Featured Event Coverage "Cross country in a gasser"2003 Rod & Custom Magazine "Ego-Rama"

We drive a short distance to Barris Customs and pack the small parking lot. We enter though the back door shown here.

 

We walk into a small show room jam packed full of die cast model cars and figurines. There was not a square inch of horizontal space in that room that wasn't covered. Not to mention the stuff on the walls. My aunt Edna would have loved it. So much stuff!. We're greeted by, I think Georges son in law? and he tells us to wait a Minuit. He walks into a side room and a few moments later returns and , like a Master of Ceremonies starts in, Ladies and Gentlemen I am proud to introduce to you the King of the Customizers, may I have a round of applause for the one and only George Barris! And out steps the little fella. I about shit. So funny! I struck me as very odd. He introduces himself and gives us his life history. Meanwhile, I looked at the stuff on the walls, and then we all went into the show room and checked out the Batmobile, Ala-cart, Monkee mobile, the "Grease"car and a weird Lincoln or something. Soon we toured the back room. I was impressed by all the paperwork he had stored from previous projects he'd done. It didn't look like a single scrap of paper ever escaped the place. All neatly boxed and labeled. We end up in the parking lot with George. He looks over each of the cars and poses for pictures with everyone. In fact he insisted on pictures. My wife Deby is not a "hugger" when it comes to strangers(and George fit that category perfectly) He insisted on a picture with Deby and she kindly refused. George was not going to take no for an answer. Much to the amusement of the group, He literally chased her around the car trying to grab her. She finally gave in because she was worried the old guy might have an attack of some sort. These are the shots after she stopped running and agreed to get a picture. The top shot is of George breathing hard after the chase. She wore the little guy out.

 

We all gather in front of the Barris Museum and take pictures.

 

As evening approaches we return to the Hotel and park around back against the building. I worried about the car all night.

 

heh...I know about that! but after a few dozen nights (lots of road trips in a hot rod), you get over it....

 

My concern for the cars was justified the next morning. While my car was apparently left alone, one of the Magazine guys track roadster had been messed with. Although he had covered it last night somebody had gotten into it and broken off his "spoon" style throttle pedal. He arranged for a transport trailer and took it to a local shop the get repaired and soon rejoined us.

 

We drive over to the Petersen Museum next and park right out front. We end up getting the Royal treatment everywhere we go on this trip. After checking out the main display floor we are invited to see the Basement where all the cars out of rotation are kept along with Mr. Petersen's private collection. I want to say it was Pete Eastwood that gave the tour, but it was somebody notable. Pics from downtown and the museum.

 

Finally gonna do some driving. We leave the museum and go 110 miles to a rod shop. Hot Rod And Custom Stuff. After a shop tour they laid out a dinner fit for kings. Catered by Daltons Roadhouse, it was great. I begin to notice a trend at this point early in the trip. My wife and I don't eat a lot by some standards, but it is beginning to look like we are just traveling from eating place to eating place with some scenic stops between. It will be soon that I dub the event the "Eat-o-Rama". It seems we don't go 3 hours without stopping to eat. Then disaster strikes. After dinner we wander out to the parking lot where our cars are parked and are causally talking among ourselves and out of the corner of my eye I see one of our group, Don Dillard, He had a nice "Rat Rod" model A coupe, before Rat Rods were a thing, go over to his car and open the door and reach in with his right arm and hit the key. The car, backed up to within a couple of feet from the wall, fires instantly and must have still been in reverse, because it jumped backwards striking Don in the chest with the door and throwing him into the wall of the building like he'd been hit by a linebacker. It was BRUTAL! He laid there like he was dead. I thought he might be.
Everyone rushes to him and my wife, medically trained, made him comfortable and stayed with him until the ambulance arrived and took him away. That put a damper on the rest of the evening. We spend the night at the Hampton Inn in San Marcos. I sleep slightly better because parking is a bit more private.

