2011 California Hot Rod Reunion – Great Pics!

Hot Rods & Nostalgia Drags at 20th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion

Shooting with a vintage 1953 Zeiss Ikoflex twin lens reflex camera, Tim Scott captures the beauty of the hot rods and nostalgia diggers at one of the coolest drag races on the planet! Dig the warmth of these photos as Tim takes photographic demons of the past out for little ride… (Click on any picture to see it full size)

Photos & Story By Tim Scott – Scott Photo Co. – www.scottphoto.co

This was my second year attending the Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, CA. October 20-23 were the dates of this amazing event for 2011, and this year certainly didn’t disappoint.

See, I’m not much of a car show guy. I love vintage cars, motorcycles and speed, but I really don’t care for the attitudes that often come with car or motorcycle cliques. I don’t care if you’re a Harley Davidson or an import bike rider. I don’t care if you’re a “rat-rod” fan or a custom fan. If you work on and ride/drive your toys – respect. Just leave the attitude at the door.

The beauty of the Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway is that people that I’ve met there are true fans of steel, craftsmanship and speed.

There are famous people walking around that are completely unassuming, humble and unbelievably talented with no attitude or BS to be found. And the cars? Let’s just say that I probably should have worn a bib. There is a beauty to some of these machines that is incomparable.

I don’t even begin to have the skill, knowledge and patience of these craftsman. My stable of toys includes a ’53 Chevy pickup, ’62 Ford unibody pickup and a couple of old Harleys. I am not a master builder or any kind of a builder really. I have a few good friends who help me work on and keep my toys drivable, but I’m no expert. Working on it though.

My passion comes with a respect for the beauty of classic steel and the craftsmanship that people of yesteryear demonstrated with none of the technology that we now enjoy. I think that a lot of old things have a soul that can only come with age, use and history.

I’ve worked in the creative industry (advertising) for many, many years finally escaping from NYC (amazing city) a few years ago so I could have a life, own a car (or three) and experience life in a different way. I was into photography beginning in high school and shot for years until an eventful day in the 90′s when all of my gear was stolen when I was away on a trip. Not having the money to replace it at the time I pretty much just left it behind and moved on.

About a year ago I picked up a little digital camera (Olympus e-p1) and started to feel that excitement of making images again. Now this is a fantastic little camera and I’ve had a great time shooting and sharing photos. But as much as I love these images, there has always felt like there was something missing. I didn’t know what it was, so in an effort to find it I spent a lot of money on a beautiful Canon 7D and a professional set of lenses. This camera also captures some beautiful images. But still, I was missing the feel and emotions I used to experience when I looked through my images.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I hate average or “acceptable”. If I’m going to do something I want to do it great, not just good. So I went back to the beginning and refreshed my knowledge of basic photography techniques. Light, exposure, composition, etc. Continually looking for the “magic” that I wanted to find again. And though many of my images were technically perfect, I felt no emotions when I looked at them. I kept looking, experimenting and questioning everything. I found an old 35mm film camera on Craigslist that I purchased very cheap because I wanted to go back to shooting fully manual to try to find that magic again.

OK, wow. Shooting with film again was a complete pain. It takes 3x as long to take a photo, and that’s after you have to find and purchase the film. Then comes processing, editing and getting things into the digital realm. No wonder everyone shoots digital. But wait. When I received my prints and looked closely there was a hint of that old magic that I was looking for.

Now let me be clear. The camera is a tool just like any other tool. True greatness comes from using tools to their fullest in a creative fashion. By slowing down and focusing on the basics again, being selective of what I captured and not just blindly clicking I was beginning to find what I was looking for. But being a sucker for pain I had to up the ante and make the next step. Medium format film photography.

I found a 1953 Zeiss Ikoflex twin lens reflex camera on Craigslist and continued my experimentation. It was on this camera that I created the images that you see here. To me these images have begun to capture that special something that I was looking for. A feeling of warmth and dimension. I want to look at these images and feel like I am there again. I hope when you look at them it gives you just a little taste of what it was like to be there.

So to bring this back to cars and steel, there was craftsmanship, hard work, good use of tools and a work ethic that want into the great cars of yesteryear that were everywhere at the 20th Annual Hot Rod Reunion. The same is true for the great builds today, and great photographs. Nothing worthwhile is easy and it takes work and passion to make something truly great. I’m not there yet, but I’ll keep working on it.

