Hopupland
HOPUPLANDTHIS MONTH’S COVER
Right. So here’s what we got to deal with; we cook up a Summer Hop Up Wet T Shirt contest and
Zach sends us this image which, although he totally missed our meaning…sure looks like a lot of fun.
Well, the T scene was prob’ly a better fit for something other than a hot rodding mag, huh?
For another contestants’s entry, check in to DRIP PAN over there on the top, right. Click on it, Bub.
BUY VOLUME VI
VOLUME VI OF THE SERIES
And for only $12.95 + $3.05 s & h, so $17.00 to:
Hop Up
PO 790
Riverside,Ca. 92502
or click on Speedshop up there on the right and select from the available issues and use Paypal.
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Now, if you are in Canada, ya gotta add $8: a nice round $25 oughta do it.
If you’re in Europe, UK use American auto mags
and if you’re in N.Z or Austrailia, use Kustom Ink or ASR
HOP UP SPECIAL NO.1
Won’t make LA for Fathers Day but will definitely be the relief you seek from the Summer heat. Because it’s cool. Send $7.00 and you’ll get your in the mail with the first wave. The cover will be posted during June and it will be in SPEEDSHOP up there on the right so you can use Paypal.
PLEASE don’t order by mail for offshore delivery. We cain’t ship them offshore. Your regular dealers in NZ, Oz, UK and all will handle them.
BUY STUFF BY CLICKING ON ‘SPEEDSHOP’ OVER THERE TO THE RIGHT!!
DON’T EVEN CONSULT YOUR HOROSCOPE
This episode of that bacchanalian dance of hot rod procreation we call Hop Up will be relatively brief since we are wrapping up the Special and still wrenching on Hop Up Annual-Volume VII.
Anywho, (Hey, Wiley!) if we said the season had kicked off in May, well, June is the real deal! As you read this, we just got back from Paso, there was a Banger Digs in SLO a couple weeks ago, Elmo is on for June, LAR Father’s day show is on, we’re going on a road trip,and thus…the stars are aligned.
We done talked to guys from Minn to Mass to Indy and Idaho and all the IRON is uncovered, charged and tuned;
potholes are patched (except in California) and tars are squallin’.
It’s that same bad-ass boogaloo, been goin’ on for quite a while now, huh?
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“Is it still over,
Are we still through?
Since my phone still ain’t ringin’
I assume it still ain’t you….”
Randy Travis
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LA ROADSTERS FATHER’S DAY HOPUPLAND COOL CAR CORRAL
Go to preferred parking, pay your way in then go to the Hop Up Balloon, and don’t pay squat. Get in free, just be a BFG, and have a bitchin car. You’ll gather in our area, provided as a courtesy by the LA Roadsters, where we can hang out and be our damnselves. It’s kinda like putting us on a ‘Reservation’. The Longknives have put us in one spot where they can watch us; where they can control our finances; probably keep us from breeding. Come on down anyway, we’ll procreate whether they like it or not.
NOTICE! They (the Fair Concessions) won’t let us give away Hop Dogs…........... No shit. So we won’t. Neither will we (speaking for ourselves) patronize any of the official concessions there.
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PASO WAS A GASO
Always is, so what’s new? We’ll tell ya: Javier and Kim debuted their ‘Mejia Merc’, an homage to the Jerry Quesnel Merc from…what else…Hop Up Magazine.
That, parked next to the Hegman Merc just about said it all. Note that the blue one is to be known as the Hegman Merc; we were all over the ‘Millenium Merc’ thing but realized that as it makes it mark in custom history, if our ‘Millenium Merc’ handle was attached to it…Hegman would not have been getting the tribute that he deserves. Thus, “Hirohata, Alcorn,Quesnel, Hegman, Mejia, Bettancourt, Testa…” and like that….
Javier and Kim got the Hop Up “Paso Veritas Award”, Hegman got another good one. We recused ourselves when it came to Hegman because he’s kinfolk. Worked out just dandy, now, didn’t it???
