5 Questions with Bobby Green

Bobby Green is a busy man. Between his Old Crow racing efforts, The Race of Gentlemen, and running various businesses, I’m honored he took a moment to answer 5 questions that we had for him:

TJJ: Tell me a brief bit about who you are and what you do.

Bobby: That has always been a difficult question to answer, I am literally and figuratively a man of many hats, haha, but the best way to describe what I do is to say I’m a designer and entrepreneur with a focus on 20th century vintage and historic American design. My wheelhouse consists of: bars, restaurants, interiors, cars, clothing, products, events and most recently a 1927 bowling alley. Through my 25 year career I have managed to design and own several bars and restaurants in Southern California. Building and racing cars and bikes has always been an extremely obsessive side hobby to all that.

TJJ: How and when did you get into hot rods?

Bobby: My fascination for hot rods and customs began at the age of 10 when my family moved to Los Angels from Oklahoma. The year was 1980 and at that time in LA there were still lots of 50’s cars on the road, some restored, some original but they were out and about on a daily basis. Now, coming from a small town in Oklahoma and from a family of wheat farmers, I never saw anything like this, it was like brightly colored candy rolling down the street, pink Cadillacs and yellow 32 coupes, a far comparison to the tractors and combines of the farm. I was instantly hooked.

I bought my first car as soon as I turned 16. It was a custom 57 Chevy Bel Air, slammed, primer’d, shaved, custom grille and flipper caps. A veritable dream boat! But by no means a restored car. It was the very definition of a rolling, driving project… Ha ha.

That project, however, became my Auto Shop 101. You see, unlike most car guys, I did not grow up in a car guy family so I had no experience with working on cars and bikes. I just had to teach myself and learned along the way. Every time something broke on that Chevy, I had to figure out how to fix it. And this is back before Youtube videos or even cell phones for that matter, so I had to seek out the guys that knew what I didn’t. I started spending time at Bob’s Big Boy and other local get togethers and getting to know the old timers that could pass their knowledge on to me.

Now, getting back to your original question, hot rods… You see, I saw hot rods as a ‘level 2’ education; one level up from customs in both knowledge and finances. So after a decade of custom cars, I finally worked my way up to hot rod level. At about the age of 26 I set out to build my first roadster. It was a 1931 Ford on 32 rails and I pieced that car together bit by bit over a couple years. I still have that roadster and don’t think I could ever bring myself to sell it. What a thrill it is to drive it.

TJJ: How did the Old Crow come along?

Bobby: Once I met some of the old timers that were involved in the SCTA and still racing at El Mirage and Bonneville, I was exposed to a whole new world and a new level of the hobby. It opened up all new possibilities of what to build and accomplish next. As a designer, I’m always trying to create something vintage that doesn’t exist or hasn’t existed for a long time. And so naturally, a bellytank seemed like an exciting challenge. Now, this was 16 years ago and at that time there were no traditional looking bellytanks running. They were just in books or museums, so bringing back the bellytank was a real challenge.  As for the name “Old Crow,” I always try to give thought and meaning behind any name and “Old Crow” has two very different connections with the car. There were several famous aircraft in WW2 named the “Old Crow” and of course the 180 year old Kentucky Bourbon. Being that the body of the car was from a WW2 aircraft and the parts were funded with the sales of booze (from my bar businesses), it certainly seemed a fitting moniker.

TJJ: What’s your favorite old car in the collection and why? The first one you would save if the place was burning?

Bobby: I would definitely push the Old Crow out first, but would most certainly risk my neck to go back and save them all.

How dare you even put that out there!  Now my blood pressure is up!   Ha ha.

TJJ: What do you love most about this hot rod world and what are you looking forward to next?

Bobby: The opportunities that it offers. The Old Crow Bellytank alone has taken me around the world twice, once to Belgium / Holland and again to Japan. I was recently contacted to bring it to Dubai. I mean, who would of thought?  And the people I’ve met over the years, people I probably never would have met without being part of this crazy hot rod community.

TJJ: Thanks for your time Bobby– And keep doing the cool stuff your doing!

(feature image by Peter Vincent)