TRJ Issue #30

The Wild Bunch
In 1973, the team of Nick Sadd, Al Teague, and George Bentley turned 268mph at Bonneville in a stock-bodied Model A highboy roadster with a blown Hemi. It’s one of the most famous land speed racing roadsters of the last few decades, and our feature explores its history and more recent restoration.

Perfect ‘36
In April ’59, Bob Hooper’s full custom, all steel ’36 Ford roadster, built by fiberglass pioneer Dee Wescott, graced the cover of Hot Rod Magazine. It was built in the early custom tradition, with a chopped windshield, sunken headlights, a La Salle grille, and De Soto ribbed bumpers. Avid rod and custom collector Ross Myers, of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, now owns the beautifully restored candy apple red sled.

Hot Rod Distortion
Artist Chris Froggett’s work can be seen on everything from car show posters to speed equipment packaging and t-shirts. He has a unique style, morphing an incredible attention to detail with wildly exaggerated proportions in the spirit of the early “monster car” artists. We feature a selection of his work.

It’s All About the Engines
Veteran rodder John Mumford has a penchant for equipping his various hot rods with interesting drivetrains and his two latest coupes are no exception. His ’50s-style fenderless, chopped Deuce three-window is powered by a 371-inch ’57 Olds J-2 Rocket 88. His ’33 three-window coupe is fashioned after the street coupes of the ’60s, with a largely stock body coated in ’57 Chevy Sierra Gold and a dual-quad 425-inch nailhead under the hood.

Roaring Roadsters
Dick Wallen, a successful racing cinematographer, filmed countless Indy, Grand Prix, and other racing events. He has since produced high-end racing books. His latest, Roaring Roadsters: The Road to Indy, features historic photography and text pertaining to the track roadsters he grew up watching at places like Oakland Stadium, Carrell Speedway, Culver City, and even Bonneville. We feature an excerpt from the book along with an introduction by Greg Sharp.

A Long Time Coming
East Coast rodder Richard Glymph was inspired to become a custom car painter when he saw Larry Watson’s brand new, panel-painted ’58 T-bird on the cover of the 1959 Custom Cars Annual. Five decades later he is a well-respected painter in his own right, and he built a tribute to the late Watson with his slammed and wildly scalloped ’60 T-bird.

AHRF: Preserving Hot Rodding’s History
The American Hot Rod Foundation was formed by racing and rodding enthusiast Steve Memishian to record and preserve the history of our sport. They’ve collected countless historic images and hundreds of hours of video interviews with hot-rodding pioneers. Our story features a few of the gems from their archives, along with text by Chris McCreary and the AHRF’s Henry Astor.

The Best of the Rest
As part of our 10th Anniversary celebration, we take a look back at some of our favorites from previous issues of The Rodder’s Journal. Some of the cars featured are Dan LaCroix’s exquisitely restored Tony Nancy “22 JR.” roadster, Connie Kalitta’s “Bounty Hunter,” Mike O’Neill’s Dave Simard-built Deuce three-window, and Doug Vaughan’s purple flamed ’52 Chevy custom.

Intakes
It’s tough to name one component that “makes” a hot rod, but multi-carb intakes are definitely on the list. Whether you’ve got a smallblock Chevy or an early Hemi, Olds, or Buick, we cover some of the more popular 2-, 3-, 4- and 6×2 intakes.

Nose Up, Pedal Down
Larry Fator’s ’46 Chevy sedan delivery captures all the spirit of the street Gassers of the ’60s mainly because that’s when it originally hit the streets. He has now restored it with all the accoutrements of the era, from the yellow-tinted Plexiglas windows and magnesium Halibrands to the cross-ram-fed smallblock Chevy belching fire through VHT White fenderwell headers.