History Another batch of photos from HOT ROD

Well that was quick, yesterday the Eric Rickman photos were finished and I said I would try and find some more of the same type in the Hot Rod Archives.

Well the FIRST article I pulled up had this coming batch of the same type of photos. These are all from the early 60's and the same type from other photographers.

Same style and again some get HUGE and some a bit larger.

I don't know which type of program they used to get the film photos into digital form but the photos are GREAT in detail pull up at least one HUGE one and the details in the photos are so clear and awesome.

Enjoy.

ALL photos and captions are from here: https://www.hotrod.com/articles/bac...pson-jet-cars-dobie-gillis-first-ford-mustang/


Leave it to George Barris to add life-size TV stars Robert Young and Dwayne Hickman to a Barris Kustoms display that brought three famous hot rods to the Winternationals Rod & Custom Show.

Barris’ own AMBR-winning ’27 T played a role in Young’s short-lived Window on Main Street series, while the former Chrisman & Cannon competition coupe costarred with Hickman and beatnik sidekick Bob Denver in an episode of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Behind them is the Ala Kart, the roadster pickup that survived the 1957 Barris Kustoms fire to become the first repeat winner of Oakland’s tall AMBR trophy.



Archive Images Exposed Outside And Inside L.A.’s Long Gone Great Western Exhibit Center Support Tex Smith’s Apr. 1962 HOT ROD Appraisal Of NHRA’s Second Winternationals Rod & Custom Show As, “The Major Hot Rod Exposition In The Nation” And “the Biggest Show Ever Staged That We Know Of.”

The Hit Making Bands Of Guitarist Dick Dale And Drummer Sandy Nelson Undoubtedly Contributed To Four Day Admissions Exceeding 65,000, According To HRM. Later, The Vast City Of Commerce Facility Hosted The 1968 1979 L.A. Roadsters Shows Prior To Its Demolition.



When Car Craft’s Bud Lang Stopped By This Sherman Oaks Upholstery Shop To Report On A T Bodied AA/Modified Roadster Under Construction Out Back, Tony Nancy Happened To Be Building A Custom Oxygen Mask.

We Know That “The Home Of Bitchin’ Stitchin’” Did Its Usual Fine Job Because Later, When Spirit Of America Crashed Into The Water, Craig Breedlove Feared That He Was Trapped And Doomed Until Realizing That The Breathing Hose Was Keeping Him Connected To The Submerged Cockpit.



Since Setting Up Shop At The 1958 Michigan State Fair At Age 18, Stanley “Mouse” Miller Drew Crowds And Eager Customers Wherever He Appeared In The Midwest And Northeast.

If $6 Seems Like Too Little To Charge For A Custom Airbrushed Sweatshirt, That Would Be About 55 Bucks Today. The Kid Could Whip Out One Every Hour And Do It In Color, Instead Of The Basic Black Outline Drawn By Competitors.

His Operation Must Have Impressed Wally Parks, Who Waded Through The Sea Of Ducktails To Get The Shot. Burned Out On Monsters By 1965, Mouse Returned To His Native California (where His Animator Father Used To Work For Walt Disney) And Found Work Creating Posters For San Francisco Music Promoters.

 

Thanks ! Kool History, Interesting site, Saved for future visits.

 

Very nice and Thank you!!

 

Very cool photos and history! Thanks!

 

Decades before IRS became commonplace in domestic cars, Pontiac chief engineer John DeLorean attached this exotic suspension, two-speed-automatic transaxle, and torque tube to entry-level 1961-1963 Tempest compacts with just a few bolts.

How convenient for Mickey Thompson’s busy skunkworks, which the factory commissioned to hurriedly convert a stocker for the NHRA’s Winternationals introduction of Factory Experimental classes.

Regular visitor Eric Rickman obviously had his run of M/T Enterprises—and a hunch that future readers might appreciate a peek at the world’s fastest man’s junk pile. We are left to wonder how the faded body panel wound up here, and whether some magazine staffer was responsible for separating the piece from an unknown open-wheel race car.




Here’s the kind of historical image that could easily go undiscovered without the magnification enabled by modern scanning and digitizing. Only after zooming in to confirm the identity of Zora Arkus-Duntov (with helmet) did we realize that his waiting ride was a test mule made by joining the front half of the upcoming second-generation Corvette with the back half and roofline of a first-gen Vette.

