Hot rods, street rods, kustoms and a few other things
Discussion
brizey said:
Blib said:
Excellent thread. Here's the only photo I have left of my '32 Ford.
Sorry to correct, but this sedan is a Model A Ford, not a `32. A`s were built between 1928-1931. 1932 Fords were a completely new car to the Ford range for that year and were built with a choice of a 4 or 8 (V8) cylinder motor. 4 cylinder equipped cars were designated as the "Model B", while (V)8 cylinder cars were designated as the "Model 18" 
It's an age thing I'm sure.
So I did a bit of thinking and a bit of reading around the 70s.
Obviously the muscle car thing had taken off in the latter half of the 60s, why screw around with one of those old rusty cars when you could go buy a fast car off the showroom floor ? Naturally many of the cars quickly found their way to the drag strip.
The cars were a progression from the old gassers, the nose high stance started to disappear, but the altered wheelbase stayed.. the cars were soon called "funny cars because, well, they looked kinda funny compared to the stock car..
60s funny car
These cars were big and heavy, soon the bodyshells were stripped of everything, from there it wasn't a huge leap to produce a one piece body in fibreglass that would fit over a full tube chassis, known as floppers, because the body flopped over the chassis. The bodies ended up being stretched, sectioned and generally cut about to suit the wheelbase of the chassis and to make them more aerodynamic.
A Mercury Cougar flopper
The funny cars were hugely popular in the 70s. The NHRA had a number of stock classes, the ultimate being pro-stock, it required a stock body & chassis and a gas (petrol) engine. So in many respects the close link between hot rods and drag racing became a bit tenuous.
Drag racing became more professional - more and more companies were using it as an advertising medium, which meant more and more money came to the sport.
Meantime, on the street, the number of hot rods was dwindling, customs and kustoms even more so. Magazines had moved to cover drag racing and drag cars.
The writers on Rod & Custom magazine organised a show in 1970, called The Street Rod Nationals hosted in Peoria, Illinois there were pleasantly surprised when 600 cars turned up. Half the idea of the show was to get lots of cars photographed for features for the magazine - it was a cheap way doing doing so, rather than travelling all over the country to do features on cars.
The first Street Rod Nationals, 1970
Leading up to the show hot rodders had been concerned about a number of issues - smog (emissions) and safety legislation were becoming concerning, hot ordders sometimes found it different to get insurance cover. What was needed was a national organisation to promote the hobby and look after some of the issues that hot rodders faced. As the street rod nationals was a meeting of like minded souls, they resolved to establish the National Street Rod Association (NSRA). The NSRA took over the running of the Street Rod Nationals and has held the show every year since, the show is currently held in early August in Louisville and attracts over 10,000 cars. Through the year they run events all over the USA.
Aerial image of the Street Rod Nationals
Nevertheless, Rod and Custom magazine closed its doors in 1971, a few issues were produced in 1972 but it was then merged with Hot Rod magazine. R&C wouldn't return in its own right until 1988.
As pointed out by Nick the American Graffiti movie rekindled some interest in hot rods and customs, magazines like Hot Rod and Street Rodder saw an upturn in sales.
Companies started appearing, selling components for hot rods - Pete & Jakes, Superbell Axles and Jerry Kugel were making parts, most would also build you an entire car. Fibreglass bodies started appearing, it was easier than finding an old wreck and fixing the rust (especially given the lack of patch panels).
Andy Brizio, a native of San Francisco figured that rather than just selling odd components it'd be better to put together an entire set that would make a while car, his 'Instant T' was born. Brizio is known as 'the rodfather' for his contributions to the hobby that inspired so many to build a car. His son, Roy followed family tradition and is well known for building high quality hot rods.
Andy Brizio's Instant T
Customs made a bit of a comeback too, the 50s cars were cheap by this time and the kustomers of the 50s like the Barris's, Gene Winfield and the Ayala bothers were still around to help make your car individual.
With the hobby healthy again the scene was set for a big upturn in the 80s that involve pro street, Boyd, billet and pastel paint..
Obviously the muscle car thing had taken off in the latter half of the 60s, why screw around with one of those old rusty cars when you could go buy a fast car off the showroom floor ? Naturally many of the cars quickly found their way to the drag strip.
The cars were a progression from the old gassers, the nose high stance started to disappear, but the altered wheelbase stayed.. the cars were soon called "funny cars because, well, they looked kinda funny compared to the stock car..
60s funny car
These cars were big and heavy, soon the bodyshells were stripped of everything, from there it wasn't a huge leap to produce a one piece body in fibreglass that would fit over a full tube chassis, known as floppers, because the body flopped over the chassis. The bodies ended up being stretched, sectioned and generally cut about to suit the wheelbase of the chassis and to make them more aerodynamic.
