You have to wonder how many sets would be around today and what would they be worth had Ford took the deal and produced them. And btw, I thought that was a good write up.
great article boss, It's a shame too many "editors" really don't get it. I've tried writing a few things myself. You are correct. I need to be myself and bring myself into everything I submit !!
Man, the magazine that p***ed on your article must've been pretty uptight. Is there historical do***entation on the amount of Arduns originally produced? Maybe someone already has, but it'd be cool to have a registry of know sets. That way we'd know how many are still out there waiting to be found.
I didn't really focus on ardun heads here, but Ryan's writing. It's certainly different now Ryan. Interesting to see the development of your style and voice. "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least different." - T.S. Elliot In my own personal history of creating I've found editors and critics to be utterly useless. I mean hell, Rolling Stone bashed Zeppelin for years. Till they started kissing their ***....
I think every writer is influenced by somebody, whether they admit it or not. My influences are pretty obvious to anyone unfortunate enough to have read enough of my nonsense. F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hunter Thompson. Maybe a little Cormac McCarthy lurking around in the shadows. The point was never to be original. The point was to have a voice... To write the way I wanted to write, not the way an editor wanted me to write and not the way I imagined an audience expected me to write. Looking back, I think that old Ardun piece is more interesting than a lot of the work I did later. It’s rough. It’s uneven. It probably needed editing. But it sounds like me. Or at least a younger version of me that hadn’t yet been trained to sand off all the sharp edges. Honestly, I don’t think I ever really got back to this place until I gave up on the industry altogether and stopped caring what editors thought. Maybe that’s why finding this thing was so much fun. It felt less like discovering an old article and more like running into a younger version of myself. A little dumber. A lot more arrogant. But probably more honest than I realized at the time. Plus, it's pretty god damned hard to find a subject cooler than Duntov. One of my greatest regrets in life is not really having a place to publish Porsche content. Not just because I love old Porsches, but because Duntov's influence is almost as big at Porsche as it was at Chevrolet.
A holy grail of hot rod parts. When @IronTrap snagged his at an estate auction I was one of many to damn near fall over! Cant wait to hear it roar
I've watched Tardel ***emble a few of these motos now using original heads, not the repros - some blown, some NA. In my opinion, you won't find a more beautiful power plant without sailing the seven seas and getting beached in Italy. But they are mechanical. Aggressively, unrepentantly mechanical. The kind of mechanical that makes Germans nervous. Which means you pay attention or you pay consequences. Constant tuning. Constant adjusting. These things do not reward neglect. They require the kind of attention most men can't sustain in a marriage.
Learned something again Thanks Ryan. I didn’t know that Zora tried to sell the Ardun head design to Ford. I for one am glad the editor turned you down, might not have the HAMB if you became a famous writer at car magazine, screwed up and self centered I know. Thanks Dan
I love the paper he did to GM telling them the Caddy mill just had to much torque. needed a tidy hi winder.
I started The Jalopy Journal and the HAMB long before any of that happened. Hell, part of the reason I started them in the first place was because I wanted to write for Street Rodder, Rod & Custom, Hot Rod, and all the rest, but had absolutely no way through the front door. Back then, I was obsessed with magazines. Every month I’d buy the latest issues, sit down with a pen, and basically grade them. What worked, what didn’t, who could write, who couldn’t, what stories mattered and which ones felt like bought and paid for adverti*****ts. I treated it like homework... and posted the results every month on TJJ. My first actual paid writing gig was for Sport Truck Magazine under the name Slim Pickens. The only time I was ever published in one of the big Hot Rod publications was an R&C letter to the editor type of deal... and it was 100% plagiarized. Long story. The irony is that I spent all those years wanting to be part of that world, only to eventually realize the thing I really wanted was the freedom to write without asking anyone’s permission.
I've posted this in the past, however, when attending the 32 reunion in Detroit a few years ago struck up a conversation with a vendor as I recall that purchased a firetruck from the coalmining hill area of Kentucky that was powered with an Ardun, seems the extra power was needed to traverse the demographics & meet the demands of pumping equipment etc.....if that didn't put a smile on his face one of the on board storage compartments had another complete Ardun conversion presumably destined for an additional pumper or coal truck but never installed. Not certain of the condition of either unit but surmise if kept intact with antifreeze &/or cosmoline they remained serviceable.