Sports Car Graphic tech editor Jerry Titus was granted exclusive access to private January tests at Daytona and Sebring on the condition that he ignore the “blue disguised prototype” that joined a red ’62 model and Zora’s baby, the CERV I single seater, for some brake development.

Titus snapped the photo literally behind the distracted engineer’s back in late January, nearly a year before most folks saw a new Corvette in person.




Jerry Titus Was Probably The Best Racing Writer Or Writing Racer Ever Employed By Robert E. Petersen.

At The Conclusion Of Chevy’s Florida Testing, Zora Offered A Few Laps Of Sebring In A Priceless Test Car Previously Driven Only By Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, And Duntov Himself.

In The May 1962 SCG Cover Story, Titus Described His 172 Mph Straightaway Speed As “conservative” In A 1,700 Pound Package Pushed By At Least The 380 Hp Conceded By Chevrolet.

Later, Titus Was Tabbed By Carroll Shelby To Shake Down And Race The G.T. 350.



Help, Readers: Does This Scene Ring Any Bells?

None Of Our Sources Can Recall A Movie Or TV Production Involving The Channeled, 283 Powered ’31 Highboy That New York Transplant Bill Neumann (not Pictured) Brought To L.A.

Prior To Joining Car Craft And, Ultimately, Taking Over Rod & Custom After PPC Editorial Director Wally Parks Fired The Whole Staff.

Neumann’s Classified Ad In R&C’s May 1962 Bargain Box Mentioned “over 90 Trophies,” But No Asking Price. A Born Promoter, He Helped Organize The Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association In 1963 (later Renamed The SEMA show).

 

As you look down the line of the people - the cars behind them all look a little low in the rear....how cool is that !

 

Thanks for finding and posting !!!!!

 

loudbang,

Thanks again for posting these brother! They remind me of being a little kid in the '60's and looking through my dad's Hot Rod magazines and they bring back some good memories.

 

I WAS AT THE 3rd Winternationals as a kid and got I my picture in Apr. 63 Hot Rod Mag. My parents (non-car people) took me because I was "Hot Rod crazy"...even at that age

A "coke-bottle-bottom" bespeckled Hotrodjack at the Revell Model Car display. That picture made me somewhat of a legend among my buddies at John Foster Dulles school in La Mirada.

 

@hotrodjack33 THIS is what I like about posting old photos, when a member pops up and recognizes themselves and or a car they know.

 

Excellent photo-bomb!

 

That Winternationals show changed my life...made me a Hot Rodder to this day.

3 things, after all these years I still remember about the show.

One car...The 'Lil Coffin. What a car...when Monogram came out with the model kit, I thought I had died and went to heaven.

The Beach Boys were one of the stage acts...but I was too young to really appreciate who they were

And Ed "Big Daddy" Roth was doing T shirts. He had pre-made shirts (Robert Williams?) and was just air brushing on florescent colors. I slid up next to him and asked "is that an air brush ?" he looked at me and replied "smart kid"

30 years later, in 1993, Bonnie and I had the pleasure of spending a few hours sitting and chatting with "Big Daddy" at Bob Moscoffian's New England Nationals. After we talked a while, I brought up the 1963 story and his "smart kid" comment. He leaned over to Bonnie and said "I don't think he got any smarter"

 

I have great memories from those shows as well. My Dad liked indoor car shows too so it was easy to get him to take me (as long as there were no conflicting football games). The Great Western was really big, especially for a kid. So many great cars, some I recognized from the magazines like Walt Kaline’s Pontiac powered HRM cover car in the above shot. Heady stuff for a car crazy kid. I don’t remember the bands but it seems like they only played Friday and Saturday nights, we had to be home ‘cause Mom would have dinner ready.
We also hit the Tridents show at the LA Sports Arena and the Long Beach shows. I did get to see a couple bands but my Dad wouldn’t stand there and listen to rock n roll for very long.



Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Pontiac stockers prepared by factory contractor Mickey Thompson enjoyed another dominating season, starting with February’s second Winternationals.

What appears to be a late round of Mr. Stock Eliminator—a bonus, heads-up showdown bringing back the quickest 50 stockers, win or lose—finds S/S Automatic champ Carol Cox, the first female allowed to enter an NHRA national event, out in front of stick-class-winner Jess Tyree, an M/T mechanic driving the same 167-mph Catalina that set multiple international speed records over the winter at March Air Force Base.