A Mercury Cougar flopper
The funny cars were hugely popular in the 70s. The NHRA had a number of stock classes, the ultimate being pro-stock, it required a stock body & chassis and a gas (petrol) engine. So in many respects the close link between hot rods and drag racing became a bit tenuous.
Drag racing became more professional - more and more companies were using it as an advertising medium, which meant more and more money came to the sport.
Meantime, on the street, the number of hot rods was dwindling, customs and kustoms even more so. Magazines had moved to cover drag racing and drag cars.
The writers on Rod & Custom magazine organised a show in 1970, called The Street Rod Nationals hosted in Peoria, Illinois there were pleasantly surprised when 600 cars turned up. Half the idea of the show was to get lots of cars photographed for features for the magazine - it was a cheap way doing doing so, rather than travelling all over the country to do features on cars.
The first Street Rod Nationals, 1970
Leading up to the show hot rodders had been concerned about a number of issues - smog (emissions) and safety legislation were becoming concerning, hot ordders sometimes found it different to get insurance cover. What was needed was a national organisation to promote the hobby and look after some of the issues that hot rodders faced. As the street rod nationals was a meeting of like minded souls, they resolved to establish the National Street Rod Association (NSRA). The NSRA took over the running of the Street Rod Nationals and has held the show every year since, the show is currently held in early August in Louisville and attracts over 10,000 cars. Through the year they run events all over the USA.
Aerial image of the Street Rod Nationals
Nevertheless, Rod and Custom magazine closed its doors in 1971, a few issues were produced in 1972 but it was then merged with Hot Rod magazine. R&C wouldn't return in its own right until 1988.
As pointed out by Nick the American Graffiti movie rekindled some interest in hot rods and customs, magazines like Hot Rod and Street Rodder saw an upturn in sales.
Companies started appearing, selling components for hot rods - Pete & Jakes, Superbell Axles and Jerry Kugel were making parts, most would also build you an entire car. Fibreglass bodies started appearing, it was easier than finding an old wreck and fixing the rust (especially given the lack of patch panels).
Andy Brizio, a native of San Francisco figured that rather than just selling odd components it'd be better to put together an entire set that would make a while car, his 'Instant T' was born. Brizio is known as 'the rodfather' for his contributions to the hobby that inspired so many to build a car. His son, Roy followed family tradition and is well known for building high quality hot rods.
Andy Brizio's Instant T
Customs made a bit of a comeback too, the 50s cars were cheap by this time and the kustomers of the 50s like the Barris's, Gene Winfield and the Ayala bothers were still around to help make your car individual.
With the hobby healthy again the scene was set for a big upturn in the 80s that involve pro street, Boyd, billet and pastel paint..
HaloGen8 said:
Ah "The Beast" What a 'car' this was. Is it still alive?
I took those photos yesterday evening! As you may know, the first incarnation of the Beast was red and looked a bit like a Mk. I Capri with a really long bonnet and a Rolls-Royce grille. Unfortunately, that was destroyed by fire, so a new fibreglass body was built which looked a bit like a Scimitar GTE with a really long bonnet and a Rolls-Royce grille.The story goes that John Dodd, the builder, was driving on the Autobahn when he overtook a Porsche driver. The Porsche driver proceeded to give Rolls a call to ask if he could buy their new model! Sadly, Rolls-Royce then decided to be snobby pricks and took Dodd to court, forcing him to remove the grille and replace it with one with his own initials.
ClassicMotorNut said:
HaloGen8 said:
Ah "The Beast" What a 'car' this was. Is it still alive?
I took those photos yesterday evening! As you may know, the first incarnation of the Beast was red and looked a bit like a Mk. I Capri with a really long bonnet and a Rolls-Royce grille. Unfortunately, that was destroyed by fire, so a new fibreglass body was built which looked a bit like a Scimitar GTE with a really long bonnet and a Rolls-Royce grille.The story goes that John Dodd, the builder, was driving on the Autobahn when he overtook a Porsche driver. The Porsche driver proceeded to give Rolls a call to ask if he could buy there new model! Sadly, Rolls-Royce then decided to be snobby pricks and took Dodd to court, forcing him to remove the grille and replace it with one with his own initials.
stephen300o said:
Nice van at Rochford classic car show today:
Thats '42 or '46 - '47 Ford. The grille has the nickname "jailhouse" because of the grille. The pickups have the same front end.A little bit more on the 70s..
1932, Florida. Donald Garlits is born, known better as Don he started drag racing in the 1950s, campaigning a series of cars he named swamp rat. He was the first man to break 170, 180, 200, 240 and 270mph records.