 

The next morning we're up ready to go to breakfast at 8. I look out the room window and, just try to imagine my delight... it snowed last night! I don't think my car will even move with slicks on so I'm thrilled to say the least. We have a long breakfast and wait around until everyone is ready to go around 10. Word has come back on Don and he will not be out of the Hospital for a few days. We wonder if we should call it quits and are told he wants us to continue with out him. The group decides to make sure he's able to get free entry next year to finish what he started and we prepare to leave. The snow was light and had melted off most surfaces by now, so we head out for the 400 mile drive to Phoenix. Along the way we make a couple of stops for pictures, and of course to eat.

 

Along the rainy drive to Phoenix we stop at some sand dunes for pics.

 

I need to back up for a second here. If you'll notice the sweatshirt I'm wearing. Since I had prior knowledge of the Ego-Rama logo from the letterheads I received, I took it upon myself to have my Daughter that worked at a print shop, make some iron on patches featuring the design. Ironed on the sweatshirt they looked really good. The first morning after we got there we walked into the dining room for breakfast and the Magazine guys see my shirt and get this puzzled look on their faces. "Where did you get that?" They ask. "Oh this? they have a whole rack of them down in the gift shop"I reply. I think I'm funny sometimes, it's a blessing and a curse.

 

Naturally it rained a lot of the way to Phoenix. This shot was taken while waiting for some guys that got separated from the group. Parked on the side of the road somewhere waiting in the rain. It's one of my favorites.

 

400 miles took forever. We didn't get to our destination till late that night. Along the way we did the fuel economy test. After leaning my car out during the trip down to California, I felt I had a pretty good handle on this part. I might not score to highly but it wouldn't be terrible. Here's a shot during a stop that night somewhere along the route. Even filthy the glitter pops.

 

I remember reading about @DRD57 getting hurt on the ego-rama here on the HAMB.

 

Read the post closer. It's a SBC with 409 valve covers fitted to it.

 

Great story, keep it coming.

 

Great story, I remember reading about that road trip in R&C and remember the car.

 

I remember. You did very well in the Salome, shocked a bunch of people. Broke some rear end [spider gears?] parts but fixed them there. Glad you are posting here.

 

Man great post

 

Uh oh…is that spoiler with the Pontiac rear?

 

Driving though the night was fortunately uneventful. It could of ended badly with slicks on the car but we soldiered on through the darkness towards our destination. I remember one of the journalist riding with use for a good portion of it. He was the first of the magazine guys to ride with us, and he remarked at how impressed he was with the ride and handling of the car. I was able to ask a bunch of questions about the selection process and what they were looking for. He said they were all surprised when they got my entry. They were defiantly not expecting something like this car. He confided they were secretly rooting for my car to get voted in. I asked how many entries they had gotten and he said "We did really good this year, we probably had 30". I thought , 30? that's all? I guess that my car getting chosen wasn't that great of an accomplishment after all . I have a very fond memory of driving through the rainy darkness, keeping pace with the tail lights in front of us, trying to see the lines on the road with my dim headlights. Doing my best to stay on top of the ruts where the water was thinner to avoid hydroplaning. The primitive wipers trying to clear the windshield as the cassette player is belting out Credence Clearwater Revival. It had a surreal beauty to it. Frightening, tranquil and beautiful all at once. Mentioned earlier , we were checking fuel economy during the drive. My previous leaning out of the carb payed off with a 16.67, resulting in the best mileage of the group. By a small margin, but I'll still take it.

 

What a great thread. It's been fun reading through you re-living all of this!

 

After a good nights rest we Gathered in the hotel parking lot and had a much needed car wash. The days activities were to go to Speed-World Dragstrip in Surprise Arizona about 37 miles away for acceleration and brake testing.

