Hopupland
HOPUPLAND
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THIS MONTH’S COVER
Terry Washburn’s roadster out of So-Cal is proof of two things:
1) veritas - truth - has not evolved past McGee.
2) See #1.
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HOP UP VOLUME IX
Click on Speedshop over there on the right…>
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HERE’S THE COLLECTOR’S BOX/SLIPCASE
(Limited, numbered edition of 350 includes all five original Volumes, a certificate of authenticity and some lousy decals)
There’s a run on the 350 available so send the cabbage and we can go on to other things.
$149.95 + 11.62 sales tax Cali only + $5 ship..so:
$166.57 California
or
$154.95 in the Free World
To:
Hop Up
PO 790
Riverside, Ca. 92502
or
Use Paypal, click on ‘Speedshop’ over there to the right.
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WINTER EXCURSION
JIM’S SHOP IS AHEM…NICELY SET UP
We went to Salt Lake City for a couple days last month. We never get there during speedweek when we’re only 90 miles away, of course, due to…Speedweek. So, we called on - among a few others, Hugh Coltharp, Jim Williams and Stan Wanlass.
We could do a long chapter on this visit but we’ll simply touch on the hospitality and generosity of all of them..with Hugh Coltharp running the Host- Meter way up.
There are all kinds of cars in and around here; we missed the Throttler guys and some others but, see, we had gone primarily to see big and brass cars and nickel ones,too. Not to mention the aluminum guys..hell, those Kirkham Cobras are something and we landed on the day before they were having an open house.
Wanlass, who’s a Hop Up Guy, is the consumate host and the art..well…you know about the art (look up his web page); the private viewing of his artifacts, cars, and home is a ‘This is Your Life” presented with class and humility and passion. Just…Wow. Freakin’ Wow. Thanks for an eye-opening taste of a real artist’s broad ranging talents and interests. Can’t say enough; but when I got home and looked at my precious library….oh yeah, Buddy..I have a lot of diggin’ to do. Thanks, Stan.
Then there is the Museum of Speed, accrued at the hands of John Price and JP Properties. Curator is Jim WIlliams whose 1913 Case Indy car we were bragging about at the 100 MPH Club Banquet a couple years ago..‘member? We were in Jim’s own shop and as you can see were dazzled by the signage, collectibles and iron. Jim and Hugh are building 2 AV8 roadsters on deuce rails which we expect to feature in tandem in a season or so. They move deliberately on the hot rods, as they are FULL of big, brass and bitchin car tasks on behalf of the Museum of Speed. This is a growing organism. stay tuned. We will go back.
HUGH HAS SOME CLEVER TREATS IN STORE FOR THE ROADSTERS
INSIDE OF ORIGINAL UNRESTORED BUGATTI HOOD - SEE LITTLE HAMMERNICKS?
Then the guys took us to see DeWayne Ashmead whose eclectic collection covered all bases and ranged from ‘bubble’ kept show cars to (our speed) nickle-era stuff that still had a little mud on the tires from the last drive. All were tits,especially a Kurtis Kraft (pre-Muntz) that had appeared in Hop Up early-on with Wally Parks (RIP) driving at Bonneville. The car is just beautifully done in a svelte green ; we oughta cover it for Hop Up, ya think?
All GuysTours usually include some good food, taken on in interesting places, so it follows that we’d get the benefit of the lifetime SLC Guys’ familiarity with places….quirky, long-running and just plain good chow; great company.
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UPSTATE NEW YORK/ROLLING BONES SHOP NIGHT
This one is an annual winterbuster that looks like it will outgrow that movie-setting barn they work in. Looks about like the gig we attended two years ago, with new cars of course and the old ‘tude: evilwickedmeanandbadandnasty.
Pictures of the crowd (big) are on the HAMB and other places.
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FIRE THAT MUTHA UP..WE’RE GOIN’ ON THE ROAD
(Travels of the Itinerant Staff Car)
DROP THIS IN TULSA FOR PAINT/UPHOLSTERY? YEAH!
Does Spring hook up this month? Ohhhh….....betcha hadn’t noticed . Right.
1) April: Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South and North Carolina.
2) June: Whichever ones are between North Carolina and Princeton, NJ (the Staff Car has already been to them), Sweet Thang flies in, go to a concourse in Greenwich,CT., then Rhode Island for a 2 days to meet up with a couple from Mass, then back to Mass, ultimately New Hampshire, B ‘n B., and back to Mass again.
3) September: Mass. Hmmm… September is Tyrods, ain’t it? On to Maine, NH again and Vermont and up state New York where there is the inevitable meet-up with the Rolling Bones. Gee. It’d be a shame if any of that cool rubbed off on a guy, wouldn’t it? ‘Might influence the Fly-In Hiboy, huh? Then probably to Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin (yeah, you, Bob.)
Car should winter in Illinois. The following Spring we’ll head west in some Lincoln Hiwayish mode until it’s back in Cali. Then a guy could start it over in another car, couldn’t he? We’ll have made all 48 contiguous states in about 4 years while still (kinda) holding down a job. After the 48th we’ll actually drop the car in Tulsa for paint and one o’ those Dan Kirkpatrick upholstery jobs, fly home and start over again with the Fly-In Hiboy.