Don Garlits
In 1970 he was competing at an event at the famous Lions drag strip that was mentioned a page or two ago. The car (Swamp Rat 13) was running an experimental two speed transmission, in the final race it exploded on the start line, large pieces of shrapnel cut through the car's chassis, cutting the car in two. One piece severed part of Garlit's right foot, another piece went in to the crowd and seriously injured a spectator.
Accidents were common, but this was a big one. Many thought Garlits would retire, he had other ideas.
The problem he figured, was having the engine in front of the driver, if it was behind the driver would be much safer.
From what I can gather the idea of a rear engined car wasn't necessarily new, but no-one had dare to try it. Garlits set about building Swamp Rat 14, it worked and drag racing was changed forever.
The infamous Swamp Rat 13 accident
Swamp Rat 14
Garlits is a legend. On a recent work trip to the USA I happened on a few minutes of TV coverage from Bradenton, Florida. A team were trying to make an all electric dragster go 200mph and were testing out the car. In the end it "only" went 184mph, a new record. The driver? non other than Garlits himself, so at the age of 82 he is still breaking records.
If you are ever in Orlando on holiday forget going to see Mickey and take a trip up to Ocala where the Garlits museum is, I promise you its worth the trip.
As the 80s began, on the street the influence of the pro stock drag classes was becoming evident - street machines started appearing, muscle and mid sized cars with built engines and strip chassis sported large rear tyres for grip.
Early pro street Nova
It didn't take long before the style came to the street rods, none more famous than Fat Jack Robinson's '46 Ford. This car was very influential, sadly it no longer exists, after being destroyed in an on track accident.
The fat attack '46 Coupe
Roadgoing street rods started sporting roll cages, spartan aluminium sheet interiors and skinny front wheels that were completely as odds with the wide rears.
Somewhere around this time a machinist at Disneyland quit his job and started building street rods from his home garage, his name was Boyd Coddington. His work caught the idea of a race car and hot rod builder by the name of John Buttera. Both had a similar outlook, to drag these old cars up to date - bumpers were removed, hinges changed to pivot inside the car, anything that looked a bit awkward or disturbed the lines of the car got the chop. As experienced machinists they both fabricated parts from alloys or aluminium, wheels, rear view mirrors, gear shifters, even suspension equipment.
John Como's '29 roadster won the AMBR in 1980, car built by John Buttera
Coddington won AMBR in 1985 with this phaeton, built for Larry Murray
Probably the biggest legacy from this style and era is the billet wheel. Boyd had started making wheels from solid stock, no longer did your car have to have the same cast wheel as everyone else.
Another hugely influential car was the ZZ Top Eliminator coupe. The car was used in several of the band's videos. In case anyone hadn't figured it out yet hot rods were cool again.
The Eliminator coupe, a '33 Ford
Meantime in Northern California a familiar name was back - Roy Brizio, son of Andy open his shop and quickly gained a reputation for high quality work that continues to this day. In 1987 he won AMBR with a V12 Ferrari powered '32 roadster. The car was probably 10 years ahead of its time
James Ells's Ferrari powered '32
Also in the same area, 1987 saw a new national organisation appeared to promote hot rods. Gary Meadors had organised shows before, but now he formed Goodguys Inc. They soon started putting on shows across the country, in response to the NSRA strict pre '49 rule they accepted cars up to '72.
Meador's own '32 Sedan was refreshed by Dick Magoo and passed over to Sam and Chip Foose for bodywork and paint, with this typically 80s graphics and hiboy stance it was enshrined in the goodguys logo
'32 Sedan owned by Gary Meadors
Goodguys logo
Edited by Crafty_ on Sunday 29th June 23:57
Edited by Crafty_ on Sunday 29th June 23:58
Anyone who likes this thread should have been down at Pendine sands (West Wales) this weekend for the Vintage Hot Rods speed trials.
My camera phone takes pretty poor pics, so have a quick search on youtube "hot rods pendine" and you'll get plenty of videos from last year (none up from this year, as of last night anyway!).
My camera phone takes pretty poor pics, so have a quick search on youtube "hot rods pendine" and you'll get plenty of videos from last year (none up from this year, as of last night anyway!).
stephen300o said:
AdeTuono said:
A mate of mine is about to bring these into the country, if anyone's interested.
Kind of hard to drive a CG car..Some more he has for sale...
Every time I see a car/rod with suicide front doors it brings a smile and a shudder to my being !. I was the owner of a Gestapo staff-car Mercedes-Benz 220 painted in Africa Corp (desert tan). Ideal for flashing around pretending to be "General Stumph von Speed"
The Mercedes was LHD (left hand Drive)this feature did not present any sort of problem as I had recently owned a LHD FORD Pilot V8(pick-up)custom built in Dagenham for the Canadian Air Force which was used for tow car duties, however I discovered that the Merc had some very strange handling characteristics which was rather strange considering the reputation the makers had achieved racing the 300SL Gull wing in previous years, particularly the mainly off-road ( Pan-American ) race. One would assume that with such experience they could have got the handling right, unfortunately that was not the case.
