Hot Rod magazine – Pulpaddict

FLATHEADS FOREVER: HISTORY OF HOT RODDING

Henry Ford’s Flathead V-8, introduced in 1932, gave power to the people. It was more than just a bigger engine: FLATHEADS FOREVER: HISTORY OF HOT RODDING, and the rodders & racers responsible for making it happen.

Until the advent of modern OHV V-8 engines in 1949, Ford’s Flathead V-8 was the enthusiast’s engine of choice. It still is for traditional ‘old-school’ hot rodders, and competitors in Pre-War class road racing. It’s truly an “evergreen” story: FLATHEADS FOREVER: HISTORY OF HOT RODDING.

As early as the 1930s, Ford was capitalizing on what would become known in the 1960s as “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” marketing. It all started with the ‘32 Ford side-valve Flathead V-8, the first engine of its kind to be mass produced and available in popular-price vehicles. The 221-inch V-8 was rated at 65 horsepower at 3,400 rpm and, in 1933 and 1934, output increased to 75 and 85 horsepower, respectively.

A major win at the 1933 National Road Race in Elgin, IL established Ford as a feared competitor in road racing. Savvy dealers wasted no time bragging about Ford’ is win in the Nationals in local advertising. This drove customer traffic and V-8 model sales. Almost instantly new V-8 Ford roadsters could be found, less mufflers and fenders, tearing up racetracks. The 1932 Swedish Winter Grand Prix was won by two mechanics driving a Ford V-8 Special.

While modified Model T and A Fords gave birth to hot rodding in the 1920s, it was the Flathead V-8 that took it to the next level in the 1930s. Displacing 221 cubic inches and weighing just 585 pounds, the first V-8 was just 20-percent larger than the Model A Four, yet produced 62-percent more power. It didn’t take long for stripped-down Fords with modified V-8s to become the cars to beat at Southern California’s “dry lakes.” Then came World War II and the military took over many of the high-desert dry lakes.Racing engineer, Henry Miller and partner, Preston Tucker of Miller and Tucker, Inc. had been trying for years to get Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, to commit to racing programs. They finally succeeded in the early-1930s. Edsel signed off on building a team for the 1935 Indy 500. Miller and Tucker built ten front-wheel-drive Miller-Ford Specials, powered by Flatheads for the 1935 race. They were the first front-drive four-wheel independent suspension cars seen at Indy. Unfortunately, it was not a successful venture; none of the cars finished. Years later, Preston Tucker would develop and build in 1948 the highly advanced and controversial Tucker 48 sedan.After World War II, hot-rodding, racing and the speed equipment industry experienced incredible growth. As the dry lakes became less and less available for racing, the popularity of quarter-mile drags surged. One of the pioneers of hot-rodding Flatheads was Vic Edelbrock. Bobby Meeks, left, and Fran Hernandez, above, prepare a Flathead racing engine for dyno-tuning at Edelbrock.

It would not be until 1950 that the first organized track, Santa Ana Drag Strip, would open on a Southern California airfield. In 1951 Wally Parks, then Editor of HOT ROD and founder of the National Hot Rod Association, produced the first official NHRA race at the Los Angeles Fairgrounds in Pomona, California. The Flathead also distinguished itself in NASCAR competition. Jim Roper, driving a Lincoln, won the first NASCAR race on June 19, 1949 at Charlotte Speedway.

For more about FLATHEADS FOREVER: HISTORY OF HOT RODDING, read Preston Lerner’s article, ‘Ford’s Flathead V-8 Gave Power to the People’ which originally appeared in the September/October 2024 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine @ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/fords-flathead-v-8-gave-power-to-the-people/?hashed_email=e323c71347790f699ba35a9dc01d49ac3f938885a7df6321087c8c9b4c0dd333&dtm_em=e323c71347790f699ba35a9dc01d49ac3f938885a7df6321087c8c9b4c0dd333

WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS HOT ROD

Bruce Meyer donates the WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS HOT ROD – ’32 Ford McGee Roadster – to the Petersen Automotive Museum.

“The McGee Roadster is so much more than just a car. It is the symbol of an entire era and generation of innovative hot rodders,” said Terry Karges, right, executive director of the Petersen. “We are honored by Bruce’s donation and proud to preserve this piece of history.”