So, that’s the plan, and if the cogs line up and the puke tank don’t overflow, we’ll do it. We’ve been pretty good at meeting the goals in the past. Ya see, this is our hot rod dream. The Big Hiway, lookin’ through a skinny windshield, slammed coupay, internal combustion American V-8 with twice-pipes, USA American sea-to-shining-sea…...and the treat..the bonus…coup de grace? All those people we call on, coast to coast. That’s why we go back out. And even though most legs of the ride we got someone in the right seat, we reserve a few legs for solo runs; contemplation; introspection. ‘Gives us an opportunity to muse… “How ya gonna top this?”
Ya cain’t.
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ENFORCE TERM LIMITS ON ELITISTS!
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PSSST! MORT’S SHORTS IS NEW AGAIN THIS MONTH…
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STYLE-SETTERS
Yeah, that’s us, Blushing in River City (as we told a Pal recently); first the handpainted signs out of Roadhouse Relics in Austin..then neon from the same..then Hop Up Magazine Car Coats and all..we’re gettin ’ used to being avante garde..copied, mimed and coveted…he! he! An’ hell, we may go big and glossy; couldn’t be that hard..could it?
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“Join hot rod builder and filmmaker Brian Darwas as he rides shot gun with two of the most significantly influential hot rod builders of this generation for an epic cross country adventure that you will want to experience again and again. You’ve heard the stories and you’ve seen the photographs, but now for the first time you can ride along side of Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell of The Rolling Bones as they travel over 2,300 miles, through ten states from New York to Nevada in their famous 1932 Ford Coupes, “The Wicked Sisters.”
Pit next to The Hop Up Race Team and The Bean Bandits at what most people consider to be the birth place of hot rodding, The Bonneville Salt Flats. Watch Dan Parker and the other members of The Rolling Bones Race Team hit the salt for Speed Week. Get on the ground with Keith Cornell while he swaps the gears out of a vintage Halibrand rear and stand next to Ken Schmidt as he gets under the hood to re-jet carbs between runs! Peer over the shoulder of renown hot rod photographer Peter Vincent while he shoots two of the world’s most beautiful hot rods in one of the world’s most beautiful settings, and witness The Rolling Bones hop in George Poteet’s ‘32 roadster and hit speeds of up to 175 miles per hour!
Get an in depth look inside the shop at Greenfield Center in New York. Go down to the Maxton Monster Mile in North Carolina for a test run, and travel all the way across the country to Bonneville for the time trails at Speed Week. This film is a true lesson in hot rodding that is not to be missed! “
See trailer, buy on line at:
http://www.AtomicHotRods.com
The Rolling Bones drive to Bonneville to race their flatty hot rod, encounter weather on the way (no prob), a break down (no prob), saltwater and slime (no prob), have a great time, and live the life - the veritas - of real hot rodders.
We recommend it, of course; there’s some pretty good plugs for Hop Up in there. It’s cool to have friends in show business…..........
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Pictures on the HAMB of the Sacramento Autorama showed some good customs, but the custom winner was a modern Mercdes headlight-equipped rig that just can not please anybody with trad sensitivities. Other than that, that world is lookin’ OK.
Now, after the GNRS..and we know how we all feel about the judging and all…a friend of ours got this Mercury Man in the mail….and he feels real proud of it..accomplished and rewarded. It’s the “Mercury Charlie Award” given to his choice, his favorite Merc - and he’s somebody in case you (hardly) didn’t know. He’s that Mercury Charlie from Austin and who did/owns and shows “Nadine”. (It’s Queen Nadine to me). So some good things do come out of car shows.
So, if you want a version of this Mercury Monument..call Charlie at…...512.331.6500
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THIS IS A GOOD DEAL; REAL DEAL SPRINTER, KNOWN HISTORY
Sprint Car - California and Midwest history: Pop Dreyer/Johnny McDowell wearing #1. V8 Flathead, in/out box, body off restoration, period correct and all aluminum. No expense spared. $36,500 call 612 889 2212
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WE WIN
We win because we are still about trad hot rods and customs; we’re won’t attract the departurists, innovate-ists, the trend-ists, and the tangent-ists, since so few understand the peak in style and performance of the traditional era. Yeah; The Trad Era tm.
There is a world of un-expressed personalization within the parameters of the Trad Era and its’ form and function’; self-expression is no excuse to go further outside unless the guy wants to be not-traditonal. No crime there, just don’t let him call his piece ‘trad’ if it ain’t. Membership on a message board or in a club or a coffee shop is not the defining credential. The car is.
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BACK TO POMONA, THOUGH….
George Canavan’s photos are just too good to not present more traditional and trad-flavored cars. Really, Boys, these are fine cars and we don’t see them everywhere, so a car show is an OK Showcase once in a while..ya just gotta separate some o’ that moderne chaff from the Hop Up wheat.
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EPA/Smog Nazis have discovered hot rod/enthusiast old car world.
DMV is witch-hunting for sales tax/reg revenue
Insurance Comanies want FEDS to LEGISLATE lower horsepower/no performance features
Local cops are too young to know we’re cool but harmless.
Beware the hot rod that is wrongly caught up in a ‘crush street racers’ hysteria
Nerds in General in all forms of gov’t despise cool people.
‘Modified’ emissions, chassis, engines, could become banned
‘Capital gains tax’ on sale of car even if you’ve lost money on the previous 15 of them.
Ya gotta have alot of B.O. (bein’ optomistic) to shrug at these realities. Will your grandson be able to cruise his Granpa’s old coupe….?
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THERE’S MORE IN DRIP PAN AND MORT’S SHORTS IS BACK…..
