Rochester NY historical pic and question

You must remember Harold Ward on Main street

 

buford36, I sure do remember B&M SPEED SHOP. Milt sold the equipment to John Unamann and is now living in Middle*** N.Y. I never went to Monroe County to see any races I guess I am not that old. I do see Lee Osborne and Tommy Leeson quite often. Tom lives in Canandaigua just a couple of miles from my shop. Lee is down in Penn Yan busy building hot rods.

 

Greyone,yeah,Ward and Tom Robinson.

 

i just wanted to add that this is a great read guys. although i'm not from the area, it sure brought back memories of my days growing up and raising hell in indiana. i may have to start a thread about some of the guys in lafayette that were "famous" back in the day - LOL anyway, thanks again for a very interesting thread. mike

 

Here's another pic I found Ford related downtown,I'm too young to know if this is the dealer you're talking about.

 

Cool pic!

Wonder where that was located?

 

the silo behind it on the left looks like the one thats painted with Rochester Coloniel's logo

 

Judging from the cars in the photo it looks to be from the mid to early 20's. At first I though it looked like the Spot Coffee House, but that's an old Chevy dealership in downtown. I don't think they are the same building.

 

I know that I've brought these guys names up previously, but with all these remembrances of Rochester being cast about, who remembers Bob and Carl Austin? In my opinion the two guys more responsible for the continuation of the hot rod life style than anyone in the area. Their little two car garage off Main Street in the Bull's Head area was the epi-center of the car guys lives back in the '50's up through the '70's. Bob and Carl's '27 T roadster is, in my opinion, the most perfect hot rod I have ever seen. If I wasn't down here in Florida and away from my magazines and photos, I would try to post photos for all to see and admire.

Those guys were like gods to me and to many others. Carl's gone now and I can hardly type this as my eyes are misting up and my fingers are shaking just thinking about him. Bob is still doing his thing out in Chili and I see him often in either his perfectly straight and black '34 Ford phaeton or his just as perfect deuce 3-window. He's 74 (?) now and as crusty as ever. Those were the days, my friends!

 

Thats the old Hallman Chevrolet

 

Hey John! How ya doing down there?
Didn't the Austin's also build and race a supermodified at Oswego Speedway in the mid to late 60's, with a couple different drivers?

Bernie Scheuerman

 

Hey Bernie! Bob and Carl sure did build a Super Modified to race at Oswego. They bought the car from a guy that used to come down from Ontario, Canada to race every week. When they got it it had a nailhead Buick with fuel injection! Wow, I'd like to have that setup now. One of their last drivers was Lee Osborne, and we all know his story! While they never had the finances to really compete with the likes of Nolan Swift or Jimmy Shampine or Bentley Warren, their cars were ALWAYS some of the best prepared and best looking as they had pride in ther stuff and wanted to always ensure that was what the people saw.

Bob and Carl also used to race bikes. Carl had an Ariel Square Four that he and Bob adapted a Judson supercharger from a VW to. It was very fast and the sound cioming from those Square Fours was pure music. Just before Carl p***ed he was working on his '34 Ford tudor that he had driven as his everyday car back in the early to mid-fifties. His sons now take his wife Kay to various events and it is a real pleasure to see and talk with her.

Man, the memories this is bringing back!!!

 

Man, I love it that this thread has opened up the memory book for quite a few of us. I loved where I grew up and I often reminesce about my younger days. Lot's of that has to do with the fact that my mom and dad are gone now and I keep them in my thoughts everyday. My dad, Howie, as everyone called him was a gem of a guy, and I'm not just saying that. Lot's of times folks that worked for him over the years at the dealership have called down here in Florida to check on him and my mom. I've heard them say that he was one of the best people to work both with and for. Some of that has to do with the fact that he would never ask someone to do something he would'nt do himself. He cared about his "boys" and he went to bat for them when necessary. I'm lucky to have been his son.

I do miss Rochester and I don't get back home near enough. Last time I was there was in 1998. A year before that some old friends and I cooked up a plan (after consuming the pre- requisite amount of "suds") that we would try to organize a neighborhood school reunion. It worked out great and we had about 75 families show up for the Saturday night dance and Sunday picnic at Ellison park. On a similar note do any of you know about this?....

http://www.waynestock2008.com/index1.asp

Anyway thanks everyone for chiming in. I hope to meet everyone of you Rochester HAMBers face to face someday.

 

You guys are really making me miss Upstate NY.

 

I recall going to the Austin bros shop when I was in my early teens (early 60's), with my older brother. It was really an experience for a young lad....

There was a small article about the Austin bros in one of the little books, but I'm about 800 miles from them right now and can't look it up. If somebody doesn't beat me to it, I'll post it when I get back home.

