I've been asked/roped into giving a 90 minute talk on Hot Rods of the '60s. On the one hand, it's a long time to talk. On the other, it's nowhere near enough time to cover the subject. So please post your ideas or photos I can use. Left vs Right Coasts, change over to V8s, popularity of car music and movies, don't-leave-out rods, influence of factory muscle cars? Whatcha got? And, thanks.
Visual aids can be your friend. If you have say 30 photos and talk about each one for 3 minutes- presto/changeo time is up. It keeps you organized if you are doing a progression through time (chronologically). Maybe little books and hotrod magazines. I used to do one on agriculture, and used some of my farm toys to keep things moving along, these were grade schoolers. First intelligent question got a branded hat for a prize, later questions got chocolate bars- this really kept their interest up. Good luck you are promoting the hobby.
Power point. EZ to set up Lots of visual capabilities Set up categories such as: Street driven Race — drag, land speed Pioneers, how they started where those companies are now Influence of WW2, technology, returning vets, surplus equipment technology used Manufacturer involvement. Dontov could be an example. Influence on muscle cars Pop culture possibilities are almost endless
What's the venue? Gym? Conference hall? The reason I ask is because 90 minutes is only enough time for a dump truck presentation (back up the truck, raise the bed and dump facts and pictures all over the floor and leave). I propose a grassroots introduction and two visual aids, a restored 32 3 window Ford coupe or roadster and a hot rod version of the same car. Perhaps a driver and passenger for each car in appropriate attire. You can interview the drivers and direct the presentation. One can tell the audience about his stock V8 Ford and the other can explain how he wiped the fuddy duddy off and made it fly. You can have appropriate tunes playing in the background, maybe some Tommy Dorsey while the stock chap in his driving cap explains the base line car and some rock and roll when it's time to talk hot rods with your slicked back, tee shirted hooligan and his hot seat cover! I'd sit through it, and I abhor presentations.
It's hard to talk about '60s hot rods without also mentioning '50s and '70s hot rods How the returning WWII G.I.s built drove and raced striped down early Fords because they were cheap and plentiful, but by the '60s those G.I.s had gotten older, with careers, married and hot rodding pretty much died out...and got shoved aside by the Muscle Car phenomenon. Except for "Autoramas", hot rods had pretty much disappeared off the landscape. THEN, in the mid '60s thanks to the Editors and staff of Rod & Custom (Tom Medley, Bud Bryant, Tex Smith etc.) the magazines format started leaning more towards REAL hot rods. By the late '60s, the R & C staff was pondering "how many hot rods are still being driven"...which led to the inception of the first Street Rod Nationals...the re-birth of present day hot rodding. You could probably do a whole 90 minute talk on the events and people leading up to the first Street Rod Nationals...it's a fascinating story
The audience is six to twelve senior retired people (possibly not just males) interested in hot rods. The talk is part of a class given by the Bucknell Institute of Lifelong Learning which offers classes on a variety of topics. we're trying to get away from 16th Century French Romantic Poetry, lovely as that is
Who your talking too,shapes your talk=how much they may or not know;how much they may be able to understand> If mostly same age group. Cars were close to every thing to kids in 50 & 60s=freedom,cool,get-a-way, for =who we were !! All car designs had big design that others did not have. And as kids,we redesigned,some a little,an some a lot. The 50s saw the Ford Flathead V8s n 6 cly inlines,being replaced by far higher HP engines ,Over Head Valve V8s were the new thing. So By the end of 50 and into 60s,these OHV V8s were now old enough to be pretty cheep to get,and add as big power for any earlyer car. The early Fords of 20,n 30s being the coolest an cheepest cars to add OHV V8 in to. I was one of many teens,in the 50s,hoping for something real cool to drive to Sr High School. Dad was not going to buy me a car,that was up to me! I used all of my spare time in Jr High { Midel School to kids now},hunting junk cars to bring home as many free parts,I thought I could use. At the end of 3 years,I had a running hotrod { 28A,powered by Thunderbird V8} to drive to Miami Sr High School in 1960.
