Just got December R&C and onp page 30 is the beginning of thier latest list of all time favourite rods and kustoms. Whilst the authour's list doesn't match mine that's not what I'm taking issue with. My issue is with the caption beneath the picture of the Doane Spencer '32 and I quote.... " The famous Doane Spencer roadster established the classic look for a highboy that is still copied today and would be on anybody's list of best rods." OK it's on my list, but it is not the car that established the classic hot rod highboy look. In fact it was built long after the cars that established that look. In my opinion, the Spencer car shares little with the classic Hot Rod Highboy '32 which did not feature the same level of engineering or expensive store bought components. The Joe Nitti roadster is a better example of the classic and traditional highboy roadster and even then, that car displays a degree of finish and detail not common for Hot Rods of the time. The Spencer roadster was in it's day, more like a modern day Boyd Coddinton creation, featuring the best and most expensive and exotic components along with a level of build quality and detail not at all common amongst hot rods. I ask, how many hot rods in 1948 featured race car steering or Duval windscreens? Unlike the quintesential highboy roadsters, the Spencer car features a chassis that has been bobbed front and rear and then Z'ed to lower the car's height and presumably the roll centre making it more suitable for road racing rather than traditional hot rod pursuits. This is not typical of Hot Rod highboys of the late forties when this car was built. Yeah, it's a gorgeous car, but it aint what the writer claims. The first highboys actually appeared in '32 and '33 at events like the Elgin Stock Car races. These racers were later displayed all over America and I figure it was also these stripped down brand spanking new cars that inspired the original hot rodders to build what we call 'Traditional Highboys'. I'd even be so bold as to suggest it was these cars, that inspired Doane Spencer, when he built his road racing Hot Rod, many years later. The guts of my beef is that the folks writing these magazine stories owe it to us all to record history more accurately than they sometimes do. Certainly not to change it to suit themselves or what they think it should be. There's enough old rodders still around that they have no excuses for getting it wrong.
I love BOTH of those cars, but you're right (as always Carps ), the Doane Spencer car really was something else. The Nitti car is probably the Hot Rod that got me feeling all gooey about Hot Rod roadsters. Somewhere I've got a 70's or 80's issue of R&C that has it on the inside cover. First time I saw it I just thought.. "That's it!" So are you going to write R&C a letter?
from what i can remeber about the doane spencer roadster is that it was originally set up to do road races like the "Carrera Pan Americana" mexican race. tat was the main reason for the stance and the high strength components. he wanted everything up inside the frame rails, hence the exhaust thru the frame rail. not really a hi-boy by the rule but a super nice car anyhow. jerry
Very well spoken about a subject that irritates me alot of times. The main reason for this might be the lack of knowledge by of the magazine contributers or that it is easy to fall into stereotyped writing. However, ignorance of getting the detail correct does alot of harm and there have been several times when I seen information even more misleading than that... How many times have we read "period perfect custom (or rod)" when it is absolutly not that case? That kind of writing is more common pratice than rare I´m afraid. The young guys, or those who are new or maybe not as deeply dedicated as a few of us are, will newer get their things right this way. My own opinon is that magazines like R&C, Custom Rodder and Street Rodder do have a great responsability to get their comments and articles right.
Maybe "sets in stone, the style".... or "brings into fine focus".... would have been better descriptive phrases. Now that I think of it, sets in stone doesn't work either, because, even if they are extremely similar, there are rarely two hotrods exactly alike unless they are built together just for that purpose. It's interesting how "True history" becomes fable so fast, and fable becomes "True History"... I'm actually starting to believe Noah really did build an Ark! (Are all Australians really the offspring of convicts?)
[ QUOTE ] Yes. Got a problem with that? [/ QUOTE ] Not likely, since I heard I had an ancestor in England who was hung for stealing another man's sheep... My main curiosity is, I don't know if the hung him for poaching or for adultery? Actually, I just said it because everyone's histories are a mix up of some facts and probably a lot of fable and I figure the "truth" is whatever a person cares to believe at the moment. No I have no religion either.....
I bet Pat G wouldn't have gotten it wrong like that. This is happpening more and more often as younger people get the editorial jobs. I'm afraid it's only going to get worse.
I don't think it's very nice to criticize the Doane Spencer car....I built it.....just before I invented the internet.
[ QUOTE ] DrJ said: (Are all Australians really the offspring of convicts?) [/ QUOTE ] Nah mate, I'm the dinky di Aussie offspring of wog peasants.
[ QUOTE ] Are all Australians really the offspring of convicts? [/ QUOTE ] My ancestors actually paid two hundred and fifty pounds to come here as 'Sqautters'. However, Mrs Carps does come from 'convict stock'.
[ QUOTE ] Not likely, since I heard I had an ancestor in England who was hung for stealing another man's sheep... My main curiosity is, I don't know if the hung him for poaching or for adultery? [/ QUOTE ] Those guys all got sent to New Zealand.
59 Buick Wagon just about covered it. There arn't a lot of us left that were actually there. The Spencer car at the time was exactly what we despise now. However at the time it was the ultimate Rod acording to the Mags. As time moves on the memory goes away and an un-informed openyon can become the truth. I havn't read a car mag yet that you can't find a hole in there facts somewhere. Stay true to yourself and to Hell with how "they" do it. The Wizzard
The Jalopy Journal
