Roth Mysterion: Ed Roth’s twin-engined show rod

The Mysterion is one of the custom hot rods built by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, the Southern California artist, pinstriper and custom car builder behind Rat Fink. Completed in 1963, it was a twin Ford engined show rod, built for the custom car and hot rod show circuit.

Roth Mysterion at a glance

Based on one source: the English Wikipedia article on Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, which mentions the Mysterion only in passing. The individual Roth cars have no Wikipedia articles of their own.

History of the Roth Mysterion

A twin-engined show rod

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, born in Beverly Hills in 1932, was an artist, cartoonist, illustrator, pinstriper and custom car designer and builder, and one of the key figures of Southern California’s Kustom Kulture and hot rod movement of the late 1950s and 1960s. The Mysterion was one of the hot rods he built for the show circuit, and it was unusual among them for carrying two Ford engines.

Among Roth’s show cars

The Mysterion was built in 1963, between the Beatnik Bandit of 1961 and the Orbitron of 1964, and was followed by the Road Agent in 1965. These cars travelled the custom car and hot rod shows of the mid-1960s together with Roth’s airbrushed “Weirdo” T-shirts, which he had begun selling at shows and in the pages of Car Craft from 1958.

The model-kit years

In 1962 the Revell model company began selling plastic models of Roth’s cars, and between 1963 and 1965 it also made kits of his monsters, from Rat Fink to Mr. Gasser. Revell continues to re-issue Roth’s Monsters and Kustom Car kits. Mattel’s first Hot Wheels range of 1968 included another Roth car, the Beatnik Bandit, among its first sixteen die-cast models.

Design and features

• Twin Ford power: the Mysterion was the twin-engined car among Roth’s hot rods.
• Built for shows: a show rod meant for the custom car and hot rod circuit rather than the street.
• Mid-series car: it sits between the Beatnik Bandit of 1961 and the Orbitron of 1964, with the Road Agent following in 1965.
• Part of a merchandising line: Roth’s cars were modelled in plastic by Revell from 1962 and the kits are still re-issued.

Roth Mysterion versions

• 1963 show car: the twin-engined original built by Roth.
• Revell Kustom Car kit: a plastic model in the Roth range, re-issued by Revell.
• Later Roth show rods: the Orbitron of 1964 and the Road Agent of 1965 followed the same show-car idea.

The Mysterion belongs with two other Roth show cars on this site, the Orbitron and the Outlaw. More customs are in the Roth collection.

Sources

• Ed Roth, English Wikipedia: builder, year, engines, model kits