Hello, No talk on hot rods can be without drag racing. Instead of a long list of what was or is what during that time period, here is something you can use. So, to keep your audience awake, here are two of the most significant drag race cars representing two separate , but most popular classes. One is Junior Thompson with a 1941 Studebaker Sedan that won the Little Eliminator award at the U.S. Nationals in 1958. But, my version is one that we saw almost every week at So Cal’s Lion’s Dragstrip. So, my films were taken in the Summer of 1959 and the sound came from the Fall of 1959 at the Nationals in Detroit. The sedan was a big part of the local Speed Engineering Shop in Long Beach and a long record set for wins in the C/Gas and B/Gas classes for years. Real Sound One Month Apart… The second one is another real sound version of the top drag race car from 1958 to 62. It won the National Championships in 1962. But, I was able to film the race car during the 1958 to 60 seasons. The sound is original from the fall of 1959 and my film is from 1959 Summer. It is as close to real action and being at the drag strip back during our time racing. Jnaki Yes, I was filming and was a part of prepping my brother’s Impala from 1957 to 1959, when I was allowed to race the car several times. Then we both started our build of the 671 supercharged SBC motor in our 1940 Willys Coupe for the Gas Coupe and Sedan Class racing. 1960 Lion's Dragstrip pits... But, here is the most popular and the most winning class champion in So Cal. "The Sidewinder" from the Joe Mailliard Speed Shop The film was taken in the Summer of 1959 and the real original sound was from September of 1959 in Detroit. Note: If you want more old drag racing from Lion's Dragstrip, Riverside Raceway 1959 and Bakersfield 1960, look at J NAKI You Tube channel . It can be shown on any large screen Smart TV that has access to the You Tube channel. If you want sound, look for the word sound on the listings. Most were taken in the silent mode. good luck and have fun...
It may be worthwhile to spend a minute or two at the beginning of the talk to get a general idea of how knowledgeable the audience is about cars in general and hot rods in particular. Then, you can tailor the rest of the presentation so it's not too boring because they already know everything, as well as not over their heads if they don't know anything. Another thing: in the 1960s hot rods were evolving quickly - what may have been typical one year was out of fashion or obsolete by the next year. So, you may want to cover that evolution, or alternately focus on a single snapshot in time.
Senior citizens, like me. I graduated HS in 1967. These guys are showing up to relive their youth. Talk to them. What year did you get your driver's license? What kind of car did you have? Did you know a "John Milner"? If they talk like some of my friends you'll be lucky to get out of there in 4 hours. I looked up the University and see that they do field trips. You're 2 1/2 hours from 3 Dog Garage. Breakfast, a nice drive, lunch, Ross's Museum and dinner on the way home. That's my idea of a road trip.
Yep, a real revolution arrived in the '60s. The flathead was pronounced pretty much dead (they weren't nostalgic yet), the aftermarket exploded with products, and muscle cars arrived somewhat knocking the wind out of rod building for a while. Rather than limiting this to the '60s, it may be better to cover a decade, say '58 to '67. In this period OHV V8 choices multiplied like rabbits as they turned up in the wrecking yards, and between Detroit and the customizers the ideas of what a hot rod was changed. Few people cared about what we now call 'traditional', it was 'what's the new thing'? Relatively inexpensive alloy wheels for the masses, fat tires, 4-speeds, disc brakes and a lot of parts that up until then were usually only seen on race cars transitioned to street cars, all appeared in this time frame.
Well, I think @Bandit Billy has nailed the title of the presentation. Excellent work BB..... "Hot Rods of the '60s - How they wiped the fuddy duddy off and made them fly."
Hand out some THC gummies, have a couple Hurst girls in tight tees and shorts, good music (pre 74) and play Hollywood Knights on the big screen. Afternoon delight!
For a novice audience I suggest a brief? overview of how hot rodding began and the changes leading up to the 60s era. So much fun stuff here, the dry lakes, Bonneville, drag racing, the people, the cars, the revolution on OHV V8s leading to the ‘muscle car’ era, the girls. @jnaki added some nice racing footage. You can cop a lot of photos from some of Pat Gahnal’s books for the early stuff; I can send some pics if you don’t have the books. So help us out so we can help you more: audience, venue, purpose? John
Thanks. We're pretty lucky. Within three hours are great museums in Eagles Mere, Boyertown, Hershey' AACA, Simeone in Philly and several others.
6-12 class members, part of a large course on car culture, held in a meeting room in Lewisburg,PA and part of the Bucknell Institute of Lifelong Learning-courses for,largely,, retirement age people.
Billy wants the old boys to go wild! @5window, this is a Car Craft from '66 with a hot rod history up to 1948. Fairly long article that is written in a mid sixties perspective. Shoot me a pm with your info and I'll send it to you.
Here are a couple of mine from the 60' in Connecticut. The roadster was my high school car in 65 and the coupe I built in late 60's. Last two are my coupe and roadster that o built. Much different take on traditional now.
I'd get together lots of pics (projector, power point?) and have enough so you and the audience feel like you have just scratched the surface after 45 minutes. As said, these are people who lived through the era, so they will come in with their own memories and biases. With such a small group, I think I'd start by asking where they were, how old and what they were doing, to get a feel for the group. If they are engaged and receptive, perhaps question some of their notions. Above all, if something comes up that you didn't know or can't answer, be honest. Just the basic topic What is a Hot Rod can take at least thread a year on here! Define what the objects are. Define who was interested in them. Define what use they served to those people. Cover the industry, the famous names, how they were portrayed in media, both focused and in general. How this subset of the population changed things both positively and negatively for the general population. Aside from just the cars, clubs and members, what other facets of life were common or rare in this niche group?
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