them.

Now, what of my X? It was sold to a young man in a suburb of New Orleans. It seems rather ironic, since I live in Louisiana, for it to come so close to “home” after its distant travels. The car next popped up in a 1971 French movie, where it was run into a large haystack by a couple young women. After years of storage, it was eventually bought by a Swiss gentleman who totally restored it and drove it around his homeland for decades. I’ve receipts of it being maintained by a Ferrari/Maserati shop during that time. Trust me, you don’t want to know what a small-block Chevy oil filter cost there. When the owner moved to Florida for business purposes he spent 2,675 Euros to have his X shipped back to the States on the Yorktown Express. My research suggests that perhaps one in three doorless cars ended up overseas but this is the only one I’ve been able to verify coming back to our shores.

Being a life-long fan of doorless Excaliburs this one came into my hands when the “importer” returned to Europe after a several year stay. Since it needed some freshening I turned to Moss Motors, the Excalibur company (still in Milwaukee and owned by long time employee Alice Preston), and Studebaker International since it was factory built on a Studebaker chassis. I appreciate all the parts and assistance from one and all! Many, many THANKS Moss Motors!

By Barlow Soper