MAGAZINE

T 'n' A

So it was with chagrin that we sat in, recently, on a group of cats what HAD TO badmouth bangers and banger guys for some reason. "Backwards." These experts laughed up their sleeves at the backwards, primitive, shade-tree, low tech approach used on FOUR BARRELS, and smugly sat there with their auto trans Chevies, one of 'em a V-6....("Hey, this thing's made in NEW YORK CITY!!") out in the parking lot.

We didn't say much. We DID think we'd rather be musing FOUR BARREL technology with guys who do bangers. THEY do not spend any time criticizing 350-350-9 people. They MUST think fashionable running gears are OK because they never SAY anything about it. They are on their own lap, and apparently are not challenged by the choices of some other group of gearheads.

Our gang at the table didn't ADVANCE their own cause. Just ridiculed the other.

But ya know, that's probably a good thing. No, it's a GREAT thing. One component of Hop Up STYLE is the using of as much genuine Ford hardware, sheetmetal, and early Hop Up parts, etc., as practical. If we went out of our way to convert these MODERNE car types to our cool-ass way of doin' things, they'd COMPETE for the parts! Nope. 1-800-CATALOG is the way to go for them.

But HERE'S what we'd say if we WANTED them in....Shhhhhhhhhhhhh!

"Have you ever heard Jim Brierly's A Tudor (Flathead) run? Have you ever ridden in a Riley Four Port at large freeway speed? A four barrel that didn't know that it's brethren running alongside were all modern V-8 jigglers? Have you ever had cold beer and colder tacos with a man who has campaigned his Cragar on street, drags, and hills for over 45 years (and a few years before that when his buddy owned the car)? Have you ever considered the genius of Gerber, Roof, Jaegersberger, Chevrolet, Hosterman, Riley, Sparks and hundreds more whose birth dates are shared with the beginning of motorsport? Guys who had no predecessors, no icons, no books, no history, no hobby, no magazines, and no smug guys at a bar table telling them what was HEP? Have you ever worked on a four banger using the techniques THEY used, and bolted on a part that just maybe one of THEM had touched, and heard the result when you twisted the mag just right and it finally fired correctly for YOU? Have you ever quietly and for yourself, paid homage to the wise practitioners who made this activity possible by doing it EXACTLY the way it was done back then? And found fulfillment in it without dependence on the stated standards of the Rod Press? Have you taken pleasure in finding all you need in something not EN VOGUE - and not caring what the big world thinks? You just might be a Hop Up Guy.

Their tale about four barrel guys sounded like it should be accompanied by "Turkey in the Straw".

These critics are, you see, very Cosmopolitan.............................but their brain stems are on their own.

OK, Tn' A GUYS....WHAT IS IT?

RATTLE CAN NATIONALS MAY 22

Motel 6 (209) 935-2063

Big Country Inn (209) 935-0866

Put a shop rag in your pocket, put Sweet Thang in the car, borrow an auto club card an VAMONOS!! Drive that bad sumbitch to the Central Valley of Cali. Go to I-5 in Coalinga where there will be no show and shine and no trophies. There'll be no vendors sellin' ANYTHING. There'll be no power parking ; no giant Radio-Flyer wagons with go kart engines. There will ABSOLUTELY not be a nostalgia band playing Mustang Sally, there will not be For Sale signs, polish cloths, Hawaiian shirts with smoothie deuce coupes on 'em, cute fibreglass trailers that look like little Ford sedans, and there will not be Hop Up Visa Cards available.

Looks like there won't be much to do. The womens will probably sit around the pool lookin'............ well, lookin' like womens do when half their outfits got left in the room. They'll be soakin' up the ultra violets so's when we take 'em out for Snocker Practice (They CAN go, can't they?) the farmers will wonder how far that city girl's tan REALLY goes!

But the cats will have to make do. We know the tone of the conversation. They'll be surrounded by real hot rods, man. Basic, inglorious, fire-breathin' hot iron. Every one of the cars will have been worked-on some that week. Some will have been worked on a lot. Hell, some of them will have been FINISHED that week. And they'll make it . Out of the city traffic, over the 'vine, temp runnin' up some, runnin' 75 or so toward Bakersfield, gentle left, road widens, 85. Sheeeee-it!!!! What was I worried about? This heap is a runnin' fool!

But we won't bug our compadres with all that. No, they ALL had the same experience. Braggin doesn't set with Hop Up Guys . So they'll ask questions about how'd ya do so-and-so? Do ya think I oughta blah-blah? And the Commander will tell one of those stories about hot rodding when you were 16, and everybody will laugh like hell, pretending that we think it's about HIM, when we know the laugh's on ALL of us! And if you're clever you'll sit on the end of the group so you can look toward whoever is talking and really be looking at the CARS just past the Dude's left ear. He'll think it's eye-ball contact, full attention, and his story is really grabbin' ya..........maybe. But you'll be panning the cars in that p-lot. And once in a while you'll squint...........imagining what one of 'em would look like with black nitro-cellulose lacquer on it. Without fenders, or with the top up. Without whitewalls, or with a Duvall...........................You'll have driven 300 miles to do what you do all day everyday...........but you'll be doin'it with Hop Up Guys...........and without Mustang Sally.

Is it EASY to create those sentimental visions that David Perry, Mike Henson, Peter Vincent and Tony Huntimer bring out of the darkroom? They do, By God, make it LOOK easy. But its snot. We've tried our unlearned hand at it and it's not. So we'll drone on with our praise of those who have the Magic. Photographic Charisma. Darkroom Sorcery that materializes into images that we quietly digest without much thought except to, if we get analytical, realize that there is a PEACE wrought out of their viewing. Now THAT'S art.

Tony Huntimer printed about a hundred of these calendars, mainly to be offered to the subjects, their crews, pals, etc., and to test the market. They evaporated. That will cause ya t'commence t'thinkin':

"Ya know," he sez to Self, "calendars weren't ALWAYS January through December. These guy's world goes from AUGUST to AUGUST. Speedweek to Speedweek,"

We like ideas here and THAT is a GOOD idea! Not a Gregorian calendar but a......a.....SCTARIAN CALENDAR!!

We liked his 'washed' look, which differs from some styles in the genre, and was a planned effect. At times out there, you get a little SNOW-BLIND anyway, and some fuzziness transports you to the scene. Nice work, Tony.

Here's the press release and a sample. Go forth and buy, my son. It is but $20. Shipping included.

You've paid more than that to get into a Show n' Shine.

Bonneville Every Month Some of us have a need for a high-salt diet year round, and it's for those seasoning-enhanced individuals that Photographer Tony Huntimer has produced his 1999 Bonneville Calendar. This large (14x17-inch) format, 13 month calendar features 14 of Tony's high-quality black and white images taken at the 50th Annual Bonneville Speed Week last summer. The calendar dates go from August 1999 to August 2000, (what Tony calls "The Bonneville Year") and it's fully Y2K compliant. The price is right, too. For more info, contact : Huntimer Photography Dept.: "We Heard About It In Hop Up So They Oughta Get A Free Calendar" P.O. Box 520 Mentone, Ca. 92359