I've been keeping a low profile for the last week or so to get a little ahead for when I take off for Bonneville in a few weeks. That doesn't mean staying glued to the computer as a Sidewinder meeting and a lunch at Isky's consumed parts of tuesday and wednesday. I also spent friday and saturday cloistered in the garage cleaning and detailing parts for my lakester motor. Dirty hands are happy hands.

Since I was a slacker and didn't take any new pictures this week what more can be of interest than some old shots we havn't gotten around to loading on the site, yet. Here you go.

First up is a Tommy Davis shot (TDC_039) taken back in 1941 at his buddy Fred Baymiller's house. It shows Tom's newly purchased Deuce roadster. Note the top has already been slammed and raked back too. While were on the retro look, note how the radio antenna is leaned back to match the windshield angle. Slick. John Athan told me the hot setup in headlights before the war was using '34 Chevy items because of their more streamlined shape. The Deuce looks like its sporting a set. Another common sight was bald tires and this ones got em too. In the garage one can see the tail of Fred's Modified becoming a catch all for stuff. It wasn'y long before the fenders were stripped and the ride got a new paint job. See TDC_031 in the archives to see what an improvement it made.

Let's go to the lakes in '42 with the next shot (TDC_015). The terra firma is Harper and the date is July 19. The streamliner is the Beck Brothers, Charlie and George, and it was their rebuilt version of Bob Rufi's crashed car. The were happy campers to say the least with a lap of 131.96 mph and a first in class with the B-powered machine. On the left is George Rubsch's liner his pop built for him. No speed is known but we know they called the car "Skipit" after George's nickname, Skip.

As stated previously, we have lots of shots that we can't identify and this next one (DCC_136) falls in that category. What we do know is that Don Cox took it at the Kerney Mesa drags. In the background is a '53 Olds so this helps with the date, kinda. All I can say is the '34 had an interesting paint job so someone has to remember whos it was.

While we're on the drag thing lets look at the next shot (SBC_010) from Sonny Balcaen. While paging through an old Drag News there was a picture of this rail so we now know the builder was a Mr. Jarvis Earl and the location of the picture was Bakersfield in March of 1957. A little more digging revealed an Ad from the April 20 issue stating the Nailhead powered rail had its engine built by Hughes Automotive Parts in Torrance, CA. It also said that on April 7, Jarvis set a World Record at 149.50 mph with it. I like the Bird behind it too.

Our next shot from Sonny (SBC_023) was a little easier to ID as he worked on the car with its owner Ed Donovan. This was also shot at Bakersfield, probably in '57, and shows the car with a hopped up Model-B for power. The chassis and front axle were built out of old PBY aero shaped wing struts to get the weight way down. When we get more info we'll show you the car when it was being built with a streamlined body. If you fast forward to the April '64 issue of Hot Rod you'll see the car when it really turned heads. At that time it had a 6-71 huffing and puffing air into an Offy that was burning around 25%. How about 181 in 8.37 seconds. I'd call that a stump puller.

If you like odd-ball get a load of our next shot (RBC_067) from the Rex Burnett Collection. Lets turn back the clock to right after the war and a character named Tony Capana. He was running his unlimited at the lakes with the inscription XVI on the side. His business was doing great and he was assembling motors for the Powel Motor Scooter Company and using flattie V8 pistons in them to give them some umph (10 HP). He had this brilliant idea to convert a scoot into a little land speed missile by adding of all things a plywood body for a little streamlining. You can see the results. Don't know any speeds but the contraption was featured in the Jan '51 issue of Cycle and Pop Mechanics in April '51. I like the XVI Jr. on the side of it but what about the splinters for your rear?

Somehow a car guy always seems to play in many sandboxes and our next picture (LSC_021) from Leslie Schlom reinforces that idea. Lets go to Denver in about 1938 and find one of the first midgets in the area running a new Offy motor. Jimmy Jurgens who owned the Black Diamond Coal Company had nothing but the best equiptment and needed a good driver and shop to maintain it in. He got both on Acoma Street at the fledgling shop of Kenz & Leslie. Roy Leslie was also a hotshot driver having won the Championship for the little cars in '38. These boys would go on to cause a sensation in '49 on the salt with their twin-engined Ford pickup before building a streamliner for '50.

If you look real close you'll see that this pix was taken on January 6, 1948 (JMC_1362). The location is 3430 Caroline Avenue in Culver City. After a serious crash in '47 Stu Hilborn all but decided to give up racing. With the first Hot Rod Expo slated to be from January 23-25 Eddie Miller Sr. and Jr. rebuilt the carfor him and Stu debuted his Injection system to the public at the show and as we say the rest is history. This shot shows the rear body and support that has been massaged back into a recognizable shape with still a lot of work to do. It was also used as reference for Jim Lattin's recreation of the car as seen in the new Hop Up Volume VI.

As you can see we like pictures. They don't lie and when it comes time to resto or rebuild they become our guides to doing it right. It doesn't get any better than that!

Thanks for all your help and keep those cards and letters, I mean treasures coming.