Tim

Motown Missile 70 Challenger One-of-a-kind Painting

Drag Racing Art by Liz Northrup

Liz Northrup is an artist and true hot rod and drag racing enthusiast. This article is written by her and features her newest hot rod art piece, the legendary “Motown Missile”. -pikesan

In the midst of looking for ideas on a project, I was referred to seek help from a fellow artist named Bill Stinson. Interestingly, I’ve learned that Bill has a unique past as a writer and cartoon artist for various hot rod magazines such as, ISCA’s ‘Show Stopper’, ‘CARtoons’, and the original ‘Hot Rod DeLuxe’. Bill currently writes for ‘Cruis’news magazine’.

Bill was kind enough to send me a few pictures of some of the most legendary drag cars in history. Out of that collection,  one car in particular caught my interest: the Motown Missile, a ‘70 Dodge Challenger. Being a Mopar fan, I was intrigued to learn more of it’s story.

Bill is friends with Ted Spehar, who owned and built the Motown Missile. Teddy (as Bill likes to call him) is a master in building high performance engines and had extraordinary success with the Chrysler Hemi’s. Teddy was commissioned by Chrysler to build a Pro Stock Challenger. Arlen Vanke who tested the car came up with the name ‘Motown Missile’ which Teddy liked and decided to keep.

The car was first driven by Dick Oldfield then later the late Don Carlton was hired to race the Missile. The team had great success having the quickest Pro Stock car of it’s time! Documents show ET’s of 9.4 seconds at 145 mph!

With the fuel crunch of the early 70′s, Chrysler and Teddy decided not to race the Missile anymore for Chrysler had other plans for him to do. So Carlton moved on to another team and since he didn’t own the license to the name Motown, he went with ‘Mopar Missile’ which started with the ‘72 Plymouth ‘Cuda.

Bill interviewed Teddy back in ‘09 and I’ve had the greatest pleasure in reading his story! The Missile team made history in the sport of Pro Stock racing, which will be forever remembered. I only wish I could have been around at the time to witness their great success!

A huge ‘THANKS’ to Bill in providing me the reference photo, documents and the inspiration for this project! This has been a real joy for me in learning about your friend, Teddy and the limelight he had with the Motown Missile! Thank you Bill!

Now here’s the painting!

Referring to Bill’s photo, here’s how Liz Started and she’ll walk you through what she was thinking as the painting evolved:

I took the reference photo into Adobe Photoshop and made one other copy, turning it into greyscale mode, then sharpened the contrast of the original. I overlapped the original over the B&W version, then deleted the background for the greyscale to show through. I wanted the cars to be the main focal point. They’ll be painted with 1-shot enamel giving it that vibrancy, demanding attention from the viewer.

The canvas is a 2X4 ft. sheet of dry erase board. After I sketched out the drawing, I first applied the lightest color of the background as a base coat, using acrylic paint.

I usually start my projects first using black paint, get the basics down and use as a guideline when I go back to make my final touch-ups. The Motown Missile lettering I used 1-shot metallic silver. Nothing too dark, yet easy to see through my layering of yellow, orange and red. The layering of colors took some time in between coats as I would dilute the paint with thinner and brush light strokes across the board, then giving it time to dry.

Once I finished the layering of colors, I went back to do the Motown Missile lettering, mixing metallic silver and white enamel. The silver by itself was too dark. Then I applied the black with a toothbrush, giving that spotted look under the letters.

I saved the sponsor decals for last as I knew they would be more time consuming. It’s a habit of mine to save the hardest for last, just one more big hill to climb before I can rejoice and breath again. Lol

The Finished Painting (click for full size)

I’ve had the greatest pleasure doing this project! I learned the cars’ history and about the people who were involved. I hope it serves its purpose… to bring a smile among those who love the drag racing and those who created and campaigned the Motown Missile!

by Liz Northrup

Contact Liz at her website: www.streetlegendsstudio.com or by email here: streetlegendsstudio@gmail.com

If nostalgia drag racing Mopar’s are your thing, check out this Silver Bullet Plymouth Belvedere GTX.