Constructed by noted hot rod builder Bob McGee, the McGee Roadster introduced an aesthetic that quickly became nearly ubiquitous in the roadster community. This popular hot rod will become part of the Petersen’s permanent collection.

The Petersen and the McGee Roadster share an origin story that stems from HOT ROD Magazine, founded by Robert E. Petersen in 1948. The McGee Roadster’s popularity skyrocketed after appearing on the cover of HOT ROD, the first street car to do so. Petersen’s subsequent success in publishing allowed him to launch one of the world’s finest automotive museums in 1994.

“Hot rods are vital to the entire automotive industry, and Robert Petersen is the man who really brought hot rodding to the people. This car is an important piece of automotive history, and there is no more worthy destination than the Petersen Automotive Museum,” said Meyer, who is also founding chairman of the Petersen.

The iconic roadster has raced on the Bonneville Salt Flats, served as a daily driver and originated many of the design cues synonymous with hot rodding. McGee, who started working on the roadster in 1947, created the signature look with plenty of customization, including lowered suspension, larger Lincoln Zephyr rear wheels, a three-piece louvered hood, peaked and filled grille shell, hidden door hinges and shaved door handles all painted bright red with a custom interior.

In 1956, McGee sold the roadster to Dick Scritchfield, a legendary So-Cal hot rodder and staffer at HOT ROD. He had contacts in the film industry, and started leasing the car to movie producers and television shows for use in their productions. Repainted by a friend using Candy Apple Red paint and silver Metalflake, the roadster also became the first non-experimental Metalflake paint job in the industry. Over the following years, the car underwent many additional modifications before Bruce Meyer restored it to its original 1948 configuration in the late-1990s.

The McGee Roadster paved the way for hot rodding’s entrance into mainstream culture. It appeared in many films and classic television shows, such as Happy Days, Dragnet and Fantasy Island, helped it become an icon for a generation.It was featured on the U.S. Postal Service’s Hot Rods Forever commemorative stamp in 2014; designed by Derry Noyes and digitally rendered by graphic artist John Mattos. The roadster has also been shown and won in its current configuration at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Grand National Roadster Show. On April 12, 2017, the McGee Roadster became the only hot rod added to the National Historic Vehicle Register.
Check out the Legend of the McGee Roadster, WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS HOT ROD @https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS9ty4DpAVg

The WORLD’S MOST FAMOUS HOT ROD is currently on display in the Ross & Beth Myers Gallery at the Petersen Automotive Museum. For more information about the Petersen, please visit https://www.petersen.org/

1960-1961 ROD & CUSTOM CAR SHOWS

Historian Pat Ganahl shares highlights of 1960-1961 ROD & CUSTOM CAR SHOWS from his extensive historical archives.

I’ve got a lot of stuff in my “archive.” I mean a whole lotta stuff. Just in terms of photos–color, black-and-white, prints, negatives, slides, proof sheets, digital–there are 30,000-some images. No way I can count them. It’s just an estimate, and it’s probably way low. But besides those, there are magazines (most from Vol 1, No. 1), books, racing and show programs, audio tapes, not to mention all kinds of what I call hot rodabilia, or “collectibles”: decals, hat pins, dash plaques, business cards, shirts and jackets, model cars and unbuilt kits. I can’t even think of all of it (some of which I will show in upcoming columns). Bill and Sabina really want me to do a podcast with my interview tapes – and I should. But I still have cars to finish in the garage, races to run, trips to take, models to build (hah!), not to mention plenty of things that don’t involve cars. So, this bi-weekly blog (plus my Instagram–@patganahl–that Bill puts up for me) is my feeble attempt to share as much of this with you as I can in however much time I have left on this planet.

