There aren’t very many cars that can claim the title “Born Perfect”. Cars that look custom right from the factory, that besides lowering it (every old car looks better lowered!), and maybe shaving the door handles off, you don’t have to do anything else to make the thing look “right”. My personal list of 1930s- [...]
1956/57 Continental Mark II: Born Perfect.
Oldsmobile Jetfire Turbo Rocket V8
I recently stumbled upon a turbo that my dad ran on his Corvette in the 1970s. The find got me thinking about the history of the turbo, so I inquisitively hit Google looking for answers. To my amazement, one of the first American production cars to run a turbo was the 1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire. The [...]
Designing the Wildcat III
One more scan from the “Styling- The Look of Things”, which I posted a little of earlier this week. This was the largest portion of the book, showing the creation of a new Motorama Dream car from start to finish. It’s a unique build scenario, because the Motorama cars typically had to be functional and [...]
Obscure Shoebox
I love Custom Cars Magazine. I think my favorite feature column in these old magazines is the “Styling Studio,” but there are gems to be found all over those little books. This morning, I was flipping though the June, 1958 issue and ran across this little shoebox Ford in the “Reader’s Custom” column. It was [...]
GM’s Styling – The Look of Things 1955
I was cleaning up my office the other day and forgot that I have this complete, spiral bound copy of the mid 50s General Motors Styling Staff handbook “Styling- The Look of Things”. I scanned a few pages for you to enjoy, including a comparison that breaks down how we see design, symmetry, and balance. [...]
A Letter To Motor Trend
A few weeks ago, my godfather passed away. He was literally the most avid car guy I’ve ever known and was largely responsible for exposing me to old cars for the first time. Don was obsessed and his obsession spread enthusiastically to just about everyone he knew. It all started at a very early age… [...]
Around The Corner…
Many of you have probably already seen this video. I’ve loved this footage since the the moment I first saw it, but have never posted it. With my move this week and my utter lack of time for posting anything substantial, I figured no time was better than the present. This educational was shot in [...]
Thunderbird Raceway- Henderson, Nevada circa 1960
A mere 15 miles from downtown Las Vegas, was a mid-century modern dragstrip known as Thunderbird Raceway (or the Henderson Drag Strip). In 1958 the City of Henderson provided an old WWII auxiliary runway as area for Southern Nevada’s first true dragstrip, which was located about a mile north of Lake Mead. The track was [...]
The Detroit News Soap Box Derby
We obviously love soap box derby cars around here, as Ryan did a terrific post on them a while back. I just came across these 1940′s publicity pictures from the Detroit News soap box derby. Although they are mainly headshots rather than the race cars, you still get a good look the trophies (and trophy [...]
Through the years we’ve had some pretty amazing articles pop up here on The Jalopy Journal. The following is just a few of them:
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Tom Cobbs
The story of Tom Cobbs, his legacy, and his hot rod roadster. Read: Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3.
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The Bob Roddick Story
The story of a set of lost photos that literally take us all back into time. Read: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4.
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The Ferrari Shoot
Comparing and contrasting three very different cars with three very different purposes in life. Read It >>
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Inspiration
This post is actually a continuation of two other posts that were written in 2006 (Part 1 & 2). The stuff you guys came up with is breathtaking.
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Gary Howard
Gary is one of my heroes and after interviewing him, I got to check off an item from my dream list. Read It >>