Hot Rods People. They're the worst...

I pulled in for gas in my 32 5w. An old guy in bib overalls walks up, says something about the flathead with "3 deuces" and that he had a hopped up flathead in a 53 Ford. I had my usual responses of "Cool", "Nice", etc.

He walked off towards the convenience store and I hopped in and fired it up. The car is kinda rumbly with 4 straight pipes. He raised both hands above his head with two thumbs up. Never turned around, just kept walking with the two thumbs up. It made my day...and I'm guessing his too.

Not all interactions with humans are bad.

 

I like that.

 

Do what my father used to do when the Corvette eggheads would gather around his unrestored 59 Survivor and start picking it apart. He was a smart and well spoken man, wiser than his years and well learned on many topics.
He'd say, and I quote: "Get the fuck away from my car".


Sorry for the language, but I am quoting here.

 

Reminds me of when I'm talking to friends about cars I'm intrested in. They just smile and change the subject

Sometimes wisdom has to be administered with a mallet.

 

I did not understand one word he said. And I’m ok with that.

 

I know it's a weird move to quote yourself, but here goes...

Now verified. This is the dude from the GNRS who now owns the Offenhauser speed parts brand.

 

I have gotten where I have just learned to agree with people and move. on. If they are rude, I do the same.

 

My wife calls all tri-5s “Bel-Airs” I don’t correct her because the couch is really uncomfortable.

It’s kinda like people in the south calling all carbonated drinks a “Coke”.

I don’t mind most comments, I just nod and smile.

 

No matter how many times I tell people, "It's a speedster", I have the same people call it a go-cart, jalopy, chitty chitty bang bang. Is "speedster" really that hard to remember?

 

Hey mister, how fast does your dune buggy go?

 

Not everyone is blowing smoke no matter how far out their comments sound. A while back an older guy and his wife followed me into the parking lot at the office commenting on what I was driving and how they liked it (I think I was in the 50 Chevy that day). Said they recently moved down the street and he was building hot rod. Street Beast and building his own 12 cylinder engine. The block is two SBC's mated together and the head is custom cast, etc. that his brother is working on now. Then he told me his name.....Ralph Falconer....as in he and his brother Ryan built the racing engines for Carrol Shelby's Cobras and the GT40's, won the Indy 500, etc. Pretty sure he knew what he was doing. LOL

Another fun one was the weekend we went up to Minnesota to pick up the '50 Chevy from Myron Dybing. On the way there and back we stopped at all the Little House on the Prairie museums as our daughter was going through all the books at the time. We pulled into Desmet, SD and a guy on a bicycle circled back around and followed us into the parking lot. I got out of the truck and he said, "That sure looks like Larry Watson's Grapevine!" Middle of SD at a Laura Ingals museum and a dude just pedals up and knows EXACTLY what he's looking at. LOL

 

No, it's not, but with that paint and the grille shell, be glad he didn't call it a tractor.

 

Kids always get a pass. If dad is a bit of an A hole I offer the kid a chance to set in the car. Older people ask the year I tell them the year and I bought it new.

 

Most ask question about my '32 sedan,"When are you gonna paint it?"

Standard reply, " when you come up with the money!".

Is that the original engine? when clearly it says Chevrolet on the valve covers.

The one I hate is, "Nice Rat Rod". HRP

 

Man I do hate that term... "Dune Buggy..." Meyers Manx? cool little car. "Dune Buggy"? yeesh.

 

I'm at a local car get together and a guy walks up and asks what year truck...I tell him it's a '46. He asks what engine is in it...I tell him it's a 350. He says why did you put one of those in an old Ford...I ask him what engine he put in his old ride...he says I don't have an old ride.
Some people's kids...some kids parents

 

the wife and I had gone up to the Santa Fe ski basin to look at the quaking aspen turning colors. taking the '39 Chevy...
we took a pull out and walked a little trail to a lookout....
heard another car pull up and a very loud male voice exclaim..."wow look.....it's a '36 La Salle"...."look at this thing"...in his loudest outside voice... the wife and I looked at each other, grinned, and headed back to the car since the solitude had been broken......as we approached he said.... "'36 La Salle right?" I looked at the 4 women that he was traveling with and said "you nailed it"....he beamed and turning to the women..."told you so"...
we got into the car and motored off...my wife turning to me...." this is not a 36 La Salle".....
"exactly right, babe, but we would still be there arguing with the guy and I didn't want him to loose face in front of all his girl friends"

So call it whatever makes you happy

 

I heard the nice dune buggy many times when I was driving my model A pickup,to be perfectly honest I think I like that better than rat rod! HRP

 

I don't argue with people about my '62 Chevy. I just tell them I call it a Nova. From the literature I have it says it's a Nova rather than a Chevy II.

 

Leave it to Chebby to set trim levels by engine type.

 

Yep; not a big fan of THAT particular term, either. Gave a lot of folks the motivation to create shitbox "art cars" for too long. I've been hoping it would fade away into the susnset.

 

I don't understand why members here on the HAMB don't or won't respond when I start a conversation with them. I guess I'm expecting too much..?

Larry

 

I was at the local joint with a buddy the other day and my car was parked out front. I went out front to have a smoke and some dude came out a few minutes later to smoke too. He says to me "whoever owns that car is a clown". I said is that right? Why's that. He said it's ugly as f***. Fake ass lake pipes, ugly paint color. Car is stupid. I said "oh the lake pipes are functional", and he realized who he was talking to, and turned and waddle off.... Lol.

 

Generally, if you tell people you have "a speedster" they will assume you drive a Porsche. Anymore, I just tell people I have an early '20s roadster. If they seem to have time and interest, I will go on to explain the speedster's place in the early 20th century evolution of automotive performance. But I find "roadster" is good enough for most.

Frankly, speaking as a swap meet vendor, when the rat rod phase finally fizzles, I will miss them. Not the cars, but their owners. Those guys will buy anything. They will pay good money for the most shitty, pitted, broken pieces of crap you can imagine. Stuff so far gone it belongs in a scrap metal run, they will buy. Stuff your buddies give you for free just to be shot of it, they will buy. I've made a lot of money off rad rod guys over the years selling garbage I would have otherwise thrown away.

 

Sometimes it goes to Spam, has happened to me so gotta check once in a while!

 

I have found some of the worst behaved people are the trend chasers who have come out of the street rod, fair grounds, power parking sit behind your car in a lawn chair and pontificate scene.

I saw a women with a pink and teal 37 Ford billet buggy show up it at traditional hot rod show. (Which had been advertised as such with a declaimer saying non traditional would be turned away.)

When she was denied entry she became enraged and said “I just saw you let that 37 Ford in!”

The person at the gate explained that it was a traditional hot rod.

She screamed “MY CAR IS TRADITIONAL, IT’S NOT CHOPPED!”

 

I had two after race question in the pits that I've remembered (after race means there may have been some alcohal involved). The first was a guy at Macon, IL who asked if the left front tire on the car was real expensive. I told him no, we actually ran a worn right front on that corner. He replied he thought it was expensive because my driver kept it off the ground most of the time.

The second was also at Macon after we had won the tropy dash, the fast heat, and the feature. He asked me just how fast that car would go. I told him with that with the proper gears it would probably go well over 150 mph. A bit later I heard the same guy tell another guy that we were going to run the car 150 mph at this track if we could find the right gears.

 

Larry
Have you considered a change to your avatar name?

 

I find it interesting that so many people hear get all wound up that other people don’t understand our terminology or cars. There are lots of things other people do that I don’t understand.