August 25, 2009: A brief look at one of the more unique cars ever to come through the driveway at Phil Reilly & Co, on the day that Jay Eitel brought his Ford hot rod by for the crew to ogle. Jay was an engineer and inventor, best known for creating the cherry picker, those trucks with a bucket on an extendable boom that are most widely seen working on utility lines these days.

This project had been started when he was a very young man, the chassis being photographed in 1940, with the mid-mounted Ford Flathead V8 already in place. Stalled out for decades while Jay lived his life, it finally came together at the beginning of the twenty first century.

I think he was 92 years old at the time of this visit, and still just bubbling over with enthusiasm. He passed away in 2012, and from what I could find, the car now lives at the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, TN.

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Photos: Rolly Boorman

I dug up a few other pictures from an earlier time, plus one of the car in paint.

Eitel was also known in the car community for an insane Chevy Corvair project that he completed, mounting a Jaguar V-12 in the front of the car, with a Pontiac Tempest transaxle at the rear. There’s a detailed write up over at www.corvaircorsa.com

And a long interview found on YouTube where he discusses all of the above and more…