This car was fitted with centre pivot swing axle at the rear ,very similar to the world renown Triumph Herald swing axle which is well known for it’s weird “jacking up “habit.
The Merc was particularly vulnerable over hump backed bridges and adverse cambers which were quite common in those days in England. The cars short comings were eradicated on the next model when Mercedes introduced a new edition low- pivot assembly to combat this condition.
Unfortunately it did not end there ,other problems occurred with regard to the engine performance up grade, modification to the carburettors resulted in extreme difficulties starting the engine in very hot conditions which could catch you out with a stalled car in awkward situations. In those days without Diagnostic Machines , fuel/air ratio analyzers etc one just had too go with trial & error adjustments so I had set the throttles butterflies to shut off when my foot came off the pedal.
One morning while doing my usual high speed dash to work on a dual carriageway known locally as the Murder- mile I noticed that my door was only on the second catch and was rattling rather bad, without giving the matter any caution I reach out and grabbed the inside handle.
Whoooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooooosh, I as lying on the grass on my ass watching my car disappear down the road, after a while the tyre caught a kerb and turned left, bumped on up the sidewalk until finally coming to a halt in the hedgerow.
This model was designed with “ Suicide “ [front opening] doors which can catch the pressure of the wind (slip-stream) which forces them wide open with considerable force and very rapidly. Back then it was not required to have seat belts so by holding the door handle I got yanked out and spat on the grass.
A couple of good Samaritans pulled up to make sure I was ok and helped me stagger up the road to where the car had stopped, on inspection there turned out to be no damage apart from a broken check strap on the door and a load of bruises on my shoulder.
The Mercedes was LHD (left hand Drive)this feature did not present any sort of problem as I had recently owned a LHD FORD Pilot V8(pick-up)custom built in Dagenham for the Canadian Air Force which was used for tow car duties, however I discovered that the Merc had some very strange handling characteristics which was rather strange considering the reputation the makers had achieved racing the 300SL Gull wing in previous years, particularly the mainly off-road ( Pan-American ) race. One would assume that with such experience they could have got the handling right, unfortunately that was not the case.
This car was fitted with centre pivot swing axle at the rear ,very similar to the world renown Triumph Herald swing axle which is well known for it’s weird “jacking up “habit.
The Merc was particularly vulnerable over hump backed bridges and adverse cambers which were quite common in those days in England. The cars short comings were eradicated on the next model when Mercedes introduced a new edition low- pivot assembly to combat this condition.
Unfortunately it did not end there ,other problems occurred with regard to the engine performance up grade, modification to the carburettors resulted in extreme difficulties starting the engine in very hot conditions which could catch you out with a stalled car in awkward situations. In those days without Diagnostic Machines , fuel/air ratio analyzers etc one just had too go with trial & error adjustments so I had set the throttles butterflies to shut off when my foot came off the pedal.
One morning while doing my usual high speed dash to work on a dual carriageway known locally as the Murder- mile I noticed that my door was only on the second catch and was rattling rather bad, without giving the matter any caution I reach out and grabbed the inside handle.
Whoooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooosh, Whooooooooooooooosh, I as lying on the grass on my ass watching my car disappear down the road, after a while the tyre caught a kerb and turned left, bumped on up the sidewalk until finally coming to a halt in the hedgerow.
This model was designed with “ Suicide “ [front opening] doors which can catch the pressure of the wind (slip-stream) which forces them wide open with considerable force and very rapidly. Back then it was not required to have seat belts so by holding the door handle I got yanked out and spat on the grass.
A couple of good Samaritans pulled up to make sure I was ok and helped me stagger up the road to where the car had stopped, on inspection there turned out to be no damage apart from a broken check strap on the door and a load of bruises on my shoulder.
Guys, I was having a tidy up round the house at the weekend.
Ive got three years worth of Street Machine magazine, in binders, that I dont want anymore.
I cant bring myself to bin them, but someone may want them ?
Looks like 1985/1986/1987 era.
Mostly vgc, but the odd pic may have ended up a bedroom wall....
Dont want money for them, just cant bring myself to chuck them out.
Ive got three years worth of Street Machine magazine, in binders, that I dont want anymore.
I cant bring myself to bin them, but someone may want them ?
Looks like 1985/1986/1987 era.
Mostly vgc, but the odd pic may have ended up a bedroom wall....
Dont want money for them, just cant bring myself to chuck them out.
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