La Dawri
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La Dawri Coachcraft based in Long Beach and later Los Alamitos, California, was one of the largest fiberglass sports car body companies in the United States during the rebody/specials craze of the 1950s and 1960s. The company got its name from its founder, Canadian Leslie Albert Dawes (Born July 7th 1933 - Died 2002).
[edit] LaDawri Conquest
The Conquest and Daytona were among the most popular models offered with a wheel base of 100". The Conquest was a two seat open roadster introduced in 1957 followed in 1958 by the Quest, a smaller version to fit smaller chassis. The Conquest was featured on the cover of Road and Track, July 1957 issue. The Daytona and the smaller Sebring were similar to the Conquest/Quest but with a single grill opening and front end styling. All the LaDawri roadster models had optional removal hardtops. A hardtop mold for the Conquest and Daytona models is being constructed with production scheduled for Summer 2007 available through LaDawri.com.
In 1961, Les Dawes/LaDawri bought the entire Victress Company. The Victress C-3 (coupe) became the Castillian and the C-2, a smaller version became the Sicilian. The S-1A became the Vixen and the S-4 became the Cavalier.
From Jim Savage they took over production of the Savage and renamed it the Centurion 21 with its retractable hard top.
in 1965, the last body introduced was the Formula Libre, with front or mid-engined layout. LaDawri offered to adapt it to take any running gear that the customer chose. At least two bodies were layed up for PBS racing. One of the cars is rumored to have been shipped to Japan. After the company closed, Les used the Formula Libre molds to build one prototype called the Vendetta. He built the car on a VW chassis for production in Canada. On a trip back from Canada the car was destroyed and Les was injured when a semi-truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and ran over the towed car. The article is available on LaDawri.com.
The Dawes family has been located and recently celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the LaDawri Conquest at Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance. The LaDawri Conquest was among many others in the Fiberglass Sport Cars 1951-60, class.