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FROM A READER
Steve Weber writes:
Mark,
Couldn’t help writing you regarding the last issue and the discussion of the jerk with the Rolls. You hit it right on the head!! It is about the iron—-all the iron, not just some gazillion dollar Rolls that is restored to standards that did not exist when it was originally built, and owned by some jerk that doesn’t know the radiator cap from the rear wheel. If money will capture it he will have it, if he had to (physically) build it, would not get out of the starting gate.
I can’t think of a means of transportation the does not have (some) interesting aspects.
Like most of the old guys who were around in the 50’s—Hot Rodding was our first love. In some cases, some of us went into some sort of racing. Some got hooked on aviation, sports cars, classic cars and some fell for really old cars.
I personally like all of it! We tour our 1902 -1911 cars, run endurance and hill climbs with the 27 T Riley 4 port, drive the 38 Chev coupe on the street and plan to race our new 34 chev roadster @ Bville and El Mirage( if it dries out) and still fly our 54 C-180 every chance I get.
I guess if I had to give something up it would be hard to choose, as I built and/or maintain all of them.
It is about the iron, don’t let anyone tell you different!! Oh, by the way I have held responsible positions in most all of the organization’s that sanction or support these modes of transportation and I have also met the jerk(s) you noted.
Keep the shiny side up, the rubber side down and the pointed side forward.
Steve
(Yeah. Screw Niles, Ed.)
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(This ball o’ yarn unravels this time. Ends. Sayonara. Adios. Hasta luego. But don’t mourn: there is more to come later from the Grin Reaper. Ed.)
TALES OF EVIL THAT MEN DO TO EARLY IRON
Scene 8 - the final episode - as told by the GRIN- REAPER
Something about the approach, the crosswinds and the direction of the runways makes landing in Albany N. Y. SPECIAL! Like when you’re the “DUDE” on a ranch and the wrangler says, “ That one yours, he’s real gentle.“ Just as you swing your leg over the saddle he adds, “… his name is NIGHTMARE .
“ Tell us again , why are we here “? Dick said looking at the snow banks from the window of the plane.
Dennis had said to them “ I’m going the fly back east for a “GARAGE NIGHT “ anybody want to come along?
“ GARAGE NIGHT “ ?
“ Ya , it’s a mid winter party put on by these three guys …………… they’re building me a HOT ROD.
“ MID WINTER “ ?
“ Well ya and it’s in an old barn , you might want to dress warm.
“ OLD BARN “ ?
“ Ya , somewhere up by the Adirondack mountains in upstate N. Y. “.
“ THEY’RE BUILDING YOU A HOT ROD “ ?
“ Ya , they work out of this old barn, but it’s fully equipped with a wood stove, a hundred watt light bulb and I think they even got themselves a set of cuttin’ torches! When they say they build barn fresh HOT RODS they mean it; course…. there’s no indoor plumbing”.
“ WHEN ARE WE LEAVING “ ?
So there they all were , Gino——, known for his great eye for detail. Dave——, hot rodder and head chef for the SPEED NYMPH GARAGE - BONNEVILLE RACING TEAM. Dick——, Dennis’ Mexican road racing partner, owner of many “ FINE “ classic automobiles and according to his “ FRIENDS “ possessor of the worlds largest collection of “ WIZZ “. Roy Brizio, whose HOT ROD SHOP builds some of the finest traditional HOT RODS in the world and Andy Brizio , THE “ RODFATHER “ HIMSELF.
They all had been on “ ADVENTURES “ with Dennis in the past , so no matter how bizarre it sounded , to stay behind more often than not was to miss out on one of those experiences in life that would grow in stature with each re-telling.
Garage night at the ROLLING BONES HOT ROD SHOP was not to be missed. Held once a year in the middle of winter it was a chance for HOT RODDERS from all over the east to get together. Most came early and stayed late; there was always more than enough food and BEER. Of course there was also reserved parking in front for the five or six HOT RODS that would show up no matter how deep the snow.
