The three pictures were so bad, no one wanted to guess as to rather or not it was "true" Burro. I went and looked at it the next weekend on the way to the Big Bear Manx Run and ended up buying it. Here's what I know about it so far.
The Burro was purchased used by Bill Isom in 1964. He had it for fortysomething years before selling it to his friend, Desi, who stored it next to his house in Hesperia for a few years. Bill remembers racing it in the 60's with Malcom Smith in the Baja 1000, but he doesn't remember who owned it before he did. (He is looking for whatever documentation he may have on the car, so I hope to get additional information soon.) There is a plate welded on the front beam with the VIN? number DRF112918, which seems like it's missing a couple of numbers to me. If Bill can find an old registration card or something that'll help me figure out at least how the title was held. There may be more numbers on the frame but I won't know for sure until I start taking it apart.
This looks to be a very early car. The floor is rotting wood except the driver and passenger footwell area where some sheet metal has been added. The original roll bar has the burro shape to it and is in tact, with another bar mimiking it about four inches behind it, bridged with expanded metal. There is also a couple of bars bridged horizontally between the roll bar that acts an anchoring point for the back top portion of the seats, with a round bar right behind it for seat belt mounting. The nose is an added-on affair that Bill did himself, and the workmanship is excellent. The intersections of square tubing all have the trademark gussets that Tiny used wherever tubing came together. It has just a single tube along the back, instead of the 4" or so wide plate that I have on my other Burro. The steering brake is missing, but the round mount is there. The dash looks correct, as does the windshield, the gas tank, headlight mounts, pedal cluster, the under-the-hood frame work, and the spine running down the center of the car.
I want to publicly thank Doran for his vigilance and for bringing our attention to the ad. Thanks to his help, a fairly rare car will live to see another trail.
Here's the photos:
