MAGAZINE

2000 Cover

HOP UP 2001

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2001 Cover

JUNE COVER

WHAT'S HAPPENING

Celebrate the Style, the Character and the Substance of Hop Up. Wear your Hop Up shirts, and note that there really is something about Hop Up. It's not the guys putting it together. It's not the Annuals. It's not just guys with hot rods and jobs. And although it is ABOUT THE IRON, it is even more about truth.

Veritas.

There is truth here that we did not invent, and, although we promote it, it is not ours to own. We know it. You know it. And quiet believers know when fraud is committed.; the pretenders are transparent to those who know truth.

Nod your head slowly.

> Oh. You were already doin' that.

Say 'Halleluiah'.

EL MIRAGE

The roadster is 'Hop Up Red' so you'll know it in a crowd.

We'll be out there for a more somber mission, too, but we're compelled to smile: they're gonna spread Jess's ashes on the lake bed. Pretty sure our Pal - as we knew him - would want us smilin'.

* We don't know yet about the flat four class, Charlie, but the Hop Up Hundred Mile an Hour Club is standing by.

T n' A

MILD MITCH MODIFIED MASSACRES MOUNTAIN

CANNAROZZI CARBEQUE

So they were makin' up insults as if it was some kinda wit-sport....and it was not gettin' to the Mild One. He waited; bided his time, as they say. On Friday night of race weekend, the hooligans were qued up at Cannarozzi's for BBQ and tearing up lawns with bias tires and....... between belches..... the Goons commenced to wonderin' outloud...."Where's Mitch?"

"Maybe the sucker wouldn't start, after all?"

"He's flat-towin' it. Maybe there was trouble with that?"

"Big Momma's starter crapped out yesterday; ya think he's not comin'?"

"Ya think?"

Then, at the top of the driveway...an apparition........the silhouette of a historical modified, flat-towed behind this huge Chrysler wagon that could've been Garlits' rig from 1968.....in the dusk it looked...........kind of black and white........ like something from an old scrapbook.......I think I could see the Virgin Mary in the haze behind it............was it exhaust fumes................or some antecedent dust from Muroc that had followed the damn thing in from Mitch's dream.........?

Now, there was some heavy IRON in Randy's yard. Stroupes '26 Roadster, Mac's roadster P/U, Mike Smith's T, the Prufer/Rogers '33 coupe (that'n oughta be enough), Darryl Spurlocks 5w with these little chalk lines drawn all around the top, parallel, about 3" apart - what does that mean? There was Rustman's Vicky, all of Randy and Chris' cars, trucks and projects, neighbors cars and....they evaporated......disappeared.

Dust.

Vapor.

Memories.

They did not freakin' exist, because there was something up at the street that promised to Steal the Thunder...... Upstage........ Usurp the whole deal.

It was gonna screw up the established hierarchy of things IRON.

The Mild Mod had done got to town.

We talked him into driving the whole rig down to the yard where it could be inspected in the dusk, where all hands could kick a tar, light a stogie and sit on their own unfendered tires,take a gander and....... study. That's what you do. Draw that cigar down, peruse and contemplate. What is it about this little car that makes it so cool? We knew a bunch of the details, had seen previews in HOP UP ONLINE, and had kept up with him during the grind (he did do a lot of grinding!) but how is it that the whole is so goddam much more than the sum of its' parts?

Some thing just are.

WE'RE IN ON SUMPIN GOOD HERE

Well, it passes the shit right outa the form test but....what about function?

Yeah. We're here for a little hill climbin'.

Ha!

Next day he went out there and kicked everybody's ass with the thing. Won his class. Won their hearts.

IT CAN GO. IT CAN SHOW. BUT WILL IT WHOA!!!?

Next stop: Antique Nationals in Palmdale. You cats are invited to join us in the Hop Up pit where something less than sophisticated tuning takes place, including shuckin', jivin' and the usual razzmatazz. Rudabager tells us that there may even be Margies available if his extention cord really does stretch from Alamo to Palmdale!

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.

LONG LAKE CABRIOLET CLUB

Well, maybe they don't really bag on the rest of us, but they COULD.

TYPICAL LLRC SCRAP

This handful of over-accomplished mugs has some fine iron and we share it with you in bits and pieces, but there's so stinkin' much of it that it oughta be a regular entry here. You know, the monthly " LONG LAKE ROADSTER CLUB" section. Oh yeah, It's not really the 'Cabriolet Club'. We just said that to get to Hendrickson, whose '34 is in these pictures. The car is a cab but has a "Roadster Club" sticker in the back winder; no crime we guess, 'cuz our '37 P/U tow vehicle has a LLRC sticker it IT, too!

BLACK THING IS NOT AN A/C COMRESSOR

'39 WHEEL IS ONLY REQUISITE MOD

So anyway, Hendrickson is not the writer - Hendrickson The Writer is our other buddy with the same handle (he's a contributor in HU 2002) and Hendrickson the LLRC guy is the guy we met when he began leaving poison-pen letters on our roadster at the Hot Rod Reunion a few years back. We got that worked out.

Watch for the 'LONG LAKE UPDATE' or some such falderal in future episodes of this journal.