Some Special Stuff

Every time we turn around new info show up that helps us shed some light on past hot rod history. Other times it’s right in front of our face and we don’t realize it. A good example is our pal Jere Sheehan down Florida way who’s been getting us up to speed on right coast rodding activities. Fast rewind to a few stories back we snapped a couple of pix of Jere’s early Cam Snappers jackets for you. In a just received package he sent up his original copy of the February 1953 issue of Hot Rod thaarks has sent him oh those many years ago and inside it was an HRM Club of the Month story on his club, the Cam Snappers, that we kind of remember a few times over the years. Sandwiched between the pages of the club story was an even greater treasure that we present in our first shot for this week (JSC_090). If you look in the upper right corner of the story there is a picture of a bunch of club members milling around their cars. When you look even closer you will see a couple of club jackets in the t Wally Parks has sent him oh those many years ago and inside it was a HRM Club of the Month story on his club, the Cam Snappers, that we kind of remember seeing a few times over the years. Sandwiched between the pages of the club story was an even greater treasure that we present in our first shot for this week (JSC_090). If you look in the upper right corner of the story there is a picture of a bunch of club members milling around their cars. When you look even closer you will see a couple of club jackets in the shot. Our sandwiched treasure just happened to be an original felt cutout that was used on their jackets back in late ‘52. They were individually cut with scissors and stitched on by hand. We spread it across the story on the Cam Snappers to give you an idea of scale and the work that went into flying one’s club colors. Our hats are off to Jere for sharing this historic item.

On our AHRF facebook page reader Adam Pepper asked about seeing some older shots of the famous Doane Spencer Deuce Roadster (JMC_5156). Here’s a little compellation of four shots of the car over the first 30 years of its life as a hot rod. In the upper left is the car at the Lincoln Assembly plant in 1947 for a group shot of S.C.T.A. car clubs. Doane was flying his Stokers club banner. Not the solid hood sides that were a hot item before WWII and carried over after the war. In the upper right, we see the car at the Second Annual Hot Rod Exhibition in 1949. We get a good look at the interior of the car. Doane was flying his Stokers club banner. Not the solid hood sides that were a hot item before WWII and carried over after the war. In the upper right, we see the car at the Second Annual Hot Rod Exhibition in 1949. We get a good look at the interior of the car. We see dashboard number two, the original one had a fuel pressure pump mounted in it. In the lower left, we see the car on the cover of the December ’60 issue of Rod & Custom when Doane was Tech Editor and undergoing a facelift. Note the OHV Ford in it at the time. Doane would soon sell the car to Lynn Wineland. The frame horns were gone by this time and the nerf bar is under construction. The last shot shows the car at Indian Dunes in April ’77. Walt James had carved out a little race track in the dirt and then owner Neal East, then Editor of Old Cars Illustrated, went out to shoot some photos.

After sorting and filing maybe a hundred rolls of old George Callaway shots some time back there were a few random images left in the bottom of the box they came in. This week said go ahead and scan them so we could get rid of another almost empty box. 150 plus scans later the job was done so we present a few for your pleasure.

First up we see Tom V. Keosababian from Whittier, California buzzing across the salt at Speedweek in 1967 in his Class  F Supercharged Coupe and Sedan that was powered by a 164″ Corvair pancake-6 (GCC_407). Tom proceeded to do a lap at 154.10 mph for a first in class. For his next act, he went out and ran two laps in opposite directions to set a new record at 156.971 mph.

George also snapped this really historic shot of Jim Hall at the Stardust International Raceway in Las Vegas (GCC_366). The Can-Am boys were in town for the last round of the 1968 season consisting of 70 laps around a three-mile road course. On lap 58 of the race, Jim accidentally ran into the back of a slowing Lothar Motschenbacher’s Leader Card entered McLaren M6B and got “really big air”, destroying the Chaparral 2G he was driving and almost himself.

For George’s next act he shot the L&R Engineering II Sunbeam breaking the timing lights at El Mirage in 1971 (GCC_356). The San Diego Roadster Club entry ran 126.76 mph on a 165.74 mph record at the June 6 meet.

We see Bobby Unser visiting the pits during the Winston Western 500 Stock Car Race at Riverside International Raceway on January 21, 1973 (GCC_379). Bobby started the race in seventh in the Holman & Moody entered, Pepsi-Cola sponsored 1972 Ford. He brought the car home in fourth place after completing 186 laps of the 191 lap race and pocketed $4,520 for his efforts. The gent standing behind the tire behind the car’s windshield is Dan Gurney who Bobby drove Indy cars for.

Long gone Irwindale Raceway (the Drag Strip) was another venue where George snapped a lot of shots. We see one of his Pit Permits that let him ply his trade (GCC_438). We also found a bunch of these passes from OCIR and Lions.

Old stickers and decals that adorned race cars years back are real collector’s items these days. We found four of these Keith Black stickers in George’s stash (GCC_431). Cool!

We also did a bit of retouching this week on recently scanned shots. Doug Rasmussen snapped this “Bucket” at the Sacramento Auto Show back in 1966 (DRC_210). It shows Al McCoy’s T Roadster that he called the “Golden T”. The Hood River,   Oregon resident used a Dragmaster chassis as the basis for his ride and stuffed a 327″ Chevy in it for power.

It’s been a bit warm these days so getting out of the house for a Burger, Shake and a little drive-in action seemed like the thing to do. After scarfing down the eats and drink it was time to find something worth shooting (with the camera, naturally). We didn’t have to wait long as this T cruised in. According to the name painted above the decklid it belonged to Pete (JMC_5158).

Pete pulled in and parked next to a brand new build in the form of a ‘29 A Roadster. We had to snap a shot of the interior for you because it just looked cool (JMC_5157). The Chevy Impala wheel, gauge cluster, and vinyl were finished in Aqua and Pearl.  

At lunch Wednesday some friends were doing a little bench racing and the subject of old cars came up. Names were dropped like Frank Kurtis and Bob Sorrell so next thing you know we’re off to have a look. This is one time I didn’t take the camera along to capture some snaps for you but never fear, there is always a backup solution. When I got home all it took was digging out my October 1955 issue of Car Craft and firing up the scanner. Problem solved. We present the car that one got to drool over in the flesh (JMC_5156). Looks like the old rides are still out there waiting to be re-discovered.

This Bill Phy photo went under through our retouch process and shows a hip ’29 that ran in class B roadster (BPC_050). It belonged to Harvey Haller of the Road Runners and is seen at El Mirage on April 24-25, 1948. A ’38 Ford V-8 with Offy Heads, Evans Manifold, Windfield cam and Spalding ignition powered it.

When you look at the above photo you can bet most people are going to think this car is painted a dark color. Well, don’t believe everything you see. Almost all modern black and white film is what they call panchromatic, a type of film that produces a realistic tonal reproduction of what your eye sees. There was also another type of film that was called orthochromatic that wasn’t sensitive to certain wavelengths of light so what appeared to be dark could actually be light. To prove our point we present an unretouched shot of the same car taken with Kodak Ektchrome slide film by the late Don Cox (DCC_085).

Saturday we went down to Orange County for the Santa Ana Drag Race Reunion Picnic then on Sunday Dan Warner and I went up to Simi Valley for the Annual Throttlers Picnic. To add more car junk to the plate we also watched Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes win the Japanese Grand Prix and Joey Logano’s Ford win the Kansas NASCAR race. Sometimes it’s just plain old hard to get anything done around here.