"Roy kept telling me, 'Come up with a theme. '"

Roy was right. Great street rods, high-buck, low-buck, pro-built, or homebuilt, follow a theme. It might be as simple as '50s styling or it might be as imaginative as this 1932 Ford three-window coupe, built for Larry Carter by Roy Brizio Street Rods in South San Francisco.

Larry and Roy had collaborated on several other cars in the past. Those include a Deuce roadster and a 1934 Ford woodie. In 2009, they teamed up to take a theme to the next level. "What would Enzo do?," was the hypothetical question. A dark red 1933 Ford roadster with the soul (and engine, gauges, and interior) of a Ferrari was the tangible answer.

Work began on the coupe in the summer of 2015. Following Roy's charge to "come up with a theme," and inspired by the success of the 1933, Larry got the idea to inject this latest rod with some Lincoln flavor. "After all," Larry explains, "a Lincoln is an upgraded Ford."

Deuces are something of a signature vehicle for Roy Brizio Street Rods and this full-fendered three-window was built from a steel Brookville body. Rootlieb provided a steel 1932 Ford 25-louver one-piece hood, and a stainless steel insert from Dan Fink Metalworks fills the grille shell. Andrik Albor and Jack Stratton, two of Brizio's talented fabricators, performed the chop, taking a just-right 3 inches out of the coupe top. Guy Ruchonnet put his touch to the rest of the sheetmetal, perfecting it prior to paint.

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The paint and the wheel covers are the first visual clues to the coupe's Lincoln alter ego. The wheel covers are from a 1957 Lincoln Premiere. The paint keeps people guessing unless they recognize it as Rose Metallic, a 1958 Lincoln color. Darryl Hollenbeck at Vintage Color Studio in Concord, California, painted the coupe using PPG Envirobase products. A subtle black pinstripe was added to highlight the beltline bead.

Finishing touches to the exterior include headlights from SO-CAL Speed Shop and LED 1932 taillights from Johnson's Hot Rod Shop. The swan neck side mirrors are from SO-CAL as well. Front and rear bumpers and door handles came from Bob Drake Reproductions. Sherm's Custom Plating in Sacramento took care of chrome.

Plated and polished components were used extensively on the chassis as well. The Brizio-built frame is fully boxed and beefed up with a 1-1/2-inch tube X-member. Kugel Komponents front and rear independent suspension parts, including coilover shocks and antiroll bars at both ends, upgrade the performance of Larry's "upgraded Ford." Other practical performance improvements include rack-and-pinion steering and Wilwood disc brakes; a Wilwood master cylinder and proportioning valve are pumbed to 12-inch front and 10-inch rears rotors. Those Premier wheel covers dress up 15x7 and 15x9 steel wheels from Wheel Vintiques. Retro-style 560-15 and 820-15 wide-whitewall tires are from Coker Tire.

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Larry told us that he was originally hoping to continue the Lincoln theme with a Lincoln engine to power his Deuce. As it turned out, he was not able to locate one that was suitable for the project. However, a 402ci Ford engine from Roush Performance is a more-than-satisfactory alternative. As set up in the coupe, the engine is rated at just below 400 hp. That's more than the Ferrari engine in Larry's 1933 roadster (in stock form) and definitely plenty of power for pulling the 1932 coupe—and the original 1956 Continental Mark II valve covers dressing up the Roush aluminum cylinder headers keep the Lincoln theme going under the hood. An Edelbrock intake manifold and 650-cfm carburetor feed the 402, topped with a Billet specialties 14-inch Vintage series air cleaner. Taylor wires carry spark from the MSD ignition to light the charge. Exhaust is drawn through Sanderson 1-5/8-inch headers to Jack Stratton's 2-1/4-inch custom exhaust system corked by Stainless Steel Specialties tube mufflers. To keep things cool, a Spal fan pulls air through a Walker brass radiator. A TREMEC TKO600 transmission with a Modern Driveline clutch and Lokar shifter backs up the 402. A Driveline Service driveshaft and 3.70 rear gears with limited slip deliver torque to the rear wheels.

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The Lincoln theme is strongest inside the car. Automotive interior designer Sid Chavers has contributed to many Brizio projects, and his work on Larry's coupe is amazing. The custom bench seat was upholstered in two shades of rose leather with cloth inserts. Chavers used authentic Lincoln fabric, stitching it with a button tuft pattern that resembles 1960 Lincoln upholstery. The combination was repeated on the custom door panels.

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The steering wheel is from a 1947 Lincoln and the shifter knob features the Lincoln star design. An engine-turned 1932 Lincoln dash insert was added to the Brookville dash and filled with blackface gauges built for the car by Classic Instruments. A tach is mounted on the ididit tilt steering column. A below-the-dash panel was fabricated to house controls for the Vintage Air A/C system. The retractable billet vents are from Moal Coachbuilders. Jim Vickery at Brizio's installed the Enos Custom Components wiring system.

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Larry's Lincoln-themed three-window was completed a few months before the 2017 Grand National Roadster Show, where it was one of six or seven street rods in the Brizio booth. Unlike during the GNRS, the Deuce is no longer "for display purposes only." It was built to drive. Larry's wife, Juana, insists on it. Juana helped select the coupe's Rose Metallic paint, and nicknamed the car "Miss Lila Rose." When the Carters get the urge to take a cruise in Los Gatos, California, in one of the 70 cars in Larry's collection, he knows what Juana will say: "Let's take Miss Lila Rose."