By Jim Davis – special contributor to Motorburg

I was born in Knoxville, Iowa, which is most well known as the birthplace of the World of Outlaws and also as the sprint car capital of the world. Considering my lifetime involvement with cars it was a fitting place to come into the world. But at the age of 7 my family moved to Virginia. By the time I was 15 in 1949 I had my first car, a 1933 Chevy coupe that I paid $75 for by cashing in some of my war bonds. At the time you could get a license at 15 in Virginia. The Chevy ran ok for a couple of days and then started missing. In the process of finding out what was wrong with it, my dad took the valve cover off of the straight six and noticed that one of the valves was stuck. So he hit it with a hammer and it started working.

A few days later it started missing again and again the valve cover came off and out came the hammer. Since this was a nearly daily occurrence we eventually put wing-nuts on the studs holding the valve cover and I carried a hammer under the front seat. If the car would start missing, I would pull over to the side of the road, whip off the valve cover, and slam the stuck valve with a hammer. The odd thing was it was different valves that would stick although always an intake valve.

Some time later we had the occasion to remove the intake manifold and a hammered piece of aluminum fell out. The previous owner had blown a piston and had rebuilt the engine shortly before selling it to me. In the rebuild, a small piece of the piston got overlooked and remained in the intake manifold. This piece of piston would find its way down to an intake valve and get stuck with the valve in the open position and just stay there causing the engine to miss. When we would whack the valve with a hammer it would let the chunk of aluminum fly back into the manifold only to eventually work its way to another intake valve.

When I first got the car, my dad and I repainted blue it with a brush and my mom, who was a seamstress, redid the interior with blue and white striped canvas awning material. A little loud but very serviceable.

The Chevy had a rumble seat and my girl friend and I used to double date with another couple. They always thought it was extremely funny when I had to perform my hammer trick while out on a date. Sometimes I had to do this more than once in an evening.

Although I had a lot of fun with the Chevy for a couple of years,  I was ready for something a little newer. I sold the Chevy for the same amount I paid for it.

My next car was a ’41 Ford business coupe that I bought in 1951. I was 17 by this time and had a part time job at an Esso gas station. One of the guys who worked in the gas station had a new Chevy. It was one of those fastback models of that era. He was always bragging about how fast it was. I was pretty sure that I could whip him even though my ’41 Ford was stock. Every time I told him I thought I could beat him he would laugh his ass off which really annoyed me.

So, I challenged him to a drag race and there might even have been some money involved. We set the actual date for the race a couple of weeks away. Maybe I needed the time to save up my money. So once the race was going to take place, I started to get worried. I had heard about a place in nearby Washington D.C. that milled cylinder heads so I figured maybe I should get it done as an extra edge. I called the shop and got a price that was quite reasonable. I asked them if they could do it on a Saturday while I waited and they said yes.

Later on, a buddy and I drove into the city and pulled the car around back of the machine shop only to find out that yes, they did mill heads but only if you did the R&R. I was expecting them to do the whole thing. I was so set on getting this done that I asked them if I could pull the heads myself behind their shop and could they lend me the tools to do it. They said yes. At that point the most complex thing I had ever done was change out a fuel pump – but being young and dumb I figured how hard could it be to R&R a set of heads?

We then drained the radiator into a pan the shop gave us and started to work. There was an auto parts store a block away where we got a set of head gaskets. We started taking off the heads, which turned out to be a much bigger deal than I had anticipated. Eventually we got them off but in the process I broke off a head stud. Fortunately there was enough sticking out of the block that we could get a stud puller on it. And the shop happened to have one. This was a device that had a knurled eccentric that you slipped down over the stud and then put a breaker bar on it. The way the thing worked was the more pressure you put on it, the tighter the eccentric gripped the stud. The damn stud was literally frozen into the block and I eventually put a steel pipe over the breaker bar to get enough leverage to break it loose.

Finally the damn thing came loose and when it happened the stud puller swung around and hit an open valve and bent it over. I damn near had a heart attack when it happened.

We took the heads into the shop to get them milled. Back then, as I remember, the standard milling job on flathead heads was about .060”, so that’s what we did. While the shop was milling the heads I studied the bent valve trying to figure out what to do. Finally I took a hammer and beat on the side of it until it looked like it was straight. I cranked the engine over a couple of times and it looked like it was seating ok. Of course there is no way that it could have been seating properly but I didn’t know any better.

We put the heads back on and finally got the car started up and it seemed to run ok. We had left early in the morning and got to the shop just as it opened and by the time we finished they were closing up. So we had spent the entire day there and were totally whipped.

I took the car out on the street and hammered it good and frankly, I couldn’t tell the difference. I know now that a .060” head milling probably wouldn’t make enough difference for a seat of the pants feel in any event. It might improve the car’s quarter mile time a slight amount but not enough to be able to feel it. And I am sure that whatever I gained with the head milling, I probably lost with the poorly seated valve. I think it was an exhaust valve but don’t really remember.

So the big scheduled drag race took place and as expected, I beat him pretty easily. I could have no doubt skipped the head milling and still beat him with no problem.

I drove this car like a maniac and showed it no mercy. I went through 18 transmissions in one 12-month period. I had fixing them down to a fine science. It had a torque tube drive in it – so to get the trans out you either had to pull the engine or the entire rear end. Instead of a spring spreader (you had to take the load off the rear buggy spring to take the shackles loose), I had a bar made that was the exact length needed to spread the spring. I had a buddy jump on the rear bumper, which in turn flexed the spring so I could jam the bar into it. After about the fourth or fifth tranny overhaul I could R&R the trans and rebuild it in about an hour.

