I recently had the chance at Pomona at the GNRS to meet Alex and talk to him a few moments. He is really a cl*** act. He told me a bit of what it was like to drive the So Cal Belly Tank on the salt flats. He said the one thing he remembered more than anything was the unbelievable noise going on between the suspension, the rear end and the motor. There were a bunch of people around, but he was really patient and nice to everyone. Has anyone else met him?
I met and talked to him a couple of times at the open houses at SoCal in Houston. He comes across as a genuinely friendly guy. He seemed to be a very down to earth person, just a true hot rodder. They did a slide show of the history of SoCal Speed Shop, and it was awesome to hear him tell the stories. He choked up a bit when he talked about his bud that was killed when the clutch blew up in the coupe at the drags. Very nice guy.
I've never met him but i've read some stuff on him, didn't he start So-cal the day he got out of the military?
Him & Pete Chapouris were at The Goodwood Festival of Speed several years back, they were wandering round looking at cars, both wearing So-Cal jackets, I followed them & at an opportune moment approached & asked Alex for his autograph..... He was quite surprised, as I was the 1st person ALL weekend to actually recognise him!! Really nice guy, spent a few minutes talking, shook my hand and thanked ME for recognising him!! Dave
He autographed a really cool SoCal poster for me at the Pamona GNR. Nice guy. I was standing next to him when someone asked a question about the price of some tail lights that were on the table in fromt of him. He smiled and told the guy "Hell I don't know the prices of that stuff. If it ain't a speed part I don't care"
His wife is from North Dakota and they come back to visit. I knew he was going to be at the local rod run and was wondering how I was going to meet him with out " getting in his face". I pulled into the parking lot with my '28 roadster and before I could get the engine turned off he was beside the car ready to shake my hand. Met his wife and daughter, good people. Couple years later he was back at the same event. When I ran into him first thing he asked about was the roadster. He's a great guy, easy to talk to.
I never met him but I did get in contact with him by letter.Alex Xydias is a true hero/idol for me as he lives the life I still dream about.He is one of those pioneers.A true Hot Rodder who did run his own speed shop in Burbank,CA(one of the very first ones),did build great machines and pushed the pedal to the metal on the nearby dry lakes of So-Cal and the salt flats at Bonneville... Over the years he sent me a lot of pics and I've got some signed ones as well.Mean a lot to me.Also have some of Ed Iskenderian.Another pioneer.I thought some of you would enjoy this pic he also sent me.Mr. Xydias and the oh-so- beautiful So-Cal belly tank at El Mirage. Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting The So-Cal Coupe is one of my favorites Coupes ever and that engineering that went into this car is unbelievable.As you all know there are many pics of it in TRJ No. 24.Some years ago he offered me a So-Cal Speed Shop tour guided by him if I ever would make a trip to the States but I still didn't make it there...GREAT guy !!!
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