Art & Inspiration Traditional images that need no explanation.

The Sam Conrad car before he ran the big inch Olds built by Hugh Tucker.

 

Bet that was a 'real performer' at Bonneville.

 

I rode in "The California Kid" 1934
Ford coupe with Chris Carrier from Connecticut not long after he bought it from Pete Chapouris. Later, Chris sold the coupe back to Pete.

 

Here is a color one for you.

 

This roadster was owned at the time, by Howard Leever, and Fred Esser. Both Howard, and Fred were members of the San Francisco Ramblers car club. They mostly ran the roadster at Bonneville.They also ran the roadster at Half Moon Bay Dragstrip. IIRC their roadster was featured in Hot Rod Magazine, May 1958, which I had autographed by both Howard and Fred, and I still have in my collection. They use to come to another Rambler club member's house, ( Joe Carlomagno ) on Thursday evenings to shoot pool. I know this because I lived across the street from Joe in San Francisco 1956-1958. I spent a lot of time with Joe, learning about hot rods. He was a mentor to me. He used to take me to Mel's Drive In with him to attend the Rambler club meetings. He also took me to the Oakland Roadster Show, as well as some other shows in San Jose. At a San Jose show, when I was 15 years old I met George Barris. Wow, that was something for a 15 year old to experience. Before we moved to San Francisco we lived in Citrus Heights, California. While living in Citrus Heights, as I found out later, I went to the same high school as George Barris. Little did I know at the time that this exposure to the hot rodding scene at a young age would still be with me at 82 years old.