One time on a Friday night on the way home from work at the gas station, I blew the trans. I limped home in high gear. I had a date that night in just a few hours. I pulled the trans, put a new cluster gear in it and had it

back in the car, cleaned myself up and made my date. By then I was keeping an inventory of spare trans parts in my garage. It was almost always the cluster gear that I broke, naturally the most expensive piece in the trans.

I never did fix the bent valve and drove the car about another six months until I rammed it into the side of a fuel oil truck and totaled it along with breaking my kneecap. I was driving home from football practice at school with two classmates when the truck pulled out of a side street right in front of me. There was another car alongside of me and we both plowed into the truck. I hit the front tire and the other car hit the rear tires.This was before seat belts but we all escaped with relatively minor injuries. My broken knee was the most serious. I guess I rammed it into the dash.

My replacement car was a 1938 Ford Standard coupe with a V8 60 motor. The original owner, a doctor, had died in the car when it had less than 3,000 miles on it. His wife didn’t drive, so it was parked in the garage for the next 14 years, just down the street from where I lived . I bought it for $250 in 1952 and it was literally a brand new car except for the fact that the rings had taken a set from sitting so long and it burned oil like

crazy. It smoked so badly that I actually got a traffic ticket for excessive smoke. At the time, I was then living in northern Virginia and my main course of travel was on U.S. route 1. This road took me through the Fort Belvoir military reservation and for that short stretch of highway, the military police had jurisdiction. One of the M.P.’s in a jeep stopped me and gave me a ticket. I can’t remember why now but he made me follow him to the M.P. facility. Once there, I called my dad who at the time was the chief safety director for the entire military base. He worked closely with the M.P.’s and he came over and talked to the M.P. commander. They let me go once it was determined that there was no statute on the books to charge me with.

I finally bought a replacement short block for the coupe from Pep Boys and that was the end of my oil smoking days. However, being a hardcore hotrodder, I needed something peppier than that V8 60 that was in the ’38 coupe.

Also during this period, somebody gave me a ’34 Ford roadster body and frame. It had a drive train in it as I recall but no fenders, hood, running boards, windshield, or upholstery. I took the body off the frame and totally detailed the chassis. I really don’t remember hardly any specifics about this car. Looking at the photo it appears to have a nicely detailed flathead in it with a three-two manifold. I remember getting it running and driving it around my neighborhood sitting on a wooden crate. I have no clue what happened to it. I think I might have sold it to one of my buddies.

My next car was a 1946 Mercury coupe, which I bought around 1953 or ‘54 and this is when I started to get serious about performance. I think I paid $400 for it. I don’t recall the exact series of modifications, but I started out with a dual carb manifold and then a set of Edmunds heads. At some point I pulled the engine out and bored and stroked it out to 286 cubic inches and traded in my two-carb manifold for a three-carb Navarro model. It also had a W&H Ducoil ignition and an Isky 400 Jr. cam. This car was very fast for its time and won more than its share of drag races. This was before much in the way of organized drag racing was taking place but the local group of hotrodders in my area had several stretches of seldom used roads marked off for a quarter mile. Eventually a local drag strip opened up in Manassas, Virginia, but it was dirt and only a 1/5 of a mile due to inadequate stopping distance. I ran the ’46 there a number of times and consistently won my class.

By 1955 I was married and wanted a brand new car. I swapped out the hi-po mill in the Mercury with a junkyard motor I bought and traded in the ‘46 on a new 1955 Ford. The Ford dealer knew the Merc had a modified engine in it and they were frankly upset that I had switched motors. They didn’t find that out until after all the paperwork was done so they had no recourse. The engine out of the Merc found its way into a 1932 Ford 3-window coupe I bought for $400. My escapades in that car are covered in another story in the Historicar Society section of this site. The article is called “60’s Racing Memories“.

That ‘32 3-Window Coupe is pictured below, as it sits in the staging lanes at the York U.S. 30 Drag-o-way in 1958. This may have been one of the coupe’s first outings after being painted 1953 Cadillac Cobalt Blue. This was before I started converting it into an all-out race car. At this point the car was running 12.5’s with a basically stock 1957 270 HP 283 small block Chevy. Only mod at the time was a three-two carb setup. All time best for the car was an 11:35. Nothing special by today’s standards but very quick in its day. That’s me with hand on the car and my best friend at the time, Lou Wright. I’m wearing a Racer Brown Cams t-shirt.

Once I started buying new cars I no longer did any performance modifications of any significance. I did have a 1959 Chevy Bel Air coupe that I put Moon discs on (they rattled like crazy) and replaced the stock shifter with an Ansen. The Moon discs were attached to the rims with #10-32 screws tapped into the wheel rims. I finally added some glued on pieces of inner tube to the back of them to kill the rattling noise. The Ansen shifter also rattled and I could never get that to stop. I think that kind of cured me of modifying my daily drivers. The only quasi-hot rod I had after that, was a 1964 GTO I bought when they first came out. That was a killer car in its day. I could even whip most Corvettes. I only kept it a year and then traded it for a ’65 Pontiac 2+2 which for a big heavy car also really got the job done with 421 cubes.

I basically did not have any modified hot rods after I sold the 1932 coupe in 1964 until we did the B&M Project Street Roadster in 1984. Although technically owned by B&M, for all practical purposes it was my car until I left the company in 1991 and the roadster got sold. Because I was in the middle of a divorce, I was in no position to buy it, but sixteen years later I got it back and it joined my blown ’33 3-window coupe, which I had built in 1994. Two rods at one time are about my limit but I am having a lot of fun with both of them.

