MAGAZINE

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Count on the best looking and best working ones to comes from familiar names, but some of our 'under-cover' Hop Up dudes are on that lap, too. In fact, one of you just called me on the phone to have a few minutes of rod jive, including the news that his modified chassis project was under way; He knows we want one real bad, so it was probably just a call to make that ol' fool squirm', but we forgive him. Anyway, his will be one of those Best of 'em cars, we're sure. Everything else he's done is absolute tops in Hop Up spirit. The three photos that follow were drug outa the 'dream drawer'.

CAN'T YA FEEL THE RIDE ON THIS SHORT WHEEL BASED SUCKER?

ANYTHING GOES IN SUSPENSION, BUT OLD SPRINTCARS USUALLY ARE THE MODEL

ARE T REAR SPRINGS GRACEFUL OR ARE WE NUTS? NO NEED TO ANSWER.

Our favorite Merc is Joe Eddy's - now reposing in the Petersen Museum (Hasve you been there?). The last time we were there, I snuck away from the others and just stood in front of the car for a while to get re-acquainted. It struck me that here, the Merc with the most for me doesn't have slanted B pillars, doesn't have full fade fenders, but it isstill the one. You know, I've thought how easyit would be and how cool it would be to have a James Dean car, however, chop, lower, pancake, and Desoto grille are da kine.

If I remember, the car was done by Barris for a lucky kid named Lenny Welch. The Hop Up cover shot was taken in front of Welch's Restaurant in Long Beach's Bixby Knolls (Beverly Hillsish) and in typical 'last to figger it out' fashion Ihave just concluded that maybe this was a rich kid. They say that more often than not, the zoomiest cars were done for kids with the zoomiest balance sheet. More power to him. Is young Mr. welch still out there? Like cars? Give a damn?

Sometimes we get no respect!

This one was housed in a bitchin old warehouse that they say had been used to service railroad locomotives a long time ago; We bought it. It leaked. It was in San Francisco. But it was The Oakland Roadster Show. And I do not really give a shit if "Portland is a lots better show". I don't go to shows. But I go to Oakland because it is Oakland. So don't follow us there just because you found out belatedly it might look 'in' to go there.

You do know, don't you, that if we ever go legitimate, we will have to tame down this rhetoric; if we do, we promise to continue to have some bite.

Back to the show: fewer and fewer roadsters, fewer and fewer traditional roadsters - we actually get more buzzed takin' in the customs. D'Agostino, Livingston, Zocchi, et. al. is always a slice of prime, Daddy. OOOOOOOh La Oui!! Next year they'll be back to the continent with a 10 day run in a big Armory or something. Sounds fun. 50Th anniversary and they promise to have lotsa roadsters. Oh, yeah. This years' AMBR was a Zipper. Figures.

Whatever. Don't you have a feel for how this coupe rumbles; how it looks out the windshield, and how it sounds? Gimme one o' those! Itsa hot rod. A hop Up. If you're out there, tell us who you are. We probably know you already; Hop Up guys are so cool they never say "Hey! That's my car", You are probably just happy as a clam diggin' that coupe as a solo act, and don't need our praise, but yer stuck with it!

GORGEOUS SETTING/RIGHT CAR

DRAG IT OUT