 

While on the subject of "brothers", I couldn't help but think of the Turner Bros. For those that aren't farmilliar with the name, they built and owned very succesfull modified stock cars from around the mid sixties to late seventies. Defiantly a big part of Rochester racing history, for sure ! Over the years, their drivers included Lee Osborn, Gary Reickert, Mike Miller, Bobby Merz, and Dutch Hoag. I was 9 yrs. old in 1965 when Hoag was winning just about every week at Spencer , in that orange #18 coupe. I , like many of you, will cherish those memories forever!

Bernie Scheuerman

 

some of these names sound familiar to me too, but I remember the late 60' early 70's the most.
do you guys remember crusin' up and down Lake ave or hanging out at the Arbys on main street?
I remember the cops stopping in and checking up on everyone.
how about the paint jobs from Rochester Automotive Specialties.
the p**** and lace paint jobs were costly at $400-$700 for a complete paint job.
do you remember the drag cars, Ol Rumble guts,Jim Oddy,Zakia and Clark,CC Ryder,Marshall law,Ross the Boss or George Bedor, racing at Niagara and empire dragways and spencer speedway.
those were some good times, I got my first streetrod in 1976 and have been playing with hotrods ever since Ron....

 

That's the problem Ron, you got to stop playing with those hot rods and get serious!!!

By the bye, Marshall Law was the best. Those gigantic wheelstands were just awe inspiring. I wonder whatever happened to that little Falcon convertible. It would really be a find to resurrect that beast.

I have no idea how Ross the Boss is doing. Last I heard, he was nearly homeless!

Good to hear from you and glad that the fires didn't get you. However, sorry that they consumed one of your haulers.

 

Hey John, we might be making it back this summer for a wedding and maybe take in a few cruise spots Ron....

 

Nice photo! It is a Studebaker, the large six cylinder model, cound be any year from 1914-17, some Studebaker expert probaly knows the yearly differances.

 

John - - Joe Malone, the owner of the 9500 rpm, wheelstanding "Marshall Law" Falcon convertable sold the car in the late 70's to somebody who lived on Latta Rd. near Manitou. I saw it around 1985. The guy had restored it with the same paint, lettering , etc., and took it to the track occasionally just to have fun - he just loved doing wheelies with it ! About 1999, Joe told me that someone came by his house a few years earlier with the car on a trailer, and that they had put a hardtop roof on it. Apparently its condition was pretty ratty, as he said he felt like throwing up when he saw it! He then told me that he had heard the car had been cut up for s**** because the unitbody/frame had finally broken , after all those years of wheelies and abuse.

Bernie Scheuerman

 

Very cool post fella's...

Tony

 

"do you guys remember crusin' up and down Lake ave .....?"

Sure do ! About 1965 I was 18 and got caught drag racing two other cars on Lake Ave. The other two guys were kinda mouthy with the cop and took their tickets and drove off. I hung back and the cop asked me if they were friends of mine. I told him they weren't. He wrote me up, but when I looked at the ticket the next day, I saw that he had written the appearance date as being on a Sunday. I knew there wasn't any traffic court held on Sunday, so I didn't do anything and never heard anything more about it. To this day, I believe he wrote the wrong date to give me a break because I didn't give him a lot of **** and was polite. I learned a valuable lesson that night.....

 

so I dug up some pictures of some of the drag cars from the Rochester area. anyone else have any you would like to share Ron....

 

Bernie, say it ain't so! They put a hardtop roof on Marshall Law!!! AAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!
However, I do believe that I had heard that the car had really had some problems due to thew many many wheelstands it had been subjected to. But, cut it up and throw it away, again I say "AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"

 

Ron, if you do get back, give a holler and we'll try to get together for lunch or dinner or a cruise out to the Log Cabin.

John

 

Well, that is what Joe had "heard" anyways. (that it was stripped and s****ped)......
HOWEVER , I have reasons to think the car possibly still exists.
A couple years ago, a friend of mine told me about a guy he knows who says he has an " old Falcon drag car " in his garage in the city. He vaugely described the car to my friend, who then described it to me.
I remember that there were some simalarity's and I thought the chances of it being Joe's car were about 50%. He had no plans to do anything with it, He just liked having it, and it wasn't for sale.
So, maybe it is still with us ! Defiantly a cool piece of Rochester drag racing history , and one of my all time favorite "local"cars from years gone by.
Some other earlier history:
Joe bought the car off Judges showroom floor in early April 1964, a few days before the Mustang debuted
It was originally red, and was called "Mr ****" (as in Fal****)
The name "Marshall Law" came about after he painted the car black, and with its white top , it resembled a police car.

Bernie Scheuerman

 

The Rambler in these pics still exists and is owned by our very own BigChief on here!!

 

Wasn't that Rambler owned by Ross the Boss?

 

YEP thats the one Ron....