About the Author:

Jim Davis was the founder and publisher of Super Stock & Drag Illustrated and Stock Car Racing magazines.  He was formerly President of B&M Racing and Performance for 18 years and served as S.E.M.A.’s Chairman of the Board for 4 years.  He’s currently Chief Operating Officer and partner of Professional Products.

Jim is an ardent street rodder with two Brizio built cars; a red ‘32 full fendered roadster and a fendered 3-window ‘33 coupe.

Click a picture in the gallery below for a larger view ~

Meet the Artists and Participate in the Working Studios!

Charlie Smith announced that Motorburg would again be presenting a “Design Center” attraction (its “2nd Annual”) at the 2011 N.S.R.A. Nationals in Louisville, KY – August 4th through the 7th.

Motorburg.com, the online resource for automotive designers, artists and enthusiasts, with an emphasis on rods & customs, will be heading up this uniquely entertaining venue.

The website features art and design galleries by an associate group of some of the hottest artists and designers in the industry, as well as a thriving Forum of international talent. Increasingly, it’s becoming the “go to place” for an ever-changing array of articles and tutorials for all who appreciate the form and function of the American style of custom built automobile.

Motorburg’s associate artist list reads like a “who’s who” of rod & custom art and design and includes: Darrell Mayabb – Thom Taylor – Jimmy Smith – C•Cruz – Greg Tedder – Ralph Burch – C. Smith… as well as CARtoon’s artist Nelson Dewey. The Design Center gallery will display art by these associates as well as prints and portfolios by Motorburg’s talented forum members.

Additionally, the exhibit will display two feature cars, along with drawings and illustrations by artists and designers at this unique Louisville interactive display.

The exhibit will feature the Ed Newton designed “Wine Wagon” – More than a few barrels full of hot-rodding fun that’s sure to bring back fond memories of the Show Circuit’s wild and zany past. The freshly restored “blown big block beauty”, which was recently restored by owner Jack Orrell,  is sure to be of special interest to all – both young and old… so come on in and have your photo taken with Jack and this historical “hooch hauling” icon.

Motorburg is also proud to welcome back our old friend Ron Martinez, owner of one of our feature cars from last year; The Invader - a two time AMBR winner.  Ron, the former Universal Studios VP and Television Producer will return again this year with another “feature car” from his stable of great automobiles… an all original “1963 Studebaker Avanti”. This unique and timeless piece of automotive styling art, attributed to the Raymond Loewy Design Studio, is still as sleek and current as the day it was first introduced almost 50 years ago.

Ron, who’s a treasure trove of early and current rod & custom historical information (particularly the So Cal Scene and Movie Cars), will be on hand along with numerous friends and artists associated with the site. Motorburg’s own; Designer Charlie Smith will be front and center as well, doing design demos, answering questions and “telling some tales” along with Ron and “the rest of the cast” throughout the Show.

You’ll also get to watch as artists work in the exhibit’s two design studios, in traditional and digital fashion. The public is invited to get up close and personal as the designers do their magic on paper and computer monitor.

In addition to the associate artist’s prints offered online, Motorburg is thrilled to offer at this year’s show, a limited number of Charlie’s “Classic Treadmark’s T-shirt Designs”.  These award winning and timeless rod and custom designs are sure to please with their vivid 8 color screen prints and meticulous details.  You won’t find these superb designs anywhere else… they’re a Motorburg exclusive.

So, stop by and “talk shop” with the artists, builders and industry guests at the 2nd Annual “Motorburg Design Center”. They’re in space 1001 through 1003 at this year’s 2011 NSRA Nats.

* Join our Forum and read more about this year’s Design Center HERE.

Ford Motor Co. announced June 2nd, 2010 that it would cease production of its Mercury brand by the end of 2010 after years of declining sales.

Also included in the news release… Ford also noted that it was revamping its Lincoln line with seven new offerings in the next 4 years… including it’s first compact car.  A compact car!  Do we smell another Cimarron stinker in the making? – we hope not.  But it does seem to us, like it’s more of the same old “spin” and they’re trying to make the “Big L” cover too many bases – lots of bunts and no home runs.  Why not keep the moniker strictly luxury and leave the “everyman’s offerings” to the blue oval exclusively.  Of course that would certainly upset the current Lincoln/Mercury dealership “apple cart”.  It sure sounds like the same well worn program doesn’t it? Just minus the Mercury moniker.

Oh well, what do we know… it’s almost certain that American automobile manufacturers have given this careful consideration and know exactly what they’re doing – yea right!

With this new announcement, we thought it might be appropriate to reprint a portion of a Charlie Smith thread starter published a couple of years ago on the Motorburg Forum.  Charlie predicted the possible demise of the Mercury brand and even had a few choice words about the “Lincoln situation”.

From The Big Block Party Forum – August 7th, 2008:

…Hopefully, some of you have noticed and then gone on to read Thom Taylor’s “blog article” about General Motors. It’s really an interesting “take” on one possible way to restructure GM and I recommend it highly. That Thom really knows how to cut through the “crap” and trim the fat.

Though I hadn’t written a thing up to this point, Thom’s Blog entry reminded me that I had been thinking along the lines of his GM article for sometime now; in that Ford and GM are operating in the 21st Century with the same structure they used in the 1950’s. That thought established, bear with me for a while and I’ll see if I can’t put my thoughts into current words.