Yeah they are a lot. He had Ronnie roadster build his blown motor and has been doing a few videos about what that’s involved along the way. In no way a plug and play that’s for sure! I’ve always been a ****er for the blue prints and cut aways of the Ardun sets ups as well. Just awesome to stare at. Matt recently got a signed set of the blueprints and it was worth the effort he made to have them framed for sure
Ryan, I have been saving this letter that my brother and I wrote to Hot Rod, for 63 years. Being a reader of Hot Rod since my days in the school library in Jr. High, it was intended for their Post Entry page, thankfully my mother didn't put it in the mail. I must say the HAMB was a real incentive for me to do***ent, and put into words, thoughts, and even some advice that I had never done before. I was quite nervous the first time I posted anything, hoping I wouldn't get laughed out of here. It even led to writing a couple of articles for HRD, at the urging of my favorite automotive writer Pat Ganahl, I regret not showing it to him. On the subject of Zora, I was fortunate to be chosen to restore the ch***is on the Cisitalia D-46 that he was racing within a week or two of the day I was born. On your writings, I detect a little of Brock Yates !
I've never heard of Snooseville Oregon Marty. Louvered the hood with an ax, boy, you've come a long way!
Original arduns are cool. The reproduction, while functionality better. Have started to become rather belly ****on to me, which is a shame. Seem like every Uber rich street rodder turned hot rodder is chasing the fad of ardun heads and a scot blower. Churning out neo traditional belly ****on "traditional hot rods" like they're going out of style. I'd rather see a nicely detailed 265 or 283 theses days, which is sad.
That's kinda different, if you're actually running them hard, I have huge amounts of respect for that. I'm mainly talking street or even show level cars. I've yet to see any of the everything polished engines operate at less than legal speeds or even chirp a tire. Not saying it doesn't happen. Just seems that they(the owners) think have too much money wrapped up in them to be using them angrily.
Sounds good to me. I have appreciated your writing for over 20 years now and I wouldn’t change a bit.
Zora had that covered too...in 1959, can't find a photo but I think this Biscayne had a fuel injected 283 in it.
yeah… ignore the street cars - repro ardun heads in that setting is just a flex really. But on the salt? That was the original intent of the reproductions.
It still reads pretty well to my ignorant non-scribbler senses. Thanks for the Ardun lesson, too. I always heard that they were intended to boost the power and reliability in Fords heavy trucks. When I run across a 1940s Ford cabover in a junkyard I always peek hoping to see an undiscovered Ardun equipped V8.
Years ago, when I lived in Orlando, I had a buddy take me to a shop in little old Ocala, out near the horse farms. Wish I could remember the guy’s name, but after the introductions, I was ******ed to the inner sanctum of his parts collection. There, in an original crate, was a complete Ardun setup like the one in Ryan’s picture. I think it went to Don Garlits later on. The guy also had a NOS Cragar OHV in another box. A NOS Ch***is Research tube ch***is and a lifetime collection of vintage speed parts were crammed into the small room, and parked out back were two semi trailers that were full of parts from Almquist (I think) when they went out. He claimed to have several hundred NOS. 97’s in it. The guy had a modern car repair shop, but sitting outside was a blue, chopped 32 Tudor sedan that belonged to his wife. He has long since p***ed away, but maybe some of you old Floridians might remember his name.
I dig everything about this Ardun article. Short, weird and oddly aggressive? Keep it coming! But then I'm a fan of Algren, O'Connor, and Chandler and can see a lot of that as well as those you mentioned. One thing about all the above is they put your mind in the story, building the picture with spareness, providing detail without frill. HST's personality was so looming that it's important to go back and read his stuff, he doesn't become part of the reporting, he puts you in his place of view. No doubt it's unlikely you would do it the same way now. The influence of life and experience overtakes the prior influences once life's bumps and bruises leave their marks. Funny thing when one is asked about influences, typically lists seem to be what one likes. Not saying you are doing that, more to the point that it's too damn much work to explain that an influence might not be admirable, interesting or good, but it still can help point the way.
The Jalopy Journal
