History Sum of the Parts

Growing up on the East Coast and reading Hot Rod Magazine features on cars such as this was like reading about the feats of the gods(hot rod gods in this case)! Never saw a car like this with a blower and chrome this and that much less saw them run, but I sure did study the pics. Thanks again, Joey

 

Back in those days when the average working guy could afford to go drag racing. Seems like part of the fun was to save up a few bucks each week or so to have something chromed, painted or polished in addition to fix what was torn up the previous week.

 

Times have changed $$$ for sure and the aftermarket with the times. Back in my day, a working man w/ a good job could compete in many forms of racing, for me it was open wheel (Midget, Wing Sprint car 70-91). My story, I started a small business in 76 and could compete $$$ wise into mid eighties, by that time it was escalating to point of you needed a successful mid/large business to compete $$$ wise. Only 1 year had a good sponser, all the rest, some small and self funded. Ran through 91 and came back to Hot Rods and been enjoying/playing ever since. The big positive of Rodding IMO is you can play at your level $$$, receive much satisfaction from your efforts, enjoy the people w/o breaking the bank. People on here still build from scratch/scrounge/barter and end up w/ some real nice rides, I admire and respect this, I no longer have the ambition and never developed some the skills needed to scratch build, but enjoy the hobby, buying something I like and turning it into my ride. When I was a kid reading Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Never dreamed the car hobby/industry would be what it is today, Thinking that pertains to many things today.

 

1320 Engineering (Dana Jewell and Barry Little) ran this little darling, at Sanford Maine back in the early 60's. It ran 9.80's at over 140 consistently.

 

It's like a good cook and a good recipe and a great dish, innit?

Some gals, like my Aunt, would have a collection of great recipe books, and hand-written ones p***ed down from Great Aunt to Grandma, and she would get the very best ingredients, time and stir things to the exact minute, and serve it all up on the best dinnerware and silver. Those dishes smelled exotic, and tasted unlike anything we kids had ever known.

Then there was her sister, my Mom; she scratch cook every meal from memory, traditional German ones, American standards too. Start with a carefully chosen cut of meat, and everything else was made with what was at hand. We had A&P dinnerware and stainless, and there was never any leftovers.

They were both very cl***y ladies.

I think of rodding that way: There is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. The secret is always in the mind of the artist. Being able to see a single part and imagine an entire car around it, or having at hand a master blueprint with every detail considered. Both can achieve great results, and both can be very satisfying.

 

It has been 30 years since we had a hot rod shop around here where you could walk up and down the isles and find all the cool stuff. Now you have to flip through the pages of catalogues or scroll down a computer screne. Nothing like actually picking it up at a local business........

 

About the same situation here. Started with hot rods and then raced open wheel for about 11 years and it got to be a drain on everything. Came back to the cars I love.