Origins of Speed – a Historical Look Back

 

1948 Hot Rod Show display with Jack Andrews, Charlie Nordon and Ed Iskenderian…Pic Courtesy of Ed Iskenderian.  Click to Enlarge.

I know hot rods and customs is what brings us car guys and gals together but, its the people that make this hobby what it is.  Everyone has their own story.  My passion for the automobile started with my dad and uncle.  They have hot rodded off and on since they were teenagers.  It was their hobby, their passion.  It’s what kept them out of trouble when their dad passed away at the age of 15 and 12.  My dad has tons of stories of his ‘64 Mercury Comet Cyclone on the streets of Azusa, Calif and the original Irwindale Dragstrip.  My uncle has stories of tearing up GMR (Glendora Mountain Road) in his Nova and Datsun 510.  Most of my close friends are there because of our common interestes in cars.  My brother and I and my cousin have our own stories of cars (and motorcycles) that we have customized that we can share with our kids.  It’s the Hecht pasttime.

 

Gardena Speedway, September 15, 1946 photo courtesy of Don Johansen.  Click to Enlarge!

A recurring theme throughout the early days of speed equipment manufacturing was the dirt track racing with chopped and stripped down roadsters.  This is where you advertised your parts.  Win at the races and sell parts, it was the only formula before the days of engine dynos.

The automobile itself has only been around for the everyday person since the early 1900’s.  That’s really not that long in the grand scheme of things.  But time moves on and documenting and remembering our rodding roots is very important.  So, where are the origins of speed?  When did hot rodding and customizing your car really start?  The heart of that industry has got to be Southern California in the late 1930’s and 40’s.  Soon, hotrodders found the dry lake beds of California and the Salt Flats of Bonneville, Utah where they could let the flatheads stretch their legs…

In this post, the hot rod history lesson comes from one of the coolest automotive books of all time!  Motorbooks has done it again with the introduction of “Merchants of Speed”, authored by Paul D. Smith.  This is a fact based book, a history book if you will.  Photos are from the actual “Merchants” themselves in some cases.  Families and close friends have also proven to be a wealth of information, photos and documentation.

Ed “Isky” Iskenderian with his famous roadster purchased from a friend in 1938 for $25.  Photo courtesy of Ed Iskenderian.  Click to Enlarge.

Above is Ed Iskenderian in his military uniform posing with his 1924 T bucket.  Born in 1921, “he was about 12 years old (in 1933 or so) when he began to notice a type of car that was completely different than the run-of-the-mill vehicles that inhabited the roadways.  These street rods were mainly Model T’s void of all unnecessary parts and propelled with hopped-up four-cylinders.  Ed and his buddies found out they could see more of these cars up at Muroc Dry Lake.”

Like many of the time, Ed served in WWII and doing so, gained many mechanical skills that would serve them well later.  When he returned from the war, Ed wanted to get his roadster back on the road.  That obviously turned into “how can I make it faster”.  His first hot rod part was this 4 carb intake manifold for his flathead you see below.  Ed eventually became the first President of the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association in 1963.

 

Isky’s first hot rod part, a 4 carb manifold for his flathead V8.  Courtesy of Ed Iskenderian.  Click to Enlarge.

To find out about the “Isky Cams” part of the Iskenderian history you need to pick up this book.

 

Vic Edelbrock Sr. in 1958 with his X-1 6 carb mani on a Chevy 283cid.  Photo coutesy of Edelbrock Corporation.

Edelbrock…just let that name ring in your ears for a second.  Probably THE most successful speed equipment manufacturer to date.  In 1938 Vic Sr. bought his dual-purpose machine, a 1932 V8 powered roadster which became his family hauler/dry lakes racer.  Vic was involved in every type of racing, oval track, midget racing, dry lakes/Bonneville, event boat racing.  There’s so much more, but I don’t have the room here.  Seriously, just buy the book!

 

Edelbrock, a family tradition of hot rodding.  Photo courtesy of Edelbrock Corporation.

