Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

Junji, I did a little search to see what the sprawling Speed Engineering facility looks like today. The real estate info shows that the building was built in 1957. So the boys rented a virtually new building back then! Thanks for posting, that is some interesting stuff.

 

'bang, I've had that photo framed and hanging in my shop for years. The guy in the center is Tom Benson, a guy that I worked with at TRW for most of my career there. He brought in an 8x10 copy of that photo when he learned that I was the guy who owned the Chevy powered '29 pu that was always parked in the lot. Instant friends. Then he had another copy made and gave it to me. He had some great stories from his car club days in Az. Great guy.

 

May 1958 Hot Rod Magazine article.

 

George Barris and John Peters, the owner of The Ala Kart.

 

Long and flat...

 

Before duct tape...

 

Notice the masking tape on the frontend and front top? Also the rocker molding is removed, along with sideview mirror.
Stock cars of this era were stock! It was pretty common for a team (quite often dealer sponsored) to get a car out of inventory, 'super tune' it, strip some stuff off, and go racing. If the car didn't get banged up, it would be sold as a 'used' car.
Herschell McGriff of Portland, Orygun drove a stock Oldsmobile ('49 or'50 IIRC) from Portland to Daytona, raced it, drove it back to Portland and his sponsor ( a car dealer) sold it to the public. I'm sure there was full disclosure in their sales pitch, though.
That was back when stock car racing used STOCK cars (and no body templates) and you could tell from it's shape what make and model it was. Ah...the good old days!