Tuesday, March 31, 2015

On The Street

A couple of random shots on the street 1940s LA



Monday, March 30, 2015

Gene Winfield's T roadster

Before Gene Winfield became famous as a customiser he was a hot rodder. Gene's 'THE THING' was featured in Hot Rod mag in 1951. The car Gene raced previous to The Thing was this T roadster, this roadster was even pictured in HRM show coverage of a Modesto auto show. The picture in this article was taken at a Cal-Neva Timing event 1951


Thursday, March 26, 2015

Honk Feature Calori roadster

At the end of 1947 early 1948 Jack Calori sold his roadster to his dentist who promptly put white wall tyres on which Jack detested, the roadster is pictured in coverage of early drag races in Hot Rod mag. By 1953 when featured in Honk June '53 a young guy by the name of Jerry Sutherland owned the roadster this clearly is the Jack Calori roadster but the kid claimed to have built it. From here the roadster seems to disappear, did Jerry keep the roadster and have it squirrelled away or sold it and changed to the point of being unrecognisable?




Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Nelson/Titus/Sarno T roadster

Today's post is on the Jim 'Jazzy' Nelson, LeRoy Titus, Chuck Sarno













































































































































The roadster survives today restored by Chuck Sarno who has owned the roadster for 50 years.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Time to post more.

For those that look in on the 'Hot Rods of the Dry Lakes Era' blog hoping to see new posts and nothing has been posted for months, I apologise. This blog is something I do in my spare time and for too long I have neglected posting, so from now on I will be posting a new post every day even if it is a photo with a caption.

Bill Burke, Dahm Bros Austin Bantam B/modified coupe.
Dahm bros famous T roadster next to Bantam coupe in B&W pic.

1946 SCTA footage from start of 'HOT ROD' 1950


Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Spalding bros Av8

Posting today is two photos of the Spalding bros Av8. The unusual V8 is a 1930s Riley SOHC V8 which used stock '34 ford V8 crank, rods, pistons. The SOHC engine in these photos was owned by Eugene Von Arx, who also owned a Riley OHV V8 which was run in his Frank Kurtis built custom. After Tom & Bill sold their AV8 they built their famous #43 track roadster. The A roadster is apparently the survivor roadster of Tom Morris, Tom apparently purchased the car from the Spaldings.






Riley OHV '32 Ford roadster 1946