More on the Costa & Stewart Willys

                                                 (Photo courtesy of Joe Hickenbottom)

As most of you know, my day job is writing hot rod genre books for CarTech/SA Designs. It’s actually more of a 24/7 gig for me, but you’ll never hear me complain about that. I’m hopelessly in love with the creative process and thanks to this work, my jones gets fixed hundreds of times every day. Aaahhh…

In March of 2002, I met (then) Rod & Custom scribe Tim Bernsau in the pits at Famoso Raceway, who encouraged me to try my hand at magazine freelancing. I’ve been sneaking the magazine features into my schedule ever since. This month, my first ever cover story hit the shelves. Bonus: It’s for Hot Rod Deluxe magazine – my favorite. In fact, I’ve been doing a lot of work for Dave Wallace at HRD over the last few months and it appears our arrangement will continue into the foreseeable future.

The cover car for this (January 2012) issue is the Costa & Stewart A/GS Willys, which came with a colorful pedigree and many riddles. Eventually, my research led to grizzled Gasser veteran Ronnie Nunes, who told me that the late Pat Stewart’s partner Carl Costa (who vanished mysteriously in 1969) bankrolled the car with his earnings as a concert pianist. Well, that defined the storyline, and provided the title ("Classical Gas") as well. I ran with it. Since being published a few weeks ago, I’ve received conflicting reports regarding the validity of Nunes’ statement. The mystery deepens. If you have any history with Costa and/or Stewart and any insight into this controversy, please post a note on this blog’s COMMENTS and enlighten us all, okay? Meanwhile, here’s some out-takes from the feature to inspire your memory…
　
　
　

The Willys hibernated in this shed behind Pat Stewart’s house from 1969 to 2004. (Mark Andermahr photo)　

While researching, I crossed paths with Mark Andermahr, who knew Pat Stewart and attended the auction of Pat’s possessions. He was beyond disappointed to have missed out on the Willys, but did bring home this period Deuce roadster, which was Pat’s street car. (Mark Andermahr photo)


 

Some out-takes of Wes Allison’s beautiful HRD cover shoot. Editor Dave (AKA Mr. Ed) constantly reminds me that these cover shoots are, "A big deal." That’s understated code for a logistical nightmare that requires perfection of every detail (of which there are thousands), lest weeks of planning go swirling down a very expensive drain. (Wes Allison photos – duh!)


 Action shots are usually the best memory joggers, so here ya go. Were you in the pits or ‘stands at any of these races? Do tell…

We begin with Costa & Stewart up against Mike Mitchell ("World’s Fastest Hippie"), around ‘68ish? Not sure where this is, either. (Photo courtesy of Joe Hickenbottom)

 

Stewart, getting the jump on the competition at Fremont Drag Strip in late 60s. Note 9.80 on driver’s window – was Stewart bracket racing here?! (Photo courtesy of Joe Hickenbottom)


 

By now, the Costa & Stewart lettering is gone and Fremont has changed its name to Baylands, which puts this around ’69 or ’70. (Kiwi Kev photo)

Rare shot of Stewart in the staging lanes at the Fremont Reunion/Gasser Gathering in 1987. He hastily installed a carbureted smallblock Chevy for this one event, then immediately put the car back into retirement. I believe that's the 'Old Gold' '39 Chevy in the other lane - a car that has kicked my own ass down the track. (Photo courtesy of Joe Hickenbottom)


 

Cool shot of the Willys at speed, sans door lettering. Joe later had "Deacon" recreate the ‘Costa & Stewart’ logo. (Kiwi Kev photo)


　
　

The Costa & Stewart Willys is now in Joe Hickenbottom’s care and sharing the company of its stable mates at Hickenbottom’s race car retirement community in Aromas, California. The ’40 Dodge is a street/strip special. Joe drove it to the coffee shop one morning and discovered the Costa & Stewart car in the process. (Joe Hickenbottom photo)


 

Every fleet needs a ’57 Chevy C/Gasser. This is at Eagle Field, where I believe Joe blew the rearend out of it. Don’t know the history on this one – just that Joe tortures it regularly and he nailed the look, according to my skewered tastes. (Photo courtesy of Joe Hickenbottom)


 

HRD regular Tim Sutton caught Joe warming up the shop with his restored Gameuda Bros. Anglia. (Tim Sutton photo)


 

You can’t collect racers without acquiring at least one dragster. Joe and his daughters show off some killer chassis work here (love that front spring)! Great background eye candy, too…
(Tim Sutton photos)

UPDATE 2-15-2012 : Ronnie Nunes recently reminded me that his comment to me while researching the magazine story was only that Costa was a concert pianist - he did NOT say that the race car was financed by those performances. In fact, he told me he didn't know where the money came from. I double checked my research notes and could only find this scribble: "Concert pianist - financed build?" My mistake was likely a result of late night thrashing to make a deadline - exactly the kind of slop I despise and swore I wouldn't ever commit. Now I've done it and toes were stepped on in the process. My apologies to Mr. Nunes and anyone else effected by my blunder. It's an important lesson learned, but I regret that other people paid for my education.

