MAGAZINE

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THE NEW ONE - YUP - WE DONE IT AGAIN

HOP UP 2002 - VOLUME III

Oh, yeah. it's shipping in a couple weeks, so we want you to be the first - the first in your neighborhood - to see and read................ veritas 2002.

Yeah, Baby.

It's the annual report on traditional hot rod and custom innovation (not invention); it's the gut, the vibe, the style showcased by our people nation and world wide.

The cover is innovative yet again - a Weesner illustration - and - if you are da kine hot rod daddy; if you are cool-livin' and unfettered with fraud-rod doin's; if you want to see what the other Truehearts in the culture are up to.............send the scratch, Man...................you prob'ly still got a job........

AND, you will want to also order the reprint.

THE WHAT?!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, the humanity! We (and MBI) have reprinted the first 12 issues of Hop Up. Yeah, like Hot Rod Mag did. But this is "HOP UP" For a lousy $24.95 you will have the original tome, the basis of comparison, the marked-in-time, dead-nuts best review of what was (is) meaningful in the day. And it won't cost $10-20 per mag like it is on e Bay or at swap meets.

Not since Montgomery's books came out has there been anything more vital to your library. It's where truth originated. Not exactly the 'Tablets of Stone' but pretty fairly well important to the coolest, realist, most-happening Daddies out there on the pike..........

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THE FIRST 12 ISSUES

******Note that American Auto Mags handles worldwide orders (Europe, Oz, etc.) and Canadian Orders should go directly to Motorbooks.

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VOLUME II STILL AVAILABLE

HAPPY NEW YEAR
WHATCHA RUNNIN'?

It's one of the first questions ya ask. The stock answer for lotsa years has been 'SBC'. There are reasons for it, but since nostalgia is so big and being different is so important we are seeing a revival in Olds, Nailhead Buicks, Kettering Kads, Hemi-rods.....and 'liners and...........and even SBC's. With little twists.

Now, if asked the above question, can you answer with any of the en vogue selections without badmouthing the other choices? IF a cat is at peace with his own choice, the answer should be something like, "Yeah, I'm runnin' a blah-blah ....(fill it in)" and drop it.

But do try to leave me alone if your choice is one of the more avante garde ones, and try not to rail against me if I have chosen a small block Chevy. It's hardly uninspired to run one of 'em and there are valid reasons for doing so, not the least of which is parts availability when you are going somewhere further away than the next donut meet. They sound good, you can personalize them in the thousand different ways you can dress them, and we have every way in the world to hop them up. Hell, the most prominent mag in the business makes a career out of their building, boosting and brandishing, while subbing token Brand X's here and there.

Maybe that's why the rebellion?

Point is, Amigos, there are hundreds of individual expressions in every hot rod or custom and engine choices are made for informed -if common - reasons. As we say ad infinitum (and over and over again, too): there are no wrong reasons or choices ...they are individual ones. That's the hot rod (Hop Up) character. "This is what I chose. Hell I may want what you got, but can't afford it, or can't find it, or wouldn't know what to do with it if I did get one." But I'm still OK. You may be , too.

We don't have to defend the SBC as a reacher and runner. If some neuvo-authority tells you how uninspired your SBC choice is, well, remember, that's more about him than you. This is most likely a cat with "I" trouble whose real intent is to raise himself up over you by slobbering about your (our) mundane engine choice. He likely won't be along when you light yours up 'sperm of the moment' and head to a turn-around 350 miles away with your buddies without much more preparation than a tire-kick.

There are, in fact, nostalgic ways to do SBC, though. 265, 283, 327 all fit particular time lines and there are green, and yellow blocks - maybe more - out there to help throw your Chevy Orange cliche out the winder. You can be real particular about which heads are on it, use a WCFB or other era-correct carbie, cast iron distributor, injection, script valve covers, an early trans, ram horns, even a generator . (A Pal came by the other day and razzed me about the Vega steering on my coupe. 'Kinda modern, ain't it?' I brainstormed for a second and looked at this Mug's flathead-powered A Bone. 'I'll trade ya that alternator on there for my Vega box, then!' Check.)

SURE, WE WANT ONE. WE JUST DON'T NEED ONE.

