MAGAZINE

BLENDED AVERAGES

The Early Times Car Club kinda quietly goes about the business of doing the hedonistic hot rod thang; noteable for this or that exploit over the years, it's almost undercover most of the time. They're not purposefully out there trying to make a 'name' for themselves; however there's the picnic, Mid-Winter Rod Run, club runs hither and yon and meetings EVERY week (lots of yuks) and grooving' on the friendships. But ...you knew there'd be a BUT....

...............but they're old fucks.

Yeazuh, until a meeting in March ..... when two greasy, tattoo'd hard-core hot rod types about mid-late twenties got voted in. Yeah, family men an' all and got jobs an' all butÉ..what'd THEY see in the ET?

Car guys, that's what. See, it's about the iron over there and cats - young or not - costume or not - ink or not - who get it ... ... get it.

There's a new greybeard, too, but even so, ET life expectancy actuarials just went up.

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SPRING

Spring has sprung. This morning (in March), we are doing a little toe-tappin'. Wondering if all the plans, visions and fancies of the season will turn out as planned.

Nope.

It can't happen: we dream at warp speed, with high expectations........ reach exceeding grasp. That program always avails satisfying results anywho (Wiley-mon?).....because of the high ideals......

And how can we be so sure that it'll all be cozy and groovy and?

1) The iron we choose is pure......and you know the reason it's pure.

2) The people who know what's pure about that iron are the folks we'll choose to be around.

That'll make it all figure. It's fulfilling prophecy. Come' round- go 'round. Fitting and proper. Veritas.

Now, we had a few pow-wows already this year with the kind of guys what know. Mind you, we were on a pass - a kind of guest pass - but it reinforces to us the notion that out there, in Hopupland, there are small tribes of hairy-legged hot rodders...... some in remote places.....some not.....that aren't missing a thing; haven't been left behind; haven't lost the lesson of cool because of their address or weather, or because they didn't schmooze the promoter, or because they didn't have a free part to give a writer. Most of you out there - maybe even 12or15 of you out of the 19 - have all the qualities of the most celebrated builders in the bidness; the other 4 damn sure have all the qualities of the coolest hot rodders out there, builders or not.

You just never been covered.

Key is, you know what cha got; what you can do, and that you got good taste and restraint and attitude, and that you're doing it for you and not some bugger-eatin' kid in a stroller at the parking lot car show.

AND............. you don't have to be in the guild to be............skilled.

HOTRODARAMA BOUGHT BY HOP UP

Not really. The second Hotrodarama will be August 23-24 in Tacoma, Washington. Organizer Fast Eddie Seaholm has conscripted Hop Up as a co-sponsor of the mega event, meaning we here at The Towers are less sponsors than a sanctioning body; well, less sanctioning body than endorser. Well, we're gonna sell Hop Up T shirts there.

There'll prob'ly be 300 cars there, and the jist will be traditional rods and customs (like, what else would we sanction, endorse, promote and sponsor?) music, a good saloon, and a slice of northwest Kulture. Get there somehow. Lots of folks are going to loop through Washington on the way back from B'ville.

BOOK REVIEW

Click to enlarge.

EL MIRAGE IMPRESSIONS by Michael de Lesseps is a photo-study of a couple of trips to Elmo by the writer/photog. whose notes and un-posed look are kinda refreshing. Not unlike a guys' first trips to Elmo archived in his own scrapbook. 142 pages, lots of images, not the least of which is a candid shot of Jack Underwood somewhere in the pits, aand now, more meaningful than at the time it was published: forward by Sam Samson (R.I.P.) and a good portrait of Higbie (R.I.P).

$29.95+shipping from:
Iconographics
P.O. 446
Hudson, WI. 54016

AUDIO-VISUAL REVIEW

Found myself in a stocker headin' to a swap meet after havin' spent an afternoon/evening with one of those gangs that you admire (temporary pass), regretting that a tire store had rebalanced the fronts on the hot rod when it was just there to have the rotors (oh, shutup) turned, had done the uninvited balancing badly and made the car not-fun enough that you couldn't take it to the weekend.

That aggravation (comes with the territory) went away, when we looked in the mirror and...on a long, downhill run .....a little after daybreak.....gorgeous morning... an orange deuce highboy roadster (you know it) that had been with us, began to gather us up one at a time in a smooth, choreographed sweep of speed, pedal to the frickin' metal. The graybeards in it.......... wearing shades, jaws set and looking' straight ahead, heads just above the tops of the doors, were looking' gawd-awful cool and....as we saw them close in, we powered down the door glass...and, WHOA, DADDY! It's the sound. It's a hot rod, packed with compression, light on mufflers, and he's standin' on it and (oh, gee, it's a SBC - how could that sound good?) it was as if we had never even had a hot rod: we wanted to do that. We wanted to be those guys. We were impressed.

They got the door slammed on them in traffic, down shifted, cruised in that mode 'til it got right and....teased it again - it complained...... a little gurgly - and kinda said,

"What's that you want, Dad? You want fire? You want 24000 little explosions in the next minute? You want torque? Speed? Exhilaration? Excuse the burp and grab your ass!"

That bitch hooked up.... wound up to something-or-other, driver banged a shift and one-to one'd up to...I don't know...but it looked/sounded great from waaaaaaay back. Whoa.

The hills on either side funneled the sound track back to us and..........awwwwwwww.

When we commented on it later, the perps didn't even know it was us they had passed, hardly remembered the run, and clearly, the driver had just stuck the thing because, well, that's what guys like him ...do. Wonder what normal citizens thank about that stuff?

Prob'ly same thing we did.

THE HOT ROD WORKS (208) 463-1068 www.hotrodworks.com NAMPA, IDAHO NEW QUICK-CHANGE CENTER SECTIONS OPEN DRIVELINE CONVERSIONS MODERN AXLES STEERING STABILIZERS AND ALL THE REST! "WHERE HOT RODS ARE BUILT TO BE DRIVEN"

Joe Mac Rebuilds Ford Stuff Hell, NO! Nobody wants to work on your V8-era trans. OR the banjo rear-end. I sure wish Joe Mac Clelland was around.................... He is, of course. The trans-master turns them around in about a day and you can find him at: (909) 371-3111, in Corona, Cal.