Whew. Where did all that come from? All I really meant to say was that I have one drawer in a file cabinet labeled “Old Shows and Racing” or something like that, and in it are 20 folders of B&W photos from custom car shows in big cities all across the U.S. and Canada from the 1960 -1961 season. That was the first year for Bob Larivee’s International Show Car Association (ISCA) and it’s my hunch that he paid freelance photographers (primarily Bob Hegge of St. Louis) to go to these shows, shoot lots of photos, and send them to various magazines to get coverage and publicity. The best part is that these 8 x 10 prints have short typed captions taped to them, so I have some info. The bad part is that these folders, which someone dumped in the Petersen Pub. trash and I rescued years ago, are apparently the leftovers (or what we call “outtakes”) after editors picked the best ones for articles. So, these might not be the big trophy winners, but they are indicative of what rodders and customizers were building, and showing, at the beginning of the Sixties.

For instance, Vern and Bill Harris’ ’26 T roadster, above, mounted on a ’32 frame with a ’52 Olds V8 and Lincoln trans. The fenders, exhaust, and (rear?) nerf bars were handmade. With medium whitewalls, one item I’ve never seen are the brushed aluminum wheelcovers that look like a cross between Moons and ’57 Plymouth types. The Harris brothers(?) were from Downsview, Ontario, Canada, and that’s my cue to tell you this was the SpeedSport ’61 car show held at Queen Elizabeth Hall in Toronto on Jan. 27-28. I pulled this folder because it had lots of good print photos, with captions from 1960-1961 ROD & CUSTOM CAR SHOWS

And what made me think about using one of these ’60-’61 car shows as this week’s topic is the fact that these big indoor car shows have long been a wintertime activity, when snow and freezing temps preclude drag races or other outdoor activities for car owners of all types, and a warm, brightly lit auditorium full of colorful and chromed vehicles is a great place to draw plenty of spectators. What further made me think of this is that we had our huge Grand National Roadster Show at the L.A. County Fairgrounds a couple weeks ago, and not only was there no snow on the ground, but it’s been close to 90 degrees every day since then here in parched SoCal. I understand it’s not like this where lots of you live. And Bob Hegge (who took these photos) noted in one of his jam-packed crowd shots that it snowed 12 inches in Toronto the night before the show opened, which seemed to draw even more spectators. OK, let’s see what was there.

Continue reading about 1960-1961 ROD & CUSTOM CAR SHOWS @ https://patganahl.com/2022/02/21/60s-showtime/

ROD & CUSTOM: ART & THE AUTOMOBILE

Rod & custom archivist/historian, Pat Ganahl blogs about Charlie Smith’s ROD & CUSTOM: ART & THE AUTOMOBILE that turns as many heads as do iconic show-stoppers.

I was going to title this column “The Unknown Artist,” but that’s not true at all. I’ve known Charlie Smith of Kansas City at least since the mid-1980s. I’ve published his work in Hot Rod and Rod & Custom, and you’ve seen it elsewhere. You’ve also seen cars he’s designed, though you might not know it. Just one example is Pete Chapouris’ Limefire ’32 roadster, loosely inspired by Tom Pollard’s green-and-flamed ’29.

This is another piece he did for Chapouris’ So-Cal Speed Shop (on spec) when they restored the belly tank and built similar vehicles for Chevrolet. But look at the detail and realism in this. That’s why I call it Unreal Art–because it’s so super-realistic.

Charlie says he’s not doing this to impress viewers, he’s doing it to show whoever is going to build the car exactly how he wants it to look. But just look at the texture of the Bonneville salt, the mountains in the background, and the detail in the gold-tinted and red-striped mag wheels in this rendition of a ’53 Studebaker pickup/push truck (note rubber strip on front bumper). And this was just a suggestion. It didn’t get built.

Charlie first displayed his version of the classic chopped ’40 Merc at a Design Center at the 1990 SEMA show. Then it was blue. He recently recolored it in this burgundy red. The front “wheel covers” are hub-attached to stay stationary as the wheel turns.

Want more realism? This one has a bit of Euro-flavor to it, as well, which is faintly reflected in the village/mountain background. Calling this his vision of a ’49 Eldorado, below, the obvious change is a slightly chopped and hard-topped roofline. Other changes include the obvious extended stainless rear skirts. Less obvious are ’55 Chevy-type hooded headlights and slightly enlarged taillights.

Continue reading ROD & CUSTOM: ART & THE AUTOMOBILE, (Unreal Auto Art) @ https://patganahl.com/2021/07/26/unreal-auto-art/