Waiting to run at Pomona are previous-round winners Lloyd Cox, Carol’s husband (Pontiac, right); Gas Ronda (Ford); and eventual runnerup Dave Strickler (Chevy), who would fall in the Mr. Stock final to Don Nicholson (not shown). The barn across the street is long gone, but last time we looked, the two-story house remained.



The ragtag bunch of drag and dry-lakes racers that test-fired Craig Breedlove’s $500 military-surplus engine at Los Angeles International Airport in June, just two months before this homebuilt tricycle’s scheduled Bonneville Nationals debut, must have seemed unlikely to make the builder-driver a household name worldwide.

The official team truck’s wooden signboards announced the “Spirit of America World Land Speed Record Attempt.” The low-buck team made it to Speed Week, but the semifinished car/trike was limited to static testing at the adjacent Wendover airbase.



Despite The Convergence Of Five Jet Powered Vehicles On The Salt During And Immediately Following Speed Week, A Piston Powered Streamliner Remained The World’s Fastest Land Vehicle All Year—to The Certain Relief Of Revell, Which Had Entered The Hot Rod Market By Miniaturizing The 406 Mph Challenger I And Ed Roth’s Revolutionary Outlaw Street Roadster.

Rather Than Follow The Shady Example Of Fly By Night Model Makers That Blatantly Reproduced Identifiable Race Cars Without Attribution Or Remuneration, Revell Licensed And Heavily Promoted The Men Along With the models



It Didn’t Take Long For An Unidentified Slot Car Hobbyist To Power One Of Revell’s Snap Together Streamliners. Reader Rick Voegelin, The Former Car Craft Editor And A Lifelong Slot Racer, Squinted At The Photo Through Old Eyes And Semipositively Identified The Dual Motors As Pittmans, Likely Swapped Out Of Powerful Locomotives.

 

Regarding the Olds “Mystery-ion” I sent HRD Editor Drew Hardin an email about the engines adding a comment that maybe Ford comped Roth the engines for the free advertising value.
Ford received no mention, maybe because they had ties to AMT, but the engines were seen countless times.

 

Fordors, Roth was at one of the NNL Western Nationals model car shows in the early 90s telling stories of his cars. He didn't mention the Olds engines but said that blew the engine in his tow car, so he went to Ford and asked for THREE engines-two went in the Mysterion and one in his Chevy tow vehicle. I guess Ford thought he was building a three engine car!

 

Fascinating, all of it.

 

That's true. This is the tow vehicle.

 

Thank You

 

That is good history. I have posted photos of this car and never knew it was ford powered

 

It’d be a stretch to suggest that muscle cars and Funny Cars were invented here, but the roots of both American inventions run through this very engine compartment. Two years before the second-gen Tempest begat the GTO, Pontiac assigned the Super Stock Division of Mickey Thompson Enterprises to create a prototypical factory hot rod for the NHRA’s new A/Factory Experimental class.

Beyond a mandate to stick with genuine Pontiac hardware wherever visible, in-house engineers Hayden Proffitt and Lloyd Cox (pictured) virtually rewrote the rulebook as they converted a four-cylinder ’62 Tempest into the year’s quickest and fastest late model, a runaway A/FX champ at both of the NHRA’s national events.

By the time this photo was snapped in late June, displacement of M/T’s Super Duty 421 had soared from 434 to 487 cubes, according to Motor Trend, and Cox had assumed the wheel vacated when Proffitt took a 409 Chevy deal and opened his own shop.

Meanwhile, Holman-Moody and Dragmaster were secretly developing 480-inch strokers for Ford and Chrysler, respectively. Understandably alarmed, Wally Parks halted drag racing’s arms race—temporarily—by capping 1963 displacement at 427 for NHRA-legal competition.



If you remember being faked out by this photo, ( Yep got me LOL)don’t feel like the Lone Ranger; so were the rest of us subscribers and newsstand browsers.

Art director Al Isaacs’s clever positioning of the car’s shadow and of editor Don Evans’s right forearm clinched the delusion that Monogram’s 1:8-scale “Big T” was a real roadster.

Inside, the description of Bud Lang’s cover shot joked that because the car is only 16 inches long, Evans and his “lovely cousin, Sharon Huss … were shrunk for photo.” Either way, such juxtaposition was a neat trick when Xacto knives, layers of physical film, and steady hands were required to do the layout work done digitally now.