It’s almost like the former “Giants” are defiantly refusing to face the marketing facts of present circumstances. Seems they’re stunned by the situation and are still thinking that this just couldn’t be happening to them. As they sit there stunned, the world continues to orbit and change ever more rapidly. Soon, catch-up might even become something “out of the question”.

Neither entity has the exclusive right to fill every niche with variations of their core offerings as they once did, when they ruled the roost together. Those offerings of sameness and blurred distinctions were easy to do in the old days, when they were the only game in town and advertising “spin” was in. Those old ways just don’t work anymore when people want more and more to express themselves by their automotive choice, and have their brand of choice to back them up in a substantial and significant way. Tattoos are out, and real “kahounas” are in. An iconic name itself, will no longer sell the product to a savvy consumer.

Today’s consumer, demands substance over empty advertising hype. Unless Ford can do with Lincoln, what GM has done with Cadillac, that brand is gone. I mean, Cadillac learned its lesson with the Cimarron (a retagged Chevy – how degrading is that for a brand touting itself as a luxury car), you’d think Ford would have taken note (the Cadillac wreath came close to being a joke) and thought twice before offering their Fusion across divisions as the Mercury Milan and The Lincoln Zephyr/MKZ. I can cut them some slack for the Mercury Milan but Lincoln used to be a seemingly distinctive and unique offering… who wants to buy a Lincoln when its nothing more than a “fussy” Ford – kind of takes the luster off the four-pointed star doesn’t it. I do think that alone, the Fusion is a superb car, both in quality and price… it’s when it tries to be more than it was intended (as in MKZ) that it fails. Ford’s middle division moniker; Mercury, is probably going to be an even a harder name to keep afloat, having traditionally been nothing more than a rebadged upscale Ford… if that. Whatever the underpinnings, the look of the product today needs to be uniquely distinct, one from another.

The empty ploys and marketing strategies of “overstuffed easy chair” America just will not work anymore. It’s probably way too late in most cases for adjustments now… I hope not. I guess we’ll know within the next couple of years (or sooner) how GM and Ford will adjust… for adjust they must or die.

I have no idea what to say about Chrysler… what was it, 1961 when they should have learned the lesson that they needed to maintain a semblance of divisional autonomy and uniqueness in order to maintain credibility and continued profits from a particular name-plate. Or – maybe they did learn something, they shit-canned the Desoto that year and even more recently did away with Plymouth – for years the top seller of its group of divisional cars. Nothing is sacred anymore… remember what happened to your Father’s Oldsmobile! It’s just too bad that most of the American Automaker’s downsizing is done today, because there was no other choice… rather than as a conscious well thought out adjustment or a rational long term plan…

By Jim Davis

Back in the summer of 1984, as president of B&M Racing & Performance Products, I visited the Street Rod Nationals in Columbus, Ohio. As I wandered the grounds looking at the cars, I was quite surprised to see so few B&M products. We sold a ton of automatic shifters back then but I only saw one or two on the street rods. We were also getting our street supercharger program going real strong at that time and I didn’t see a single one of those.

Although I had a number of hot rods/street rods back in the ‘60’s, I hadn’t been to any shows or events or had a hot rod in 20 years. Consequently, my enthusiasm was renewed by such a spectacle and one couldn’t help from being impressed with the number of cars and the quality of the participating rods. I came to the conclusion that as a company, B&M was overlooking a huge potential market.

I decided that one way to introduce B&M to the street rod market was to build a project street rod. And so I approached Dick Magoo about building a car. I had decided on a full fendered ’32 Ford roadster. The ’32 roadster was, and still is, the iconic street rod. And of course it had to be red. Although originally launched as a budget car, Dick knew the car was going to get a lot of ink so his shop kind of went overboard on the detail work on the car. I am sure that we got way more than what we paid for.

The car was finished in about six months, which was a relatively quick build. And of course it had everything that B&M made at the time that could be used on the car. It had one of the B&M 162 mini-superchargers along with our own Superjection EFI system, which was way ahead of its time. And it also had a B&M TH-400 trans, a Holeshot torque converter and a Megashifter. At that time B&M owned Milodon who had an aluminum block (since discontinued) and of course one of those found its way under the hood.

Over the next year or so we developed a number of new products that were primarily aimed at the street rod market although most of them could be used on street machines, kit cars, regular cars, trucks…. you name it.

This included two-piece valve covers, a street rod shifter we called the Quick Stick, low mount alternator bracket, a custom water pump, aluminum timing cover, harmonic damper, swivel thermostat housing, billet style pulleys, and on and on. As these new parts were developed they all found their way onto the roadster including a bigger blower, the 250 Powercharger, with two four barrels,

The car was very successful and got lots of ink including Hot Rod, Popular Hot Rodding, Rod Action, Street Rodder as well as a number of international magazines. It was also the cover car for the April 1986 issue of Streetscene. A new interior was later designed by Charlie Smith, and it’s featured in another article on Motorburg HERE.

Some time after this I got a call from Pete Chapouris. I really don’t know how we hooked up. He might have just called me cold or maybe we had met through some mutual friends. But he had a proposal for me.

He wanted to build his own project roadster, although he wanted to do a ’32 highboy. And he wanted to know if I would be interested in working with him on it. B&M’s role would be to supply a blower, valve covers, trans and converter plus a shifter along with anything else I wanted to put on the car.

This car ultimately became Limefire, a very famous and outstanding street rod back in its day. The car was lime green with a great orange flame job.

