Happy New Year to you and your's Ryan...it's actually hard not to admire those racers, all classics really...I see some American Iron giving them some competition and amongst the event...heck the T-Bird looks gigantic really...lots of James Deans infamous last driver too...very popular...standing starts...eating dust and smoke...and beautiful scenery...everyone having a great time except those three behind the breakdown......it might of even been a New Years Race...no winter there... Thank the Vida family for sharing these... The losses to the Community never take a break...and surely the Island is feeling the loss of a very successful countryman... He we go again...still unfinished greatness carrying over and who knows what's behind the next mystery garage door...bring it on...it's always 24/7 around here...
I grew up in the Detroit area where “those foreign sports cars” were largely overlooked in favor of the higher horsepower offerings of the Big Three. Where a Jaguar XKE might not get a second look in favor of the Corvette parked next to it. In the late 50’s and 60s I was exposed to sports cars and sports car racing by an older neighbor. He had an Austin Healy Sprite that he drove daily but eventually morphed into a full time H Production race car. We did rally’s, gymkhanas and also road course racing at the club level. The early sports car guys and hot rodders probably had a lot in common even though they never or rarely hung out together. There were the late nights in the garage, tuning/testing, getting the car ready for race day and unlike today actually driving the car to the road course or drag strip, competing then driving it home. The hot rodders were often looking for multiple horsepower while the sports car guys were looking for fractions of a horsepower, but still the same game. A different time for both as a lot of the safety equipment was just starting to evolve. I enjoy all forms of racing and from an early age just like cars. I have some diverse cars. As much as I like the sound and ground shaking horsepower of big V-8’s I also enjoy the angry hornet sound of small bore sports cars accelerating out of a corner. If there is any vintage sports car racing near you do yourself a favor and attend, you won’t regret it.
" not a genuine hot rod in sight..." ?? Deuce roadster at 0.37 in the back. Which also brings questions like, were there hot rod/sports car crossovers in HI like stateside? El Callabero etc. And who were the drivers and owners? Navy/Army guys? Can the Vida family share more details? Wife and I are headed to Kauai this month!
@Ryan Are there any new developments on the progress of your work shed ? Enjoy your time out there at the Atomic headquarters, Pacific division.
No sir… it’s pretty much unchanged. I’m gonna focus on it this summer though now that the house is done done. I will say, my rust preventative measure for tool storage has been hugely successful.
The Jalopy Journal
