MAGAZINE

T n' A

Sentimentality kept the guy from ever selling it and, Lo and behold! Get back, Loretta! Be still, my heart! The damn things are cycling back into fashion, again. (At least they are, here.) A sage observer said (while watching 6 cool bangers leave the Throttlers' Picnic) "It sure doesn't take much to make a Model A neat." It doesn't.

The one in storage is a Tudor sedan with a high compression head on it that is begging for a this-generation Hop Up. Pals have insisted that the owner dig it out, and have a couple of shop nights on it where the gang will 1) install juice brakes, 2) put on a dropped axle, 3) reverse rear spring eyes, 4) mount up either 16" Kelseys or 15" steelies (if radials are requisite.) And use it. Cruise it. Just don't lose it.

One other Hop Up guy is doing his long-stored A-400, which is about the nicest un-restored A-400 in captivity, the ideal way: use the original paint, spot where necessary, rebuild running gear, recover seats in N.O.S. plaid seatcover material, restore stock wheels, restore mechanical brakes, lower the front just a touch and another Uncle Daniel is saved for the fans. "A good breakfast car", he mused. Now we want a "Breakfast" car. Add it to the list.

NOT AN A, BUT A T; WE'DA SCREWED IT UP FURTHER WITH KELSEYS (OR BUFFALOS) AND A SLAM-JOB

After what we've seen in the car hobby, the kind of money it takes for a nice Model A ain't doodley-squat. They're about half-way useable like they are, mechanical brakes or not, (it's been our impression that mechanical brakes are able to lock the wheels up pretty nicely in four places on an A - it's just that the contact patch on most of 'em is about the size of a Susan B. Anthony), they'll just about go freeway speed, and they're only a little-bit top heavy. So (see two paragraphs above): juice brakes, more baloney, re-curl the spring eyes, drop the axle and....ain't this fun? And cheap? Let's piss-off some restorers! Subscribe to Secrets. Make 'em haul ass. On the cheap. Have a hill climb...or go to one.

Our Pal Joe Mac has the one that got it started for us. Joe has always been ahead of the curve...doin' bitchin stuff when it was no longer fashionable.....Fashion, you see, is the collective approval of others.....Hop Up Guys like Joe did it for themselves, and their way is back in fashion because some rodder-come-latelys (Like us,? Ed.) decided that it was the real thing.

His Sport Coupe was on the cover of R&C in about '69 or '70. Cragar, B-Block, '32 K-member, Model A QC, snap-ring Kelseys, cut top. Everything it takes to make us foam our cerveza, today. The car has a flathead in it now, and we've seen one copy on the street recently that is too cool.

Those cars are out there, Homer, with all the expensive crap done by a restorer. Buy it from him, and rescue it from parades and proms. Set it free. Put it on the street and hurt it. Find out if George Riley was right about The 100 Mile Per Hour Model A. That's a goal fer ya.

Throw away that little flag-holder on the motometer. Shit-can the desert bag. Chuck the "Worlds Fair" License plate tab. Break the bud vases in the vice.... De-cute that Mutha! And chop the top. We do hot rods here, man, and they're not meant to be civilized.

Say hallelujah.

Here it is in his own words.

"I photographed these 4 extraordinary cars (hot rods) one weekend in the early 90's while visiting Bob Lick in Baker City, Oregon. He had told me about Jim's flamed nostalgic '32. so we had set up a session to photograph it as well as Bob's yellow '40, which is streetable, but just barely, as he races it in the nostalgia drags. Cruising Baker in an ultra-lumpy '40 coupe made my day. The bonus was Dale Withers coming over from the Portland area with his black '40 Deluxe Coupe. The black '32 in the picture (We know the car and have the ass for it, Ed.) is Bob's old car, which he built a few years earlier, and which has since been sold. Actually, Dale's black '40 has also been sold,in fact to the same person that bought Bob's '32. Both of them are incredibly right-on cars. Anyway, what you see, is a result of the session. The Baker City group are hot rodders in the best sense. They are in the process of putting together a 'grass roots' effort in building a local drag strip. I stopped by just before Bonneville last summer to catch the races. It's a good thing, but also, another story for another time.

Peter Vincent"