Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

Hello,

When my brother and I went to Lion’s Dragstrip almost every weekend from 1958 to 1960, we saw plenty of So Cal racers. One of the coolest coupes was this white 34 altered from Torrance/Redondo Beach area in the Los Angeles coastal zones.

Cleaned up and edited photo brings out the details clearly...

The orange "tech" booth in the background was the first stop for being classified into any class of racing from stocks to altered coupes to FED race cars. The scales and tech area was manned with several Lion’s Dragstrip employees well versed in the rules for each class.

One weekend, I had taken off the front bumper to attach the tow bar to our 1940 Willys Coupe to race in the Gas Coupe/Sedan Class of street legal cars. As we drove the 58 Impala through the booth area, the tech came over and painted B/Altered on our window. He knew of our motor and set up from the last few weeks and designated B/A, not B/Gas.

When asked why he gave us the B/Altered designation, he pointed to the “no front bumper” and showed us the rule for street legal gas coupe rules. So, we pulled over and unhitched the Willys Coupe. My brother was mad and told me to drive home, about 1.5 miles and get the front bumper. When I got back, I installed the front bumper and the tech rep wiped off the B/A designation and gave us the B/Gas designation it was supposed to have in the first place.
B/Gas, not B/Altered.

Jnaki

But, during this time period, I took films of most of our favorite race cars. We had breaks between the time trials and class eliminations, so I wandered around taking films. One of the films was of the Drifters from Redondo Beach area and the white 1934 Altered Coupe.

The ever present Lion’s Dragstrip original, Orange Timing Tower is perfect for midnight Halloween race timing…
Early art work for the Friday Art thread
It was the stance and appearance of the white 1934 coupe that made people look. It looked fast just sitting in the pits or on the dragstrip. In this case, it was at Lion’s Dragstrip.

Below: The only action films for the 1934 Ford Altered Coupe of the Drifters from 1959.


Whether it has/had red steel wheels or the ever popular Moon Spun Aluminum Discs, the look was there and it just said … “Let’s Race…” 50s-60s style. YRMV

Boo/Altered Class ... or to get into the Halloween mode, a loud, midnight cruise… Or since the dragstrips are not open on Friday night, the Saturday races will have a new look racing for the class win.

 

Pendleton.