 

What a cool little track. We arrive about 10 and prepare the car. I don't think anybody else did much pre race changes but I was determined to shine at this event. I tilt the nose forward and change plugs while seated on the front tires. I remove the air filter and let some air out of the slicks. Quickly uncap the headers and we're ready to do some damage. I fire the car up and it sounds goooood! I pull around to the staging lanes and right into the burnout box. I'll be the first one down the track. The starting line guy sprays some water down and I pull through and set the line lock. He motions to begin and I bring the revs up to 3000 and let the clutch out in 2nd gear and walk into the throttle.the tires spin for a few seconds and I release the lock. Still spinning, I roll out of the box and the tires begin to gain traction so I wait until they start to grab and push the clutch back in. The starter motions me to the line. I pull up and stage , the lights start down and as they reach the bottom I let the clutch out at about 5000rpm. Tire instantly break traction and spins through first gear. I run it out the back door but I knew the ET was gonna be crap. Sure enough, 12.77 at 112.54. I let off in 4th before crossing the line so the mph is little low. I drive back the tree lined return road to the staging lanes to make another pass. Such a cool track! Waiting my turn, I get out and check for leaks or anything else and it all looks good. It's my turn again so I repeat the procedure again. Still no traction. They aren't going to prep the track for 5 cars so I'm screwed as far as laying down a good number. This thing should go 11.90 at 115 easy at this altitude. I return to the lanes. I decide to do a "Hail Mary" pass with the nitrous. I get in the trunk and turn on the bottle. I pull back around to the lanes and purge the nitrous line right before entering the burnout box. He we go baby. Lets show em how it's done. I bring the revs up a bit and let the clutch out. the tires spin for a second and then begin to hop violently. I would guess it bounced about 6 times before I got the clutch back in. "Ouch! that's really hard on the drive train " I thought to myself. I pull forward and stage. Thre lights come down and I launch the car. Traction was even worse with more power, I ran up through 3rd and let off. As I slow to make the turn off to the return road I hear, and feel , the dreaded "Broken Spider gear" popping as it rounds the corner. It crunches and snaps all the way back to the pits. I'm done. We still had the braking portion of testing to do but I'm through. I'll accept last place in that category. Likely my position anyway. When the testing is over the group comes together and a transport truck is summoned to take the car to a local rod shop to try and see what can be done with this thing. View attachment 6369014 View attachment 6369015 .

 

We arrive at the shop and unload the car and get it inside. I'm not used to other people helping on my cars but I gotta tell you, those other Ego-rama guys jumped in and we had the third member out and on the ground in about 15 minutes. Like a pit stop. A local was on the phone calling around for antique Pontiac rear end parts and a few calls later a usable non posi carrier was located. We'd go get it tomorrow morning. I want to take a moment to talk about the other guys in the deal. As I said at the beginning, we were all a little leery about each other at the beginning, but by the second day we had begun to form a pretty tight group. They were some really great people. We had every meal together and at every fuel stop we talked. We were the last people we saw before calling it a night and the first ones to see in the morning. We laughed a lot. Some of their stories were hilarious! We got along very well. The magazine guys said we were the best group they had so far. I was told there was some drama the other times. At the end of it all we exchanged contact information with all of them and promised to keep in touch. A real regret was that we didn't, because we shared something pretty special.

 

Thanks for posting this adventure, this is what REAL hot rodding is all about, and the folks you meet along the way.

 

That black convert looks like sweet ride. What drive train?

 

Had chills of excitement when the old guy said 'you wanna see it? '.
Helluva story! Thanks for sharing.

 

Now for a short rant about Pontiac Olds rear ends. I know they were very popular back in the 60's. you could say they were the "Go to" axle of the day. They were plentiful in the junk yards, were strong (comparitivly) had a wide selection of gear ratios, etc. They do have a strong ring and pinion due to the large 9.3 diameter. The axle bearings are placed out near the flanges giving good support. The 31 spline axles are realitivly strong (although many had 27 spline axles)And the third members (3rib) were stout. And if you run a spool they are quite tough rear ends. But if you want to run one on the street you need to run a positraction type carrier. The factory posi's are a small Dana 44 size, same size as a 57-64 Chevy only with a larger flange to match the Pontiac ring gear, and have the same weak spider gears. Replacement parts are not available or they're very expensive. Break one and you're out of business for a while looking for parts. With a spool they are tough, and some people run spools on the street . I've done it but it sucked.
The car only wants to go straight. It tries to drive the car off the road during a turn. They wear tires at an alarming rate. The tires hop and chirp around corners. It's just a pain. I'll never run one again.

 

I remember that also, I believe he was driving his Model A coupe at the time. HRP