I promoted a complete 383 Chevy engine kit from P.A.W. and also helped Pete get other parts from manufacturers. With help from a C. Smith illustration of the proposed car, Pete had already lined up coverage on the car in Hot Rod so it was fairly easy for the two of us to promote many parts for the build. All this took place while Pete and his partner Jake were in the middle of selling Pete & Jakes to Jerry Slover in Kansas City. So things were quite hectic getting the car finished. According to the Hot Rod article the car was built in 80 days. I can’t remember if it was really that quick or not but if it was in Hot Rod, it must be true. Right?

Limefire ended up with a huge spread in the October 1987 issue of Hot Rod. The article totaled seven pages, four of them in color and included a fold out three-page poster of the car. Somebody at Hot Rod was looking out for me because stuck right in the middle of the story was a full page four color ad for B&M featuring mostly our trick street rod parts. The article even included the original design rendering of the car, done by our own Charlie Smith.

The car had been built as a true hot rod complete with a bolt-in roll cage and Pete was keen to try it out at the drags. We only ran it once or maybe twice but it hauled ass for its day. I can’t remember the exact times it turned but I am pretty sure the elapsed time was 10.87 and it trapped out at about 135. I do know that after taking it down the track, Pete had a healthy respect for the car.

About a year later my phone rang again. This time it was Roy Brizio. At the time Roy was not nearly as well known as he is today. Roy wanted to know if I would be interested in teaming up with him on a project. This would be another ’32 highboy. I was game of course because all of this relatively inexpensive exposure for B&M products certainly didn’t hurt.

I suggested that we visit Petersen Publishing and pre-sell them on doing a story on the car so we knew for sure that there would be major exposure before spending the time and money to build the car. So Roy flew to L.A. and the two of us met with some editors at Hot Rod and made our proposal. They weren’t interested. They said ’32 highboys with a small block Chevy were a dime a dozen, and they were right.

So I said, how about if we put a 351 Windsor Ford in it? This perked up their ears and all of a sudden we had a story commitment. You have to remember that back then, late model Ford engines in street rods were a true rarity. It just wasn’t done. In fact it was such a rarity that as we walked out of Petersen’s offices Roy looked at me like I was crazy. Until the car was done and made its first trip, he was never really totally on board with the idea of a Ford engine.

We did make one mistake on the car that was totally my doing. Not really a mistake, but it made for a lot of extra work. I provided a B&M Ford C-6 trans instead of the more commonly used C-4. I did this because the C-6 is a beefier trans. But it is also bigger around than most other automatics. And as a result, the standard floor pan in the ’32 body would not clear it. So Roy had to cut out the stock floor and build a new one that would clear.

I had picked the 351W engine because we had a blower kit for it. We had one for the 302 engine as well but I never liked the look of the narrower manifold on the 302. By now we had come out with a trick induction setup that mounted on the top of the blower and utilized two side draft Mikuni carburetors. This gave the entire engine compartment a whole new look. This engine was also one of the P.A.W. kits that they donated.

Another trick idea that Roy had come up with at the time we sold the story to Hot Rod was that the car would be driven to all ten NSRA events and we would use different magazine editors to do it. Hot Rod wouldn’t be covering that aspect of it except where one of their guys drove it. But Roy figured that each magazine guy who drove it would make sure it was featured in his magazine. This actually worked out quite well as it ended up in many different magazines.

The car was painted an electric blue and featured magenta scallops, a look that has been copied by a great many cars that came after it. It also had a Duval windshield, which gave it a unique look at the time because there were very few rods that had one back then. The artist Thom Taylor had come up with the paint scheme, mainly because Roy wanted something totally different.

I don’t recall who drove the car at every stage, but on one leg of the journey, Gray Baskerville of Hot Rod drove and managed to crash it and broke something on the car. I don’t remember what it was – maybe the pan. But with all the different drivers that was the only mishap.

Roy finished the car and left that same day to drive from San Francisco to Knoxville, Tennessee, for the first NSRA event of the season. This would have been in 1988. The initial trip took Roy through rain and snow in an open car. I drove it from the Portland NSRA event to the next one in Pueblo Colorado. I know Roy drove it on several legs and I know his dad took it on one. Steve Anderson, then of Rod Action drove one of the last legs and featured it on the cover of the March 1989 Rod Action plus a major story and center spread inside.

By the time we finished hitting all the NSRA events, the car had logged about 30,000 trouble free miles and Roy was a serious believer in Ford engines in hot rods by then.

On one of the legs, and I think it was when Roy’s dad and mom were driving it back to the west coast from York or somewhere back east, the roll pin holding the distributor gear on the shaft sheared and of course the car stopped running. This was easily repaired although it took a while to find the cause. I believe that was the only problem that the car encountered. Come to think of it, once Roy hit warm weather the car developed some vapor lock problems but by then we knew that this was caused by the way the twin Mikuni setup was plumbed. This was fixed by installing a small fuel bleed line back to the tank.

I went on to do a couple more project cars with Roy. Roy credits the roadster project with putting him and his street rod business on the map and also probably had a lot to do with him hooking up later with Ford Motor Company where he went on to build a number of project cars for Ford. His roadster was really one of the very first street rods to get major ink that also had a late model Ford engine.

Click for larger view

So, what’s next in this story? Well, the planets all came together sometime around 1989 or ’90 and all three cars showed up at the L.A. Roadster Show in Pomona. I don’t recall if this was planned or just happened but I tend to think it just happened. We did line the cars up over in front of some buildings where the L.A. Roadster members have been parking their cars for the past few years.