NORTHWEST HOT RODS MAGAZINE

Shortly after deciding that freelancing was the life for me (luckily, I love peanutbutter and jelly), fate threw me a spitball in the form of an opportunity to ply my craft locally. Kevin Shahalami had captained a fleet of high end fashion magazines before being drafted to transform the fledgling Goodguys Gazzette from a desktop newsletter into a slick large-format monthly. After savoring a couple years of that success, he moved the family to southern Oregon to live the simple life. But Kevin apparently missed the excitement of deadline pressure, dealing with millionaire sized egos, and the associated migraines and ulcers. Kevin also missed the hot rod life. He had a great car magazine concept in his head that craved freedom, but Kevin and wife Fawnda were now parents and home owners. They had also established a thriving graphic arts business that gobbled up all of their time and energy.

That’s when I came in. I believe it was 2005. When I met Kevin and he explained his magazine idea to me, I wanted in desperately. So did a few others, so we all teamed up for a series of brainstorming sessions and found a way to bring Kevin’s vision into focus. Today, I still believe the concept to be brilliant.

It would actually be two magazines in one: Half would be Northwest Hot Rods. Then, if you turned it upside-down and flipped it over, the other half was Northwest Bikes, capitalizing on the popularity of the custom Harley scene. Each title had dedicated editorial and advertising staffs – the latter being key to ad sales, covering the cost of printing. The jumbo sized glossy would be distributed by a regional parts wholesaler to its network of retail clients for free, in exchange for ad space.

Within three months of the first meeting, the distribution deal was locked in, ads were selling, and both editorial departments were piling up feature material. Kevin was the Publisher, and Graphic Artist Roberta Great (well known in the biz as "Bert") handled layout and design. I was appointed Editor of the Hot Rods side, with a staff of part time photographers and copy writers. We hit the road right at Christmas time, mapping out an initial coverage area from Mt. Shasta to Mt. Rainier. We spread the word as we went, selling ads and gathering feature stories all the way. Below are some samples of what we came up with for our first issue.

An out take from the cover shoot, with local crazies Mark Daley and Ronnie Mankins, both strutting their latest stuff in gloss black - a ballsy move that showcased our willingness to experiment, combined with daredevil photography. Black is hard to shoot, as my rookie snapshot illustrates. The final cover image was spectacular, hastening ad sales admirably.

A closer look at Ronnie’s sinister street/strip ’55 Chevy – an absolute sadist, armed with a 406 inch assassin’s bullet. It ran nines at the track.

You can’t put these two on the same stretch of asphalt without this happening. It’s a given. They may have been encouraged somewhat by bystanders…

Most of us on the staff were already regular customers at Spec Rite Torque Converters in Redding, so this was a natural.

While in Redding, we swung by Dave Tuttle’s top secret chassis shop on the outskirts of town. Dave was very patient as he educated us doorslammer types on the finer points of dragster design. The blue car is Kin Bates’ Nostalgia Top Fueler, just before shipping out.

This was too easy – right here in town. When we heard of the hot rod and motorcycle art exhibition at Ignition Gallery, we covered the Grand Opening, stuffing our pockets with as many free snacks as possible. Best day ever!

Art Morrison Enterprises (in Tacoma) hosted us like long-lost relatives, but offered no food whatsoever. This northern trip was made during an ice storm that tailed us like toilet paper until we returned home. Slow going.

In Portland, we snooped around at my old employers, Steve’s Auto Restorations. Our northern correspondent Tim Holt worked there then, getting us the hot skinny poop on all things fast and loud in the Rose City. And Tim took us to lunch! That name again: Tim Holt, hot rod God. Enjoy this retro peek at some famous cars, before they were famous.

Just outside of Portland is Marty Strode’s vintage tin skunkworks. Unfortunately, the Marty images have inexplicably vanished into a digital black hole. I offer the following shot of Marty in his element as penance.

Next stop: B&B Speed Shop in Albany, Oregon. The Brenneman family alerted the local gearhead populace of our visit and they welcomed us like royalty on a bone chilling December Monday evening. The ice storm followed us into town, but nobody left! HARDCORE. They ate all the food while waiting for us though. That’s patriarch Mike Brenneman, modeling the coveralls.

We committed to covering every behind-the-scenes detail of the buildup and a full season of competition for a series called, "What it Takes", following Ron Austin’s grassroots crew from initial design sketch to Championship trophy presentation. Another bold concept that I was particularly proud of. Austin followed the script and took the crown. Amazing.



Alas, Kevin was soon forced to choose between the magazine and his business, as there wasn’t time enough for both. The magazine drew the short straw. The staff scrambled to keep the momentum going, but without a publisher, it quickly dwindled to nothing. I learned some valuable skills that year that still serve me well. The magazine wasn’t meant to be, for reasons that are none of my business. Perhaps some motivated reader will take the idea and run with it. I can only hope so, for the sake of grassroots level hot rod photo journalism – when allowed to flourish, it takes hotrodding along for the ride. I’ve seen it happen before and it’s beautiful.
　

HAPPY TIME FOTO FEST!

This fest is a test. While researching cars online for various writing projects, I often save images I come across that make me grin. I figured that if they have that effect on me, maybe they’ll do the trick for you, too. So, with nothing else to post this week, I’ve decided to share the wealth. I have no information on the photographers behind these photos, so if you know anything, please post it here. I want to give credit where it’s due, as these are all amazing shots, in my opinion. As per online protocol, these are all low res images, so I have no idea how they’ll reproduce here. Let’s find out!


Coming from a street racer background, these photos jumped out at me. In my skewered vision, the only thing as cool as a badass street car doing business is an all out race car testing limits on city streets.

Here’s a couple for the street car purists.

And some images have nothing to do with anything, which I love. Viva irreverence!

Next week: The most astonishing blog ever posted anywhere! If I think of something by then.