As much as the lakebeds of El Mirage or the salt flats of Bonneville pushed men to make faster cars out West in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, many fellow hot rodders in the South got their inspiration for speed from outrunning Johnny Law with a trunk full of hootch. I won’t bore you with [...]
Hot Rods, Hillbillies and Genuine Moonshine…
Project Thirty Eight
Almost 17 years ago now, I launched The Jalopy Journal with a feature titled, “Project Thirty-Eight.” It marked a transition period not only for myself, but also for the car I was building. My ’38 Ford coupe was originally intended to be a race car, but at some point along the way I decided I [...]
The Revolution Count Down
The young soldier lies in the afternoon sun, gut shot. The bitter tang of cordite and blood mingles in his mouth. In his hand, an army issued .45, still warm. He lies propped against the lone cottonwood. A mile distant, dust trails mark a coming reckoning. Three jeeps, maybe more. His eyes shift upward to [...]
A nod to the ’41 Mercury…
When you ask most early custom guys their favorite year of pre-50s Mercury is, most will say “1949″, of course. That car is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic and factory-beautiful Ford Motor Company coupes of all time. A few die hard nuts like myself will dare to say the 1939/ 1940 Mercs [...]
A Professional Automobile Thief
This is mostly off topic and I told him as much, but “LB+1″ kept pushing. He posted the story the other day and it was quickly hammered away into oblivion by one moderator or another… or maybe me. So then he private messaged me and continued to lay it on with incomplete sentences and words [...]
The 1952 Carrera Panamericana
The Carrera Panamericana was a 1,990 mile border-to-border race event held on open, pubic roads in Mexico similar to the Mille Miglia and the Targa Florio over in Italy. The original event was raced yearly from 1950 to 1954, and was considered by many professionals to be the most dangerous race of any type… In the [...]
Sam’s Safe Car
Most mornings, I take my kids to school in my ’39 Ford sedan. I wouldn’t do so if I didn’t live in an area that makes that safely possible. Quite literally, my trip to school involves two lonely country roads, two stop lights, and that’s it. Even so, I put a latch system in the [...]
Vegas Baby, Vegas…
When Bugsy Siegel first envisioned the oasis of Las Vegas, he pictured a classy city that allowed vacationing men of industry to enjoy the other side of legitimacy. They could get their broads, drink their booze, and gamble their money with no worry of backlash from the law. No ski masks or tommy guns were [...]
Devil Drivers
A few years ago, I found this newsreel clip title “Devil Drivers” that featured some very early and very incredible sprint car footage (among a whole mess of other off topic stuff). At the time, I had no idea that it was actually part of a series of newsreel clips that ran at intermissions in [...]
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 >>