Phil Hill's First Car Crush: A 1931 Pierce Arrow

As a youngster growing up in Santa Monica, Phil Hill was in thrall to the 1931 Pierce-Arrow LeBaron Convertible owned by his Aunt Helen. She let him sit on her lap and handle the oversized wooden steering wheel as they cruised empty canyon roads. It was a car of stately luxury with an outdoor seat for chauffeurs and a wood-lined passenger cabin furnished with a lamb's wool rug and a beaver skin lap robe. In 1954, during a hiatus from racing, Hill meticulously restored the car in his aunt's garage. He still owned it when he died in 2008. Note: the above photograph was published Fuller Brush Magazine in 1954.