Steve Coonan, world famous hot rod photographer, and now publisher of Rodder’s Journal, orchestrated putting the three cars together. Then he got the bright idea of taking the roadsters out on the nearby 210 Freeway and getting some shots of the cars all together on the highway. At the time, there was an extended new section of the freeway that had very little traffic on it so the idea was feasible. But it turned out to be way more difficult than you would think. We had all three cars side by side. I think we were doing about 50 mph. Coonan was pacing us with somebody driving another car while he hung out the window to get the shot. It was extremely difficult to keep all three cars lined up perfectly enough to get the photo Steve wanted. But eventually it happened.

The B&M roadster got sold. Pete sold Limefire and Roy sold his highboy. But over the years, I got the B&M roadster back and Roy eventually acquired the scalloped highboy again. Pete has talked for years about getting Limefire back and at this writing it is in his shop but still owned by someone else. Maybe some day. If we all live long enough, maybe we can get those three cars together again. Wouldn’t that be sweet?

About the Author:

Jim Davis was the founder and publisher of Super Stock & Drag Illustrated and Stock Car Racing magazines.  He was formerly President of B&M Racing and Performance for 18 years and served as S.E.M.A.’s Chairman of the Board for 4 years.  He’s currently Chief Operating Officer and partner of Professional Products.

Jim is an ardent street rodder with two Brizio built cars; a red ‘32 full fendered roadster and a fendered 3-window ‘33 coupe.

By Terry Cook

(This is a 3 part article – please follow the navigation at the end of each page to view the next Part)

The Titanic parked by the River Seine... it's as long as three Mercedes Benz Smarts.

Deep inside we all harbor a fantasy. For some it’s on a golf course or race track; for others it’s bagging an elk or a sailfish; or a winning streak at Vegas or Wall Street. It may even require a Jacuzzi, 5,000 gallons of Mazola and a Brownie troupe.

For years I dreamed of shipping one of my old cars to Europe for weeks of bumping around England and the continent, visiting car museums during the week and car events on weekends. It took three years to bring to fruition. It was worth the wait.

My automotive passions are twofold. Both focus on styling. Foremost are cars from the Paris coach building salons of the late 1930’s (Joseph Figoni and Ovidio Falaschi, Jacques Saoutchik, Franay, etc.) Hence my craving to visit car museums.

Owning a Bugatti is not in my budget, so my other passion is American customs. I’ve always been a different drummer, a 24-volt guy in a 12-volt world. Many car devotees are way too serious. Some abhor taking their toys out in the rain. I feel collector cars should be fun, often designed with tongue in cheek. It was a prerequisite that the car involved in this junket had to be outrageous and, if possible, ridiculous. The tackier and wackier the better.

In high school in 1957 I’d sketch my ultimate dream leadsled, a ‘56 Lincoln with extended fenders and hooded headlights. Forty years later I purchased a mild custom 1956 Lincoln Premier two-door hardtop in Alabama. Then I added a continental kit and other modifications. We lopped the rear quarters off a boneyard Lincoln and grafted them on, extending the fenders 18 inches.

I also love lowriders. Any car, truck, or bus looks better when lowered. Chop it ‘n drop it. The lower the better. Not a hopper, thank you, a pancake. I chose airbags over hydraulics because they provide superior ride. They’re the current rodding rage. The setup is from Air Ride Technologies of Jasper, Ind., the industry leader in hot rod airbag R&D. We can drop the car to the ground when parked for “the right look,” but touch a switch to bring it to normal ride height in a minute.

Seventeen years ago I started a fictitious club (no meetings, no dues; just a state of mind) called The Manhattan Lowriders. The only thing that makes less sense than a lowrider in Manhattan is taking one to Europe. Our motto is “Too much is better than not enough!” The car is “longer, lower, wider” stretched to wretched excess. Automobiles as art. Practicality be damned.

The Titanic is goin' down!

Four months before shipping the car to England it entered a crash program at Ram’s Rod Shop in Dover, Del. Ramsey Mosher cut off the top and had Charlie Scribner at Classic Glass in Torrington, Conn. chop the windshield four inches. Ram fabricated a lift-off landau-style half top with removable front roof portion over the driver. His crew stretched a set of fiberglass bubble skirts to 9 1/2 feet in length and restyled the front end. Don “the Egyptian” Boeke of Dayton, Ohio mixed a custom blend of House of Color “Liberace Lavendar” pearlescent paint, and Ram applied it. Bobby Sapp of Milford, Del. stitched the interior and half top. A 20-foot long car is no longer a car, it’s a pocket battleship. Hence the license plate “TITAN1C.” Artist Joel Naprstek had a bit of fun with the connie kit. The life boats in the following photo are Nash Metropolitans.

We cracked a bottle of champagne over the front bumper and whisked the car into the 40-foot container to make the shipping deadline with not a day to spare. We didn’t have time to rub out the paint job. My loving wife of 32 years, Virginia, does not fly so, needing a co-pilot, I called my trusty bail bondsman and interior decorator, “Reverend” Michael Witek of Buffalo, NY (Church of the Perpetual Indulgence). My travel agents, Peter Seiler and Chris Fowler decided to tag along. Pete doubled as our sommelier. Tunes were a necessity. DJ “The Golden Gup” assembled a special CD for our tour-20 songs with lyrics about America or the USA such as “America” from West Side Story, “American Woman,” James Brown’s “Living in America,” etc.) We were ready! We broke the trip into three chunks: two weeks in England in mid-September, three weeks in England, France, Belgium and Germany in November, plus a week in Stuttgart in January. Between junkets we left the car in the UK and Germany, flying home to recuperate.

Who says the roads in Europe are narrow? At right, my bail bondsman and interior decorator Reverend Mike negotiates a typical English thoroughfare in Winchester.