Staff photographer Pat Brollier shot the B&W photos for CC’s inside story, which Isaacs laid out like a typical car feature. Despite a steep retail price of $10.98—10 times that of the usual $1.98 kit—strong sales inspired Monogram to rush-order a fullsize running version for use as a promotional vehicle.

Customizer Darryl Starbird delivered that bigger-yet Big T to the model maker’s booth at NHRA’s late-summer car show in Indianapolis. (See Oct. 1962 CC; Dec. 1962 R&C.)



This one had us baffled until a regular research source, the American Hot Rod Foundation, came through in a big way.

AHRF director David Steele recognized the back wall from later photos of Carroll Shelby’s Cobra factory, while AHRF curator Jim Miller instantly identified the last Scarab that Phil Remington built just before Reventlow Automobiles Inc. was shut down under IRS scrutiny.

Its all-aluminum Buick V8 shared technology and major components with similar engines that Mickey Thompson developed for this year’s Indy 500. The suspiciously empty Venice, California, space and much of Reventlow’s workforce were taken over by Shelby not long after photographer Pat Brollier visited in early July.

Lance Reventlow personally debuted the sports car in September with an impressive second-place SCCA finish at Santa Barbara and made at least two more starts before selling to John Mecom, who installed a small-block Chevy. Augie Pabst eventually acquired this rarest of Scarabs and still has it, as far as our AHRF friends know



Lance Reventlow was the husband of actress Jill St. John and the son of infamous heiress Barbara Woolworth Hutton. Mom’s fortune financed the boy’s dream of all-American sports cars, built and driven by homegrown hot rodders to beat the best European factory racers.

His trio of front-engined Scarab roadsters did exactly that starting in 1958 with a shocking upset at Riverside’s International Grand Prix and the national SCCA championship. Two subsequent attempts at building formula cars and competing in Europe were expensive failures, however, and the Internal Revenue Service was unconvinced that the cash-burning business was really a business.

Lance fatally crashed a private plane in 1972, at age 36. His alcoholic, drug-addicted mother followed in 1979, leaving behind just $3,000 of a trust fund that had once been the equivalent of nearly $400 million in today’s money.

 

your history is FAR superior to your math!!!-these are wonderful stories!!

 

I have to question the 406 in the ‘55 story, writing copy for a book and actually doing the engine swap are two different things. It’s odd that a photo with the hood open has never surfaced. Or it could be that I just never saw one.
Looking at the cover of the book I’m guessing it came from an east coast publishing house and a few “liberties” may have been taken with the accuracy.
You know what they say, “If it’s on the internet it must be true.” So who has a photo of Roth’s ‘55/406 to show us?

 

It DOES sound like he had an FE in the 55...but a 390 or a 406 ?

 

Wally Parks became HOT ROD’s first full time editor in 1949, co-founded the NHRA in 1961, and simultaneously guided the publishing company and the sanctioning body through the end of this year. In early 1963, he resigned as editorial director of Petersen’s automotive publications to run the NHRA full time.



1962 Arch Streamliner


Two years after designer-builder Athol Graham was killed chasing the unlimited LSR in the homebuilt Spirit of Salt Lake, his widow, Zeldine, and former helper, Otto Anzjon, brought the rebuilt streamliner back to Bonneville to prove that Graham’s design was sound.

The inexperienced driver followed officials’ instructions to gradually build speed to the 225-mph range before attempting this first full pass, which lasted about 100 feet before Allison-induced wheelspin exploded the right-rear tire.



NorCal drag racers Romeo Palamides and Glen Leasher didn’t get to Wendover until the last day of Speed Week, in August, which is normally restricted to prequalified record runs.

They were granted one low-speed shakedown run that reportedly revealed “unexpected chassis problems.” The monstrous Infinity went home to Oakland to prepare for a private session on September 10.

Leasher, who’d acquired jet-car experience in Romeo’s busy Untouchable dragster, made a trouble free checkout pass and turned around. On the return trip, he unexpectedly accelerated on “full ’burner,” veered off the course, flipped repeatedly, and was dismembered.

Later that day, Romeo called another Bay Area slingshot driver about fulfilling his jet dragster’s commitments and created a colorful career for “Jet Car” Bob Smith, who miraculously survived crashes in a whole series of unstoppable Untouchables.

 

Nice pics of Ed!!! thanks for sharing!