11/03: Gold Digger become first female-owned Ridler winner
-By Daniel Strohl
With a car named Gold Digger, one wouldn’t think its owner would be pleased with silver. Such was the case, however, when Tammy Ray of Dahlonega, Georgia, took home the decidedly non-gilded Ridler trophy this past weekend at the Detroit Autorama.
Ray’s win marks a first in major hot rod award history: While other women have owned Ridler-winning hot rods with their husbands, never before has a woman won the Ridler as a solo owner. The car that earned Ray that distinction was a fiberglass-bodied 1933 Ford phaeton — painted gold, of course — built by Ted Thomas at T&T Customs in Canton, Georgia.
Thomas told Autoweek that the build took three years and that he and Ray could have debuted Gold Digger at last year’s Autorama, but they wanted to spend another year perfecting the car. Though T&T-built cars have made it to the Ridler Great Eight finalist round in the past, the Gold Digger is the first car he built to have won the award.
With a car named Gold Digger, one wouldn’t think its owner would be pleased with silver. Such was the case, however, when Tammy Ray of Dahlonega, Georgia, took home the decidedly non-gilded Ridler trophy this past weekend at the Detroit Autorama.
Ray’s win marks a first in major hot rod award history: While other women have owned Ridler-winning hot rods with their husbands, never before has a woman won the Ridler as a solo owner. The car that earned Ray that distinction was a fiberglass-bodied 1933 Ford phaeton — painted gold, of course — built by Ted Thomas at T&T Customs in Canton, Georgia.
Thomas told Autoweek that the build took three years and that he and Ray could have debuted Gold Digger at last year’s Autorama, but they wanted to spend another year perfecting the car. Though T&T-built cars have made it to the Ridler Great Eight finalist round in the past, the Gold Digger is the first car he built to have won the award.
