Photo of the Day

MTH_008_A pair of Gophers '45

We just love this slightly soft but very evocative image from the Dave “Monk” Thormin collection. Taken on October 7th, 1945, we see two members of the Gophers Car Club on their way home from the rained out SCTA dry lakes meet that had been scheduled for that day. The mud-caked tires on both of these model A roadsters tells some of the story and the location is somewhat given away by the Snyder Ambulance Service bus that is seen just off to the left, as we know that Harry Snyder’s company covered the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, stretching from Calabasas to the west and as far as Burbank to the east. The Gophers were based out of Los Angeles, so we can safely assume that these boys are almost home from their muddy adventure. Notice the repurposed and very large fuel tank that the owner of the ’28 on ’32 rails at right has installed in his roadster. We don’t want to jump to conclusions but considering the fact that this photo was taken only one month after the close of WWII and gas rationing had been a constant in these roadster owners lives throughout the previous three years, this modification could have been this owner’s way of storing as much fuel as possible ( and we don’t want to speculate as to how this young man would have acquired so much fuel! ) in his roadster’s boot. Either way, we love the down-and-dirty grittiness of this scene, with the roadster at right lacking a windshield, grill shell, and with the owner only able to afford a single ’39 Ford tail light. This was real low-buck backyard ingenuity at its best but these wonderful and simple early hot rods not only provided transportation but were obviously used in serious speed competitions… with or without their muddy tires. We wonder if either of these great little roadster survived. ©AHRF/Dave Monk Thormin collection (MTH_008)