Hello. I've been aware of this board for some time, but have not previously jumped on the running board. As my profile indicates, I've been around hot rods and racing all of my life. "Born into Hot Rods. Father was racer and rodder in 40s. Raced track roadsters, midgets, sprints and stock cars, and various cars and motorcycles at lakes. Parents met at a car race. 1st race car I ever sat in was Tom Beatty's belly tank in '58. Live within sight of El Mirage Dry Lake." I have always lived in Southern California. For the past 20 years I've been in the desert near El Mirage. As a sometimes professional fabricator, I can appreciate the hard work that goes into a Chip Foose car, but that just isn't a "Hot Rod" to me. Neither are "rat rods" with open pipes and weed cutters and way too channeled and finished with fake "patina". The rat rod movement made some sense in getting away from way too-nice "hot rods" and the billet era. But like in vintage racing, there's a huge amount in that movement of what I call "Creative Memory". That doesn't mean I'm criticizing any of those. "To each his own" is a great deal of what hot rods and customs are all about. It's just that my interests lie in performance, not customs, but things need to be real too. I'm into a wide variety of cars and motorsports. Desert offroad racing, road racing cars, Dry Lakes, Hot Rods, Midgets and Sprints and Supermodifieds, Desert racing motorcycles, and a whole hell of a lot more. My inspiration for joining today was some pictures in the September issue of Hot Rod Deluxe which hit close to home, including an article on Ed Iskenderian and his roadster. My dad worked for Ed for a while before my time. And in the article on the 59 Bonneville meet is a pic of the Harley powered Burke-Laster streamliner with the Belly Tank of Tom Beatty in the background with Tom, Fat Eddie and another guy standing next to it. That was the real key. In those days Tom and my dad were close buddies. I have no pics of the car, yet it's the 1st race car I ever sat in. So I looked for some pics on the internet today and one of the links led me here to a recent photo of Tom's belly tank taken at Bonneville. Looking around the site got me interested in joining. I'm not claiming affiliation with the team, but this photo shows me (hard to see inside) in the seat of the Kelly & Hall belly tank a few years ago at El Mirage. Tech Inspection work at offroad desert races the last couple years has kept me from attending any of the lakes meets since 07.
Hi There El Mirage ! Welcome to the HAMB from a guy in Adelanto ! Need to get some time for the Time Trials at El Mirage. 41 Dave
Well Hi neighbor!! Just p***ed through there Saturday and Sunday on the way to and from Lucerne where I worked Tech at an offroad race. I actually live in Lake LA.
Welcome from Central Valley Cal. I am an old desert rat, off road racer back in the '70s. I think Foose knows how to build a Trad. rod, but his customers only want cars that cost 100 grand +. So how far are you from Winfield??, I miss Mojave now that they put through the byp***.
Hi there RustyGem. I've been involved in off road racing since the early 70s. Winfield is south of the town of Mojave, which is about an hour's drive away from me. I'm west of El Mirage and south of Muroc Dry Lake/Edwards AFB. If you guys watch any TV or movies, you're certain to have seen my neighborhood. Some of the busiest film locations in the world are right near my home. From Country music videos to bank commercilas to feature movies, if there are joshua trees and rocky desert or dry lake bed in the scene, it was probably filmed near my house.
After having trouble logging in under the mojaveracer ID, I decided to go re-register under my more common User ID on other forums: "DustyMojave" So check out my new re-intro under the (sorta) new ID.
Hmmm..... My Intro post of 2 nites ago just showed up. I guess a Moderator got around to checking it out. Now that I presumed it had been rejected and added this Intro...I have now introduced myself 3 times on this forum. So I figured I should cross-reference all 3 to preclude confusion. 1st - http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389772 2nd - http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=742763 3rd - http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8252350#post8252350 So I suppose I'm good to move on from here...
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