It pains me to know that they put an electric motor in Project X a few years back, I believe it was rectified later but it just shows how the soul of Hot Rod is broken.
Excellent details as always. Kinda surprised by the ugly looking welds on those period photos of the traction bars. Especially for a magazine car.
I have a friend that is working on an electric dragster. (You'll be hearing about him soon.) It puts out about 4000 HP. While very little about it can be attributed to hot rods of the golden age of traditional builds, it still represents - to me at least - the unending quest by the American Hot Rodder to make something a little bit better, a little bit faster, a little bit cooler than the next guy. He may set the EV world speed and e.t. record. Maybe not. That's not the point. The point is to stretch the boundaries of what is possible with a souped up vehicle. Like the first guy who mounted a blower on his car. Like the first guy who said, "If two valves per cylinder is good, maybe four will be better." The devil has not snatched the hot rodding spirit from us hot rodders. Some of us have just taken a turn down a road yet to be travelled.
Got the car licensed last Monday and insured on Friday. Did a few passes up and down the street and headed for the local car show in the park on Saturday. Probably 3-4 hundred cars there. I would estimate that out of the crowd of several thousand spectators, maybe 500 were fairly serious"motorheads" to some extent. And while many liked the car, by my estimate, maybe 1% of those recognized what the car represented. That's 1 out of a 100 supposed "car people". I was surprised by how many gray hairs didn't have a clue what it was. I guess that just because I grew up on car magazines and have my own library covering from mid 50's to the mid 80's, that I'm intimately familiar with, that everybody else is the same. I predict a better reception at Speed Week in a few months in Wendover. That crowd seems more in tune with vintage stuff. We'll see. It was perfect weather in the shade with a light breeze. I met some old high school buddies that I haven't seen in years. It was a good day. The car drives decently. The ride is good. Has a slight clunk in the back somewhere, when going over bumps. Might be the trunk lid locating pin and receiver. The rear seat tonneau cover is a few weeks away from being finished but other than that, it's done-ish. The clutch, trans, steering, tracking, gear ratio, lights, gauges, etc. seem good. The brakes are weak. By that, I mean you have to stand on them to slow down. I did some research on the net and discovered there are different levels of friction compounds available. The pads have a 2 letter code printed on them. For instance, FF. The first F is cold stopping power and the second F is hot stopping power. FF seems to be the common one. The higher the letter the stickier they are. If you shop a little you can find GG. I have a set coming. I think they will make enough difference to be good. Oh, the exhaust is a bit louder than I would like. Thinking back on it, I should have used 2 1/4 pipes and quieter mufflers because the car has dumps on it. If you want to go fast open the dumps and if you want to cruise, run through a quiet(er) exhaust system. I don't need maximum street performance while putting around, and it's not like I need lots of noise to draw attention to the car. The tach appears to read about double the actual RPM so that's something to address this winter. Overall, first impressions are good.
2 1/4 pipes behind a big block, talk about killing the performance vibe of Project X ..... sheesh I know on several parts of the car you strayed away from the trueness of X but 2 1/4 pipes, c'mon now.
It doesn't surprise me in the least the so called real car guys didn't know the car. People that really studied the magazines back in the day seem few and far between. You wouldn't believe how many so called car guys I had to explain what the chrysler rapid transit system was last year when the RTS Cuda surfaced after 50 years. When I mentioned it to my car buddies they just had blank stares on their faces. Your car is great. But very few people will "get it" but the ones that do will fucking run across the fairgrounds to see it!!!
I think it is awesome! That’s not a word I use often. I remember it enough to remember it looking like that. I would run over little old ladies and babies to see it.
Take it to March Meet or if there are any 'reunions' still going on, make some passes with it. That car is outstanding!! Especially since it was built on a budget that's what I love about it. Worthy of a feature if there were any magazines left
What everyone else said…you nailed it and that is so cool! This is by far my favorite version of Project X.
i grew up reading popular hot rodding. i love the project x car and also the project 34 truck. does anybody know what happened to the truck?
I'm impressed. You said you were going to do it and you did, in a relatively short period of time, to a high level of detail and not even spending a ton of money, either. The ratio of people who say they're going to build "whatever" and those that actually follow through is much smaller than your 100 to 1 ratio of people that recognized the car. That's pretty cool.
Count me as one that was clearly influenced by PHR and a "student" of the car rags...Love and appreciate your recreation as if "time stood still" after all, that is a large part of what this site is about. I also totally appreciate the evolution of Project X.....IIRC it was originally presented as a "rolling testbed" of modifications thus even the "E-word" period was OK with me (glad to see it over though).....In the end, the fact that THE car that appeared in PHR all those years ago, and that Tony Danza immortalized in Hollywood Knights, still exists as a hot rod makes me happy.
this is excellent, love all the details. looking forward to seeing the rear seat tonneau cover and how you fit it as this is something I want to do in my 40
I havent been to speed week for a while. Im going to reach out to a couple buddies and see if they want to make the trip again. Love to see the car in person.
Nothing, and I mean nothing can't be reversed, repaired or changed with enough money/skill/desire/vision. One small example is the Graffiti '55 was turned into a gawdawful '80's show car complete with independent front suspension, velour interior, and hydraulically operated sliding/tilt front end, and mural on the deck lid. It is now being restored to AG appearance complete with Richard Ruth fabbed front stub with straight axle.
If you're going to clone a famous car, why not at least clone a lesser known version of it? I always wondered why Jack Walker didn't paint his clone of the Hirohata Merc one of the other couple of color combinations the car wore for brief periods.
Jack Walker and I were pals, he wanted to clone the most famous version of the car. At the time the original car was "lost " and had not been seen for decades
I don't know what happened to the 34 truck, but remember the Street Rodder (McMullen) A-100 pickup vs PHR 34 PU grudge? IIRC the A-100 never ran right.
Used to read PHR all the time when I was a teen in the '70's...Loved Project X but the version I remember was a drag race version with no lettering. Seems to me it had Cragar Supertricks or Centerlines. My other fave project they had was a full fendered '32 5 window with a Pontiac engine. Utahvette your version is killer.
The Jalopy Journal