MOST CAME EARLY AND STAYED LATE…
This was Bill’s first garage night since his fall in to “THE PIT KNOWN BY OTHERS AS HOT ROD HELL“ and from where he stood ‘ IT WAS A PRETTY DAMM GOOD HOLE TO FALL INTO “. He was more than happy to pitch in with the once a year major clean up and set up , and when he asked about bringing his friend Teddy whom they all had met at the roadster show the month before of course the answer was – absolutely.
Teddy was typical of many getting into street rodding in their fifties. As a teenager he wasn’t allowed to have his own car much less hang around with those HOODLUMS and THEIR HOT HODS. THEY WOULD CERTAINLY END UP IN JAIL OR MUCH WORSE ON THEIR WAY DOWN THE HIGHWAY TO HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If he was lucky he talked his parents into letting him borrow his mothers car for a date on a Friday night, upon which he would drive a mile or two, stop, take off the hubcaps and head straight to “ STATE STREET “.
State Street on a Friday night was TEAMING with your “ MOMMIES CARS “ along with Vetts , Camaro’s , GTO’s and other various factory street rods….each prowling from light to light looking for the right match up. All the while being leery of those “sonabitches” in their cut down, nasty sounding, badass-looking HOT RODS. I MEAN, COME ON , those jalopies were no match, BUT LIGHT TO LIGHT with their big engines and no weight, well, some times they were best avoided.
Bill looked over at Teddy clutching a twelve pack and a box of chicken wings. “ Relax. You’re in for a good time.”
“ But you said Dennis Varni , Roy and Andy Brizio and those other guys from California would be there “.
“ They’re HOT RODDERS , they speak the same language…but I’m not one of them , I’m not a HOT RODDER “.
“ Oh , I don’t know Ted , you sure seem like your headed in that direction”.
Several times during the party Ted swore he could see movement and make out the silhouettes of several people looking in through the back window. At first it puzzled him but recognizing his own gold chain among the others hanging from the nail it all made perfect sense. Bill had graduated from street rodder to HOT RODDER and now…..so had he. Oh , he knew HOT RODS weren’t for all those on the outside looking in , but then WOULD YOU REALLY WANT THEM ALL TO BE HOT RODDERS ?
TED SWORE HE COULD SEE MOVEMENT
As for Dennis’s tudor, well, I just happened to stop in the “ EAT IT ALL “ the other night for a cone. There were a few street rodders gathered and the rumors where flyin’. Something about the doors of that evil old barn known as the “ ROLLING BONES HOT ROD SHOP” bursting open and out comes this NASTY SOUNDING HEMI- POWERED BLACK DEUCE TUDOR WITH RED SCALLOPS, JUST LOOKIN’ FOR SOME STREET ROD TO DEV0UR.” I SAW IT HAPPEN, “ one guy cried. “ IT WAS HORRIBLE , I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK WHEN THAT THING SCREAMED BY! I GOT THE HELL AWAY FROM THERE AS FAST AS I COULD BUT I COULDN’T HELP LOOKING IN AS I WENT BY. THOSE DIRTY BASTARDS HAD ANOTHER DEUCE TUDOR ALONG WITH A 29 ROADSTER PICKUP AND A 32 FIVE WINDOW TIED UP IN THERE. GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT EVIL SLOP THEY’RE COOKING UP NEXT IN THAT NASTY BLACK CAULDRON OF GOW.
BUT THAT, BOYS AND GIRLS IS A STORY FOR ANOTHER TIME.
Signed in grease THE GRIN- REAPER
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THE COWBOY IS BACK
We usually talk about the racing at Bonneville in T ‘n A, but when it comes to the partyin’....it takes place some of the time and regularly at the foot of this Bad Boy, downtown. He was away for a year or so and now he’s back…and nationwide.
READ DRIP PAN, T ‘n A, MORT’S SHORTS..JUST SCROLL UP TO THE RIGHT AND PICK ONE
