Gold Digger

By Brad Jones

When most people cast their eyes upon Tammy Ray's hot rod, Gold Digger, they are awestruck — and speechless.  

But soon after, the first words out of their mouths are often, 'What do you do to afford such an extravagant car?'

Her answer: 'I own a gold mine.'

While those who don't know Ray may think she's kidding, others  know it's true. Not only do Tammy and her husband, Tony, build custom hot rods, but they own the Crisson Gold Mine, near Dahlonega, Georgia.

"I tell them I'm a true gold digger and that's my nickname, too, kinda, sorta."

And, she really does dig, financing the car with her personal cut of the profits earned from the gold mine.  

In 2010, Ray was the first woman to ever win the Ridler award for Gold Digger, a modified 1933 Ford Phaeton. Presented at Detroit Autorama every year, the Don Ridler Memorial Award is the most prestigious prize in the hot-rodding world — and has been since the  mid-1950s.

As its namesake suggests, the car is painted gold, with modified fenders and real one-ounce gold nuggets mounted on both sides of the manifold. Half-ounce nuggets adorn the rear brake calipers.

But, even without the gold, the hot rod is a truly a treasure trove of beauty and power. It's a work of art, right down to the finest details and breathtaking to behold. You really have to see it to believe it. The car is not a rebuilt factory original, but is a custom-built hot rod, with many unique features.

"It's all hand-built. It's pretty much a one-of-a-kind automobile. It is chopped, channeled, lowered, with one-off wheels and a one-off steering wheel. The wheels resemble drill bits. Being in the mining industry, I wanted to go with that theme. Every piece on the car is hand-built. Nothing is bought and put on. The interior is leather with like a waterfall console through the middle of it," Ray said.

"The custom one-off fuel injection system that I designed is crossover air intake. With the Ridler award, you really have to envision what you want the car to look like from drawings. The only thing we had was the chassis and the drawing and I had it built from the ground up. Really, there are other cars like Gold Digger, but they don't have fenders and they don't have the tops on 'em," she said.

Gold Digger took Ray three-and-a-half years to complete and not a second too early for the Autorama show.

"We finished it the night before at 10 o'clock. That night, we were leaving the shop in Canton, Georgia and we had to be in Detroit, Michigan by 2 o'clock the next afternoon. So, it was one of those nightmare things," she said.  

But, the nightmare soon faded into a dream when she won the Ridler award. Although she has had the Gold Digger appraised, Ray is reluctant to stick a price tag on it. "To me, it's priceless. I don't really want to put a price on it."  

How the dream began

Ray's fascination with hot rods was borrowed from Tony, who owned a '65 Ford Falcon when they were dating, more than 20 years ago.

"He's always has a passion for cars and he kinda got me into it ... He bought me a T-bucket ," she said.

To Ray, admittedly a tomboy, cars were no different than gold mining, another traditionally male-dominated business.

Not long after she brought home the T-bucket 1934 Ford Coupe Rat Rod, Ray began to soup it up.

When she took her new wheels on the road to tour the hot-rod circuit, Ray soon realized that she would have to up her game if she wanted to make the big leagues.  

"We found out that if you want to make it to the big shows, that you have to start out with a fresh car that nobody has ever seen before," she said.  

Ray was no longer satisfied with just restoring a 1933 factory-built automobile. She wanted something more. Whether ether it's running a gold mine, excelling at martial arts or custom-building hot rods, Ray, who holds a black belt in karate, has to go for the gold.

"In anything I do, I get competitive," she said.  

Her first hot rod  

Before Gold Digger, Ray built a 1934 Ford Speedstar.

"It was more of a kit car. We'd seen 1933 Speedstars and cars like that and I just liked the way they looked with the low profile and all that," she said.

In 2006, Ray made it to Detroit with the Speedstar and earned Great 8 honors. That's when she discovered she was the first woman to ever compete for the Ridler award. And, before the couple even made it back to Georgia, Tammy's gears were already spinning.

"I said, 'Hey, wait a minute. I'm the first woman to ever compete for the Ridler award?' We gotta sell this car, so I can build me another one'. Tony, still basking in the glow of Tammy's success at the show and realizing how much effort she had put into the Speedstar, got cold feet. He began to sputter and stall at Tammy's suggestion. After all, they still had a gold mine to run.

Finally, he said, 'We can't do that, Tammy.' But, with all cylinders fired, Tammy already had her pedal to the metal on her next project — Gold Digger. "I wanted to go a further step. And, to win the Ridler award, that's really what you have to do — customize it," she said.

Tony soon realized there was no stopping her. She dug in her heels and was more determined than ever to build a car that would win the prize.

"I said, 'Oh yes, we are! I'm gonna win me the The Ridler.' "

"And, I did it!"

Brad Jones is the Managing Editor of Gold Prospectors magazine. He can be reached at bjones@goldprospectors.org.

- Article as featured in the May/June 2012 issue of Gold Prospectors magazine