In England we visited the Midlands Motor Museum (Bridgenorth, Shropshire); our favorite car museum in England, the National Motor Museum (Beaulieu); the Museum of British Road Transport (Coventry); and the museum in Covent Garden. We attended Beaulieu Autojumble, England’s largest vintage auto parts swap meet. We hit the International Drag Racing Championships at Santa Pod, where the car was mobbed.

We had an unqualified blast in the UK. England is magic. The people are friendly, the tubes (subways) are safe and spotless, and the towns are clean and charming. The rolling green hills of the country, spotted with an occasional castle, are nothing short of spectacular. Everything, however, is more expensive than stateside (alcohol at $11 per cocktail!) and British sausages seem filled with sawdust. Unquestionably the high point was the Goodwood Circuit Revival. Lord March (real English royalty!) is the visionary who conceived the ultimate vintage race car meeting, giving attention to the smallest details. Only pre-1966 vehicles are allowed in the pit and paddock. No cell phones or beepers, please. Competitors must dress appropriate to the theme of the weekend (1948-57). Ladies are asked to dress “sympathetically.”

Lord March surprised 1,000 guests by debuting our lavender lowrider, bathed in purple-gelled lights, on a slowly rotating turntable. It was the centerpiece for his black tie dinner. Upon arrival, we told the stage crew that we had a theatrical smoke machine built into the car. They had four smoke machines built into the platform, so they outbid us. The stage and even the rugs were purple. Titanic flat killed ‘em. After dinner we fired up the engine, cackled the glasspacks and the 18-ft long tailpipes to the delight of the audience, and drove it off stage with our stereo cranking at the max. The bluebloods loved it. Hanging out with a bottle of champagne chilling on the roof of the Titanic, cranking Little Isidore & the Inquisitors through the exterior speakers, surrounded by vintage cars and people in vintage togs, it was crystal clear that life just doesn’t get any better than this.

They even carpeted the entire party in lavender rugs to match our lowrider! Lord March knows how to do it RIGHT.

Next up – Europe by Lowrider, Part 2

One of a Kind!

Special to Motorburg

By Kerry Peterson

Here’s a little quiz for you, see if you can answer any of the following.

Norm Grabowski is:

A. The car builder famous for starting the T-Bucket craze that began in the late fifties.

B. An actor with over 45 film and television credits.

C. The guy who lost by a nose when his T-bucket raced Tommy Ivo’s.

D. The guy who can explain to you that Ivo’s T was hauling a lot less weight during the race.

E. Famous for carving shifter skulls and other cool woodworking projects.

F. An all around genuine guy and honorary Motorburg citizen.

If you selected any of the choices you receive partial credit and will learn a few things by reading this article.  If you selected all of the above then you should keep reading to add a bit more to your Norm knowledge.

An innovator and his creation, Norm and "The Kookie Car".

Above is Norm’s most famous creation, the T-bucket hotrod called “The Kookie Car”.  In addition to coverage in numerous publications dating back to 1955, it was a regular on the television series 77 Sunset Strip. Renting his car to entertainment studios provided an “in” for Norm.  Soon he was being paid to drive his car in front of the cameras.  From there it was not surprising that he graduated into speaking roles.  While this was going on Norm was also busy building numerous custom cars and motorcycles.

Norm and his Hennway. No, your uncle did not have one just like it.

Norm built two Corvair powered motorcycles. Neither was just for show - he rode both bikes for years.

You can see that Norm is very serious on the set. Here he's getting some professional advice from Burt Reynolds, or perhaps the Director has just called for "LUNCH".

Here's Norm with the art piece. Kevin's choir is not just a table display, all of the skulls can be removed and used as shift knobs.

The original Kookie Car is long gone but Norm still keeps a lot of blue in his stable. That's "Kookie II" and its matching transporter.

A few words about the author:  Kerry Peterson is the Domain Keeper at Norm’s website.  He’s not just words and pictures though, he and his wife Cheryl are “all about cars”.  They’re currently building a ’32 roadster with Norm.  In addition to the  ’32 they have about a dozen other cars ranging from parts and  pieces to a retired SCCA Viper.

Special to Motorburg.com

by Keith M. Towler

(This is a 9-page tutorial.  Please follow the navigation at the end of each page to view the next)

********************************************************************************************************************

]]> http://www.motorburg.com/?feed=rss2&p=1591 7 http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1876 http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1876#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:50:58 +0000 Motorburg http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1876 Read the full review and get purchase information here]]> by Brian Stupski

That Rare Barn Find…

…may be just around the corner from where you’re sitting as you read this. Proof of such finds, as well as some stories that put the occasional “right place, right time” story to absolute shame will have you turning the pages of Tom Cotter’s book The Cobra in the Barn — Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology with what seems to be never-ending excitement.

This is, of course, the all-new paperback version of Cotter’s book, originally released as a hard-cover in 2005, and the first of his “In the Barn” series (which also includes Hemi in the Barn, Vincent in the Barn, and the forthcoming Corvette in the Barn). The book takes the approach of the classic bench racing topic of that one rare, hidden or forgotten gem that someone always seems to find in the back of a barn, or tucked behind years of junk in a garage, and backs up the exciting premise with true stories of such finds!

From stories of pure chance finds, like the ‘40 Ford Woody found when a hunter sought refuge from the rain, to tales of utter compulsion and persistence (years of phone calls and visits simply to purchase a long-term project), and everything in-between, the book is a true page-turner, no matter what your automotive tastes. From cars found literally around the corner, to travels almost around the globe, you’ll find yourself wrapped-up in the cars, people and stories.