We all make the choices that work for us. A guy we know with the tastiest Deuce scrapper in town, got tired of the peripheral concerns required to drive the car with it's Hemi .........a combo that has made the car kinda famous around here......and he's a cat that you can count on to do what is not trendy...........and we went over to his crib to see what the 'mystery' project was...........and he's puttin' a SBC in the car (it's the green engine we talked about above) so he can run long-legged with some of the others, and tour the car a bit. Some guys will give him the ass over his choice (it's already started) but hey! It's he who has to drive the thing and it's he who has had a vision of how he would use it all the time he was a-buildin', and it's his car ............that apparently was not built just to please the guys at the drive-in. You can't see much under the hood when you are on the road, anyway. Exotic engine choices...if made for drive-in pop........well, that ain't enough reason. If they're made for horsepower, utility, availability, and looks, why, then, hook those suckers up...although in some cases you might not be keepin' up with the chargers out on the Big 'Pike. Either way, it's still a rollin' block party, ain't it?

And let's not bad mouth the simple choices a guy makes when that may be the only practical way for him to get started in base hot rods. It'd be a shame if a guy gave up his plans for his first hot rod because he felt there'd be a stigma attached to the use of the one motor most available to him.

All this crap doesn't mean I don't still want a flattie real bad..

SOMEWHERE ON A DESERT TWO-LANE

"...................this is too easy..........I guess I'm gettin' away with something.........got an early start.....gonna be at the lake bed by about 8:00 A.M............it really is a beautiful day.................boy this little car sure is a good ride......................oughta pick up a hundred RPM or so..that bellerin' from those megs is BRUTAL at that speed...............ha!........hot rods are meant to be coarse............if we were after creature comforts we'd be in the wagon...............that ol' boy gave me the thumbs up............wonder if he's going to Elmo?......it cracks me up that Yeats' pseudonym is Elmo Rodge and I didn't 'get it' for six months........gotta start payin' attention.............wonder if I oughta put a radio in this thing.....GOD DAMN! They oughta fix that leap in the frickin' road.........ha!.....even that crater didn't make this thing bottom out.............windshied is soooooo skinny.......gotta slump down to see far enough ahead........that's the price we pay for bein' cool........ha! ..........open the cowl vent a little bit......kinda proud that I figured out how to make it co-exist with those instruments in there.........see? It goes all the way up and all the way down........Henry Air..........man I don't know how you can get by in one o' these heaps with out that vent..........plywood everywhere....vented hood.......gawd, it looks cool through that windshield with those louvers out there...can I see the ones on the trunk lid? Oh, crap!!!! Better watch the road........ha!......nobody in sight.......Should I go 138 or Adelanto? Some guys swear by both routes..........I know....... I'll go in on 138 and back out through Adelanto........more fresh scenery that way...........Lincoln binders sure work good...who needs discs...............two lane.......... hilly...plenty o' power.........pass that motorhome here.........NOPE!............never mind.........there's a long passing lane up there before the Wrightwood turnoff...........this is a fine way to spend a Saturday...........bet it's nice on the lake bed.........wish I could stay all day...........but the fun's in the run............this is the last meet of the year..........wonder if Bellson has made a run yet...wonder what number he drew...............get gas now or wait 'til Adelanto after I leave the lake........later............ probably only been 100 miles.........I wanna get there now..........I dread that washboard road....wonder what it could shake loose............probably the ground wire for the damn fuel pump...........did I retighten those hose clamps........man, that'd make fire.........should I recheck the safety hub nuts...............wish I had a lift........jacking these things up and puttin' stands under them is a lot of work....yeah that's something to plan on................these bias tires are doin' OK........not too much Rumba goin' on.....but it steers kinda heavy out here..........did the pavement change....swerve back and forth....I don't remember it steerin' that heavy.............why's it pullin' a little to the right......is the road crowned more here than....................sunofagoddamnstinkinbitch!....Flat fricking tire 3 miles before the lake turnoff............I think running that thing flat ruined the damn tire...............it was going sooooooo goood........hmmmmmm......another adventure...........oh, well............how we gonna handle this.....auto club..........what'll they do.............where am I gonna find a 5.60-15 bias tire out here.........I know I have something in the barn already mounted up but...........oh, man, I didn't even bring my barn keys with me.................wonder if a racer out there would have something 5 on 5 1/2 that I could...............there's not all that many of us who run e-Ford...................hey.............can I remember the number...........yeah......................Hey Jake?...... Morty....... I'm out on Sheep Creek Road and............. (blah, blah, blah)............

"Looks like I got you over a barrel, huh, Mort?!!!!.... I'll be right there."

Yeah, cool, thanks....... but one more thing............it needs to be a... whitewall...............?

PRIMER CLASSIFIED

Joe Mac Rebuilds Ford Stuff Hell, NO! Nobody wants to work on your V8-era trans. OR the banjo rear-end. I sure wish Joe Mac Clelland was around.................... He is, of course. The trans-master turns them around in about a day and you can find him at: (909) 371-3111, in Corona, Cal.