Owen E Gibson

The Townsend Typhoon MK 2.

Owen E. Gibson was the product of a racing and fabrication upbringing. From a young age, Gibson’s family always had a dirt track car on the raceway or in repair in his hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Leading to his immersion in the local race culture. Gibson’s mechanical and fabrication expertise was passed down from both Grandfathers, who were blacksmiths, and his father, a machinist, and auto mechanic for 50 years.

Gibson’s lifelong passion took shape in his first rebuild, a Morris Minor in 1959. He later went on to put his Dad’s retired Chevy race motor in his high school 1961 Studebaker, and an all-steel 1923 Ford Model T bucket was his first full rebuild project, all done before he completed high school.

In 2000, Gibson established T2V Racing and Restoration (T2V). The shop was opened upon finding a discarded fiberglass shell among rusted-out car frames, making residence in a forgotten pasture in the dusty cow town of Arivaca, Arizona. The body was the 1957 Townsend Typhoon MK 2, his first restoration project under the T2V banner. With his kids out of the house, his life-long love of everything automotive resurfaced with a vengeance.

T2V was a reflection of the passion and expertise Gibson had developed through his life as an auto-lover, mechanic, builder, and engineer. His principles where what transcend the automotive works he is so passionate about and were the foundation of T2V.

Unfortunately, Owen passed away in July of 2018 after a long battle with cancer. Before his passing, Gibson considered himself a specialized mechanic who loved the history, time-honored fabrication, and restoration of traditional hot rods and vintage racing specials as embodied in his spectacular finished products including Townsend Typhoon MK 2 (a.k.a. “The Purple People Eater”) and the Sorrell-Manning Special SR-100.

Owen E Gibson's Cars

The Townsend Typhoon MK 2
The Townsend Typhoon MK 4