The Legends are Passing.

I stopped into Bruce Meyer’s amazing shop in Beverly Hills on Saturday and caught up with one of the coolest hot rod collectors in the world. After an hour of hearing his amazing car stories, we were heading for the door when I saw a familiar photo of the then-freshly-restored Pierson Brothers Coupe in his garage. The year was 1992 and Bruce had a gathering of all the influential and iconic people who had been involved with the coupe in some way. As I scanned the legendary faces in that room, it hit me like a ton of bricks- The majority of my hot rod heroes are now gone. It’s like WWII vets who saw D-Day- Not that many of them left. Many of the guys in this picture were an eye witness to the Hot Rodding golden era from 1948 through the mid 1950s, and there will never be another generation like them. Looking left to right in the image, here’s who was there that special day (and honestly I could write a lengthy article about each of their achievements- Look every one of these guys up!):

Lil’ John Buttera – kneeling (RIP) 2) Cary Agajanian – Son of J.C. 3) Harry Hibler 4) Boyd Coddington (RIP) 5) Lou Senter – Speed Shop Legend 6) Bob Estes – City of Burbank Special  7) Don Montgomery – Legendary Author  8) Dick Pierson – Designed the Coupe  9) Bud Meyer  10) Dan Gurney  11) Bob Pierson – Builder, driver of the Coupe  (RIP) 12) Tom Bryant – Previous owner & world record holder 13) Bruce Meyer 14) Robert Petersen  (RIP)  15) Carroll Shelby (RIP) 16) Pete Chapouris 17) Vic Edelbrock, Jr. 18) Bobby Meeks  (RIP) 19) Skip Hudson  20) Ed “Iron Man” Kretz (RIP)  21) Wally Parks (RIP)  22) Tom Sparks  (RIP) 23) Skip Van Leeuwen – AMA Legend  24) Greg Sharp NHRA curator 25) Ray Brown (RIP)  26) Alex Xydias  27) Billy Gibbons  28) Don Waite  29) Gray Baskerville (RIP)  30) Jim “Jake” Jacobs  (Not numbered: Jim Monaco)