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Dear Mom and Dad: Sixty years of reading this stuff hasn't hurt me one bit. It has actually served me well. To celebrate, Doctor Lockjaw and I assembled this collection for a group photo, shot on the Custom Metal shop floor. This image was intended for a CarTech book project with the working title, "Vintage Speed Parts" (for a chapter on media exposure). After nine months of work, my computer ate the whole thing. This photo (and about five others) is all that was left. (Scotty shot)
And they said the hours spent with my nose in car magazines were wasted. As it turned out, those paper escape vessels taught me which end the big tires go on, which led to a grunt career in the hot rod industry. The magazines also taught me to read and write, which eventually led to a grunt career in automotive publishing.
My dad was another "bad influence". An inveterate parts hoarder, he taught me not to toss anything until I was absolutely certain I wouldn't need it. Sure enough, that little "habit" promptly snowballed into full-blown obsession, and I followed dad's footsteps straight into divorce court. More than once. The silver lining here is an enormous collection of photos to share with you, the lucky viewer.
Due to a hectic week (which included an appearance on the Motormouth Radio Hour. Eavesdrop at www.motormouthradio.com), there was precious little time this week to prepare a proper blog post for you. So I'm running some of the photos intended for a book on surly street/strip cars that never saw daylight. The working title was, "The Badasses".
(Photo courtesy Chris Casney)
(Photos courtesy Glenn Hayes)
(Scotty shots)
(Photos courtesy Larry Fator)
(Photo courtesy Don Yewish)
(Scotty shots)
(Photo courtesy Phil Davis)
(Photos courtesy Steve Wright)
(Photos courtesy Race Trevino)
(Scotty shots)
(Photos courtesy Stratton Photography)
(Scotty shots)
And here's some that I found, but never pursued. By this point, I had decided there's no market for a book of street/strip features. What say you, SGE Nation?
(Photographer unknown)
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(Photographer unknown)
(Dennis Vollmar shot)
(Photographer unknown)
(Photographer unknown, but I bet it's a friend of Marky Izardi)
(Photographer unknown)
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(Photo courtesy Spike Kilmer)
(Photographer unknown)
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(Photo courtesy 1320 video)
(Photographer unknown)
(Photo courtesy Doug Nichol)
(Photographer unknown)
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(Photo courtesy Hot Rod Magazine, I think)
(Photographer unknown)
(Photographer unknown)
(Photographer unknown)
(Photo courtesy Pontiac Jeff)
(Photo courtesy Motormouth Ray)
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SQUIRREL AND TOOLBOX
Veteran SGEites will recall our first mention of squirrels (years ago) to illustrate the street racer spirit in us all. We bring the metaphor full circle this week, with actual human-operated squirrels racing humans. Ah, life. You can't make this stuff up. (Photographer unknown)
GRIN
Last week's blog hyped the 100th running of the Indy 500. The event did not disappoint, delivering non-stop drama, complete with an incredible surprise ending. The odds were 100-1 against Indy rookie Alexander Rossi. But the 24 year-old came out from Nevada City, California with a rabbit in his hat. Rossi fist-pumps a microsecond after crossing the bricks ahead of everyone who pitted to refuel. Rossi's Honda sputtered along on fumes throughout the white flag lap, but coasted across the finish line first. (Photo courtesy Hot Rod Magazine)
After being towed into the winners circle, Rossi emerged from the car in a state of shock, exclaiming, "I have no idea how we pulled that out!". But the win didn't surprise Rossi's mother Dawn, who revealed a bit of the logic behind this David Beats Goliath story: "So proud of him. Not because he won, but because of who he is as a person. It never surprises me when he does something like this." (Photographer unknown)
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And they said the hours spent with my nose in car magazines were wasted. As it turned out, those paper escape vessels taught me which end the big tires go on, which led to a grunt career in the hot rod industry. The magazines also taught me to read and write, which eventually led to a grunt career in automotive publishing.
My dad was another "bad influence". An inveterate parts hoarder, he taught me not to toss anything until I was absolutely certain I wouldn't need it. Sure enough, that little "habit" promptly snowballed into full-blown obsession, and I followed dad's footsteps straight into divorce court. More than once. The silver lining here is an enormous collection of photos to share with you, the lucky viewer.
Due to a hectic week (which included an appearance on the Motormouth Radio Hour. Eavesdrop at www.motormouthradio.com), there was precious little time this week to prepare a proper blog post for you. So I'm running some of the photos intended for a book on surly street/strip cars that never saw daylight. The working title was, "The Badasses".
(Photo courtesy Don Yewish)
And here's some that I found, but never pursued. By this point, I had decided there's no market for a book of street/strip features. What say you, SGE Nation?
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SQUIRREL AND TOOLBOX
All we know about the little blue box is that it belongs to a "Studebaker Eric". And we're guessing Eric belongs to the muscular '59 El Camino. Appropriately edgy lighting deems this a fitting finale to our street racer salute. Thanks Eric! (Photo courtesy Studebaker Eric)
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