1934 Dodge – Jerry Briese’s coupe can confuse

Did Jerry Briese intentionally set out to dumbfound car guys when he selected a 1934 Dodge for a hot rod project? No, but it does anyway. He first built a Hemi-powered Model T coupe for his son in 2005. “We called it a 1927 ½,” he laughed. Jerry had been a self-professed motorhead since his high school days. After they finished the T, “I built a ’41 Chevy coupe myself; it was more of a tail-dragger.”

In 2009, hankering for a hot rod next, he knew what he wanted before he started his search. “It had to be a body with suicide doors, so that I could build a fenderless coupe. The suicide door qualification meant that my candidate was limited to 1933-34 bodies.” During a search via the electronic superhighway, Jerry found not one, but two key components. It was not a Ford. Rather, a ’34 coupe originally built back when the brand was sold as a “Dodge Brothers” vehicle. “I didn’t know, or recognize a Dodge of that era.” He learned that while they looked the same back in the ‘30s, Plymouth was outselling its little Dodge brother brand by 20:1. Through Jerry’s research, he deduced that there may have been as few as 5,300 Dodge coupes built in 1934. “It was a rock pile rescue in Colorado,” describes Briese. “Just a shell with doors, trunk lid, and thankfully, the window actuators.” He was intrigued with the coupe’s profile, as the stock roof height appears to be chopped. It remains uncut.

Read the rest of this article in Issue #42 John D’Agostino’s Pantheon