Like so many of the people featured in the book, I can certainly agree that there’s a thrill in the chase, and occasionally, we learn that once the prize has been captured, it’s simply on to the next hidden treasure… While for others, the cars and their stories become a part of their lives and heirlooms in the process. This was the first automotive book I’ve had in the studio that just grabbed and fascinated everyone who happened to pick it up! Even my wife read the book, cover-to-cover, and has made it a point to seek out the other titles in the series.

As the press release states, “Author Tom Cotter uses his engaging writing style in telling the tales of found Cobras, a rare Delehaye found disassembled in Czechoslovakia that eventually won Best in Show at Pebble Beach, a Ferrari racer found in a California woodchip pile, and several more. Cotter traces the early histories of the cars, how they were discovered, and where they are today.” I’d like to add that the book also stresses the importance of research, and the struggle for some to decide between restoration or updating and personalizing these finds… And having the ability to learn from others with just a simple flip of a page make this book a treasure all its own!

The Cobra in the Barn
Great Stories of Automotive Archaeology
Tom Cotter
Illustrated. 256pp
Paperback
Motorbooks
$19.99

Grab your own copy here and save a couple bucks!

]]> http://www.motorburg.com/?feed=rss2&p=1876 1 http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1941 http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1941#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:00:19 +0000 Motorburg http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1941 Get the full review and ordering information here...]]> Reviewed by Brian Stupski

Building a street machine…

…can be a wonderfully rewarding experience, and even one of those great bonding experiences between family members or friends… Or it can become a completely maddening and disheartening ordeal that wrenches family and friends from you. What is often the deciding factor is in the planning, and that’s where Mr. Bryant’s book excels.

What you get, page after page is a modern look at the classic performance build primer. Building the newcomer’s knowledge, system by system, the book takes a straightforward approach to explaining the basics, and suggesting methods of implementing a plan to create the car of your dreams. While many folks today simply look at automotive forums and websites and build whatever is trendy or worse, rely on some group approval method (which normally involves a ton of mis-matched bolt-ons) for design and, uh, “planning”… This book gives concrete examples of how to plan, budget and simply get the work done, using the author’s own Buick project as a case study.

From the simplest explanations (”What is a street machine?”) to more advanced topics (driveline swaps, suspension and steering controls to power-adders), the book is a great read, and is easily understood. Where technical jargon is needed, it is backed-up with plain-English explanations and illustrations, again, making this the ideal book for the first-time builder or enthusiast in your home or circle of friends.

What’s really great here is that it’s loaded with tips that can be applied to any genre of street machine, and not just another niche-book, which centers on drag race-inspired or pro-touring style cars. And while many “blanket” type books fall short, this is one title that will be on our “recommended reading” list for any clients embarking on their first car building adventure. It has some great reference material between the covers as well, making this a solid investment for both the studio and garage, and a great gift idea, too!

How to Build a Killer Street Machine
MOTORBOOKS WORKSHOP
Jefferson Bryant
Illustrated. 191pp
Softcover
Motorbooks
$29.99

Grab your own copy here and save over $7.00 in the Book Store!

]]> http://www.motorburg.com/?feed=rss2&p=1941 0 http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1882 http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1882#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 18:07:17 +0000 Motorburg http://www.motorburg.com/?p=1882 Get the whole Motorburg Design Center lowdown here...]]> Meet the Artists and Participate in the Working Studios!

Motorburg announced that it would be presenting a “Design Center” attraction at the 2010 N.S.R.A. Nationals in Louisville, KY – August 5th through the 8th.

Motorburg.com, the online resource for automotive designers, artists and enthusiasts, with an emphasis on rods & customs, will be heading up this uniquely entertaining venue.

The website features art and design galleries by an associate group of some of the hottest artists and designers in the industry as well as a thriving Forum of international talent. Increasingly, it’s becoming the “go to place” for an ever-changing array of articles and tutorials for all who appreciate the form and function of the American style of custom built automobile.

Motorburg’s associate artist list reads like a “who’s who” of rod & custom art and design and includes: Darrell Mayabb – Thom Taylor – Jimmy Smith – C•Cruz – Greg Tedder – Ralph Burch – Brian Stupski – C. Smith… as well as CARtoon’s artist Nelson Dewey. The Design Center gallery will display art by these associates as well as prints and portfolios by Motorburg’s talented forum members.

Additionally, the exhibit will display rods and customs, along with drawings and illustrations involved in the actual build.

The Invader to be displayed in the Motorburg Design Center

The exhibit will feature the Charlie Smith designed 1941 Buick Centurion Roadster - a removable-top beauty built by the late Egon Necelis and still turning heads after more than twenty years “on the road”. Of special interest will be the display of the “Invader” – America’s Most Beautiful Roadster in both 1967 & 1968.  This AMBR winner, has been lovingly restored by former Television Producer Ron Martinez, and he’ll be on hand along with Charlie, to answer questions and “tell some tales” throughout the Show. The twin engine roadster is also the subject of a Motorburg Forum design challenge and the artistic efforts of the forum designers will be on display as well.

This 1986 design by C. Smith will be on display at the "Design Center".

You’ll also get to watch as artists work in the exhibit’s two design studios, in traditional and digital fashion. The public is invited to get up close and personal as the designers do their magic on paper and monitor.

So, stop by and “talk shop” with the artists, builders and industry guests at the “Motorburg Design Center”. They’re in space 1001 through 1003 at this year’s NSRA Nats.

* Join our Forum and read more about the Design Center HERE.

]]>