Drag Racers from SEMA Vegas: Small Chevy 427

SEMA Car Show – Our Favorite Engines

I gotta be me! How could I resist the power packed old school nastiness of this blown small block Chevy riding in an authentic nostalgia dragster? Why would I want to?

I talked to Dennis Overholser from Painless Performance wiring about his new ride. It’s almost ready to run the full Comp Cams roller equipped Dart block at a “Drag strip near you!”  Dennis can’t terrorize an existing Nostalgia Drag Racing class because of the electronic fuel injection he used but he’ll still be able to tear up the quarter mile! Did I sense a little hesitation to drop the hammer Dennis? Prove me wrong!

Dennis already has the Truckster featured here from 2009 SEMA Coverage, so check it out!

Something like the custom fuel injected LS motor, I’m a sucker for stand up fuel injection. This bad 66 Chevelle also runs Hilborn fuel injection, but this time it’s the original mechanical setup that put Hilborn on the map and made many weekend tuners wear a thinner head of hair. I don’t know much more about this 427 Chevy big block beast, so enjoy it for it’s simplicity and as an icon of the original solution to making power: Large cubic inches

I must have missed a favorite engine from SEMA 2010. If it did, let me know about it and send over some pictures!

1955 Chevy Gasser spotted at Lowes Parking Lot

So, February in Utah isn’t a great time to bust out the street driven Gasser, you’d think, but the owner of this ’55 Gasser called “Hemi Hunter” gets a big high 5 for doing just that.  Of course, it is the warmest day since November 22, it was a balmy 46.  Ha ha  I’ve got no info except for the pics I took.  But its a gorgeous example of an early 60′s Gasser built to run on the street.

This car was immaculate!  Cherry black paint, all the correct Gasser mods, like radiused rear fender, bumperless, big long tube headers, no front fender wells to block the headers and straight front axle.  Those keystone mags set the car off nicely as well.  Rad!!!

“Hemi Hunter” is right, that’s what a 502ci big block will get ya.

Love the gold lettering.  Period correct and Rad!

Super clean, that’s the word that comes to mind.  I dig the scoop sittin’ under the vette hood bulge.

That paint is reflecting everything.  Wow!  Dig that vette hood bulge/scoop and big street meats in the rear!

I dig the white steering wheel and white accents.  That interior is so clean!  There’s that word again, CLEAN.

…and one more pic for your hot rod enjoyment.

So, all in all, an amazing find for a Saturday morning in February.  If you own this ride, comment below and help us with the info and history of this car.

Is that “Barnes and Sperry” name a tribute or is this the same car from back in the day?  See this link to Gasser Madness website and let me know if you guys think this is the same car?

The World’s Fastest Hippie – Go ahead and Inhale

At the Grand National Roadster Show, one exhibition hall, #9 I think, always has a theme.  Last year, it was former America’s Most Beautiful Roadster winners. The hall was filled with with AMBR winning roadsters from back when the show was still in Oakland, CA. This year, the theme hall was the “History of the Race Car”. I just published another story about the Drag Race cars in this hall, but this one’s just about this 1969 Corvette named, “Revolution” and owned by the late Mike Mitchell.

In a hall filled with wild race cars, this one, as you can see stands out. The paint is fantastic!  The “Fastest Hippie” theme is carried out throughout the car with the psychedelic rainbow patterns on the side then the jumbo hookah on the hood and the zig-zag man near the cockpit. I bet Mike was alot of fun! (click on these pics to see them full size)

Researching for this story, I found a bit more info about Mike Mitchell, and about his passing in 2000. The story’s written by Phil Elliot at our friend Draglist.com.  The story’s called, “Farewell to the Hippie” and tells about Phil’s experience helping out at a drag race in Boise. Phil writes:

Anyway, I started the day in my wildest of hippyesque red, white and blue bell-bottoms, which had no back pockets. My wallet went on the dashboard of the truck — soon the wallet was gone with every cent I had. Not a good feeling 12 hours from home.

It’s a cool story, check it out.

Still looking, I found a video.  It’s a pretty serious look at Mike getting ready to race his equally wild painted Cuda funny car with, “Impeach Nixon” lettered on the back.  With pull-top Oly sipping spectators looking on, you’re treated to a smoky burnout at the end.

Is that exactly how you don’t really remember it? Any stories you can share about Mike and his rides? We’d love to hear them!

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