Louis Hopper has a taste for rare automobiles. The retired Tinker Field welder and associate pastor of the Spirit Rain Christian Church in Shawnee owns cars most people under 60 have never even heard of. At his home in Tecumseh, Hopper showed me a Henry J. coupe assembled by Kaiser Frazer in 1952. Waiting for restoration the little car has body lines similar to French and British models of its day, but was built in Willow Run, Michigan. For a time it was sold as the Allstate by Sears and Roebuck and even in Japan under license to Mitsubishi.

Fascinating as the early American compact is, it's not Hopper's favorite ride. That affection is reserved for an enormous lipstick red 1932 F222 model Hupmobile. Because of lower sales during the Great Depression, Hopper's particular car is rare because few were built. Greatest production volume was during the Roaring Twenties. Hupmobile was popular with bootleggers because of mechanical reliability and large interior.

Hupmobile is one of the dozens of American car brands such as Chandler, Cord, Graham-Paige and Regal that were once household names. Today these cars are revered by serious collectors but are mostly unknown to the general public. After sharing photos of Mr. Hopper's Hupmobile with my friends via a Web site, one replied, "I always thought any references to 'Hupmobile' were jokes and that they didn't really exist." In fact, thousands of the automobiles were produced and sold around the world from 1908 to 1939.

"I had to take a road detour once and spotted the Hupmobile parked behind Mr. Hobbs' shop. It was March, 1987, and I bought it from him in June," Hopper said.

He's only the car's fourth owner and it has always been in either Shawnee or Tecumseh.

"There are lots of pictures of the car in Oklahoma Baptist University yearbooks with the kids dressed up as gangsters and such," he said.

Although the solid steel body was in good shape, Hopper had to haul the Hupmobile home on a trailer. It wasn't restored to safe driving condition until 2003.

"The wooden floorboards, running boards and seats were rotted out. I took the body off the frame and sandblasted it," Hopper said.

Finding Hupmobile parts has been an adventure.

"I had to have the windshield specially made," Hopper said. The grill shell and running boards were fabricated locally. Engine mounts and brackets were constructed and a modern electrical system was installed to replace the original six-volt juice.

"I found certain gaskets for the headlamps in Australia. A guy in the Hupmobile club in West Virginia had tail lamp lenses," Hopper said. He also found a club member who casts door handles and other trim in stainless steel.

"I made the hood ornament myself and it's an exact replica of the original," Hopper said.

The Hupmobile Club Inc. is headquartered in Lake Villa, Ill. and has members from Norway to New Mexico. A telephone conversation with President Jerry Robinson revealed just how passionate collectors of the old cars can be. Members convened last year in Topeka, Kan., to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Hupmobile's first year of production. Hopper was one of the few who drove his car there under its own power, rather than transport it on a trailer.

"The exterior of my car has fooled even some of the staunch only-original guys. It's not until I raise the hood that they see it has a 350 Chevy V-8, power steering, brakes and air conditioning."

Then the secret is out that it's a Hot Rod Hupmobile.