In all, “Merchants of Speed” book includes the history of 22 Speed Equipment shops.  You’ll see others like Navarro, Ansen Automotive, Howard Cams, Braje, and more!  This book is insanely cool!  Being into more modern late model Japanese cars, I really appreciated this book.  Paul Smith did an amazing job of finding out the details of these shops and the speed parts that made them successful.  The old photos are great.  This book will be an important part of future hot rodders remembering their origins.  That’s just my humble opinion.

 

In all seriousness, this book is and will be one of my cherished possessions in life.  Sounds lame, but I’m serious when I say that this book will be very important in continuing the memories of the very first hot rodders.

Take a look at these photos and the history attached and think about your car story.  We want to hear yours.  Please share them with us, we’d love to share them with MyRideisMe.com readers.

Thank you Motorbooks and Paul D. Smith and an even bigger thank you to you Merchants of Speed.  I will have an increased sense of respect at Bonneville this year.

Picture coutesy of Paul D. Smith, author

Hechtspeed

Rollin’ in the Dust at El Mirage

Before attending Speed Week at Bonneville this past August, I had no idea what El Mirage was. But once the land speed racing bug gets ya, it gets ya bad. So rather then waiting until next year to drive out to Bonneville salt flats again I decided to check out another SCTA event, the 2009 finals at El Mirage dry lake bed.

There is one drastic difference between racing at Bonneville and El Mirage; Salt vs. Dirt. From what drivers say, the dirt is more of a challenge to drive on then the salt. From a spectators perspective, the dirt kicks up a trail so you can’t see the car as it speeds away. Both venues have their draws though. One big draw to El Mirage (for me) is that it’s a mere 2 hours from Los Angeles, just outside of Palmdale, California. You know what that means, my ’55 Studebaker got to get her little tires on the dirt!

And there was a lot of dirt! I’ve never experienced anything quite like rolling onto the dry lake and speeding 4 un-marked miles west to the starting line amidst a flurry of campers’ off-road recreational vehicles. Stude had a good time on the dirt and I think she wanted to race, but for now was merely a spectator.

Studebaker Champions being somewhat of an icon for land speed racing, I was hoping to find some Studebaker racers at El Mirage but didn’t find any this time around. I was also hoping to see Tonya Turk and Gene Winfield get into the El Mirage 200mph club  (dubbed the “Dirty 2’s,”)but this wasn’t the year for that. There was only one 200 mph club inductee (each “track” has their own separate 200mph club) and that was Erik Hansson driving a belly tank roadster at 203.059 beating out the standing record of 194.744 by nearly 9mph!

I missed seeing many of the 148 racing entries and 18 records set this year since I was only there Sunday afternoon. Next year I’ll have to put the whole weekend of November 13-14 on my calendar and catch it all. That will of course be after the 2010 Bonneville Speed Week August 14-20th. Mark your calendars now and I hope to see some of ya’ll on the salt – or the dirt!

Check out all the pictures from El Mirage 2009 at the MyRideisMe gallery and if ya want more info on Bonneville/El Mirage head on over to the SCTA website.

Happy Trails!

Hot Rod Indie Film Made by Faith

I caught up with Faith Granger the lady behind the Hot Rod movie, “Deuce of Spades”. Not long ago, I told you more about her in this Blog, but I left out some critical details to the readers at MyRideisMe.com:

She owns a really cool vintage styled 32 hot rod herself and it’s the star of Deuce of Spades and more importantly… Damn! She’s good-lookin too!

Faith wrapped-up the shooting of the painstakingly accurate 40 nostalgia scenes for the movie back in December. Don’t forget this is an independent film done almost entirely by Faith. Any major film company who can make period correct 1950 come alive deserves credit and this is practically a one woman show.

Now, Faith is shooting the scenes when the movie’s back in present time. The first of the 2008 scenes featured hot rod and custom builder Gene Winfield as fictional character “El Mirage George”!! This was filmed live at the last SCTA meet and features quite a few cool race cars.

Faith’s been whispering so many great things about what’s to come including a SoCal drive-in movie premier and hopefully a chance at other drive-in’s around the country. There’s no doubt that would be the perfect place to watch this movie.

Until the films release (I’ll keep you posted!) here are a couple promo shots from the movie. Should I put these in the pinup section or what?

Also, here’s another clip from the movie called “The Jalopy Race.”