Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

WOW! Those Magnesium wheels sure shine up good. Lots of work though.

 

"Tie him to the car and drag him...."

 

1958-59 season
Hello,

A whole new world opened up for us in 1955 onward. As close to the Lion’s Dragstrip as we lived in our first Westside of Long Beach house and then later when we moved to our final house, it gave us some satisfaction that is a good reason to like hot rods and drag racing. Ideas and sounds made us want more. Watching from the railroad berm was fun, but we wanted to be a part of the whole “new” scene.

Our surrounding neighborhood industrial buildings held plenty of speed shops, parts dealers and places where cars were rebuilt to go fast. The whole area was like catching a cold. It could be prevented, but it just comes at you without you knowing why. Hot rods, custom cars/trucks, and drag racing nearby all made for two brothers to enjoy life as we grew up enjoying every minute of it.

Jnaki

The first dual purpose street/dragstrip car, the 1958 Impala moved us into a whole new world. We had to learn fast if we were going to win some races and get good at something we liked to do. The next step was to build a coupe for the Gas Coupe and Sedan class. A 1940 Willys Coupe was the base and we took off with what money we had collected and saved.

By the time the whole scene began to close down on us, my brother had already adapted to his new environment out in the So Cal deserts and beaches. Desert racing motorcycles in the open spaces and surfing in the crystal blue waters all along the coastline. Those two activities took us a long way away from our home in the Westside, but the time and adventures were enjoyable to say the least. One expanded, then changed and closed down. The other became a lifetime activity, full of skills learned and ways to cope with the surroundings, as we grew up to adulthood.

But thinking back to those old times of being bossed around by my brother went like this:

“Get out of the car (Impala) and run across the street to take a film of those cars going into the dragstrip entrance…” “When I roll up to the ticket guy, I will buy two tickets, but you film the whole action.” “Make sure I am seen in the filming.”

“Then, go to the staging area and film me rolling to the starting line. If you get a chance, run over to the spectator stands and film me racing in the class…”

It is a wonder why I did not go into the Hollywood Filming Industry with all of commands coming my way. 60 years later, it all fell into place in the timeline of two brothers growing up as hot rod teens and drag racing fanatics. YRMV