Thank-you @Rockerhead for the information on Bill's 3 window,and your experiences with him. What I love about hot rods is when history surfaces and we all get to feel what it was like to be in the centre of things "back in the day". Thank you for all you've done to bring this to us - I, amongst many, really appreciate what you've done to bring this history to us. Without your books and your outstanding memory of events back then, we, as hot rodders, would be so much the poorer. I know I have just about read the ink off the copies of your books that I have. Mark
Of all the old hot rod photos I found, very few were in color. It would seem that hot rodding in the 1940s was in black and white. Here are a couple of color shots provided by Bob Morton (Road Dusters club of Mohave Timing Assn.). This photo shows hot rods were not all black and white. This roadster was entered by Art McCormick of the Sidewinders club (Glendale). This was at an SCTA meet in 1947.
Here is another photo of the no. 338 C roadster. Note the small exhaust pipe coming out of the top of the engine. Some guys plumbed a small exhaust pipe out of the heat riser holes at the intake manifold. Perhaps it was thought to relieve the pressure in the exhaust port where the two cylinders flowed together. It was not too often seen on the Lakes cars then. Also note the racing rib tires on the front and the "knobby" (dirt track style) tires on the rear. This was a nice looking channeled roadster. Photo credit to Bob Morton.
Thank you so much for generously sharing these pictures Don. You a veritable gold mine of information.
The Russetta Timing Assn. (RTA) set up sedan classes in 1949. As you know the RTA started in 1948 with both coupe and roadster classes. The sedan classes were added in 1949. There were two sedan classes - A Sedan and B Sedan. The A Sedan class was for stock bodied sedans with fenders. The B Sedan class was for stripped and/or modified sedans. Sedans modified like the Pearson '34 coupe competed in the B Sedan class. The four coupe classes included two classes for stock bodied and fendered coupes. The A Coupe class had an engine displacement maximum of 260 cu. in. with bigger engines competing in the B Coupe class. Sedans did not have a displacement requirement. A third sedan class was later formed so that in 1951 the classes were class A Sedan- stock body with fenders and a 260 cu. in displacement limit; class B Sedan- stock body with fenders and over 260 cu. in. displacement and class C Sedan for stripped and/or modified sedans. I ran my Hudson sedan in class B Sedan in 1951 and then changed to a Cord for the 1952 season. The Buick powered Cord set the 1952 B Sedan record up to 137.509 mph and finished no.2 in the Russetta Individual Points Championship. The RTA changed the rules for the 1953 season by adding a 305 cu. in displacement limit for the B Sedan class. My Buick had been 356 cu.in. As a result I had to switch to a 6 cylinder GMC engine with a Howard 12 Port head for the 1953 season. The Cord was fortunate enough to again set the B Sedan record for the 1953 season. Back then the fastest cars were almost all flathead powered and flatheads were rarely seen over 304 cu.in. Other engines were not a threat, even larger engines. However, the overhead engines were coming. So it was logical to limit the B Sedan displacement. However, I was not pleased with the decision. The photo is the Cord early in 1952 during the first "outings" at Saugus drags
Hello don, I was wondering what you guys thought about the heavily chopped coupes back in those days. Did they amaze everyone or did the guys think it looked weird. We are so used to seeing them in today's day but iv always wondered what people thought when they first appeared out on the lakes and around town. Thank you for the history lessons.
My thoughts on the chopped coupes is: In the late 1940s coupes were basically what we call street rods today. They were meant to be used on the streets. Chopping the tops on '32 to '36 coupes and sedans was basically a customizing choice. It made the coupe look better to most of us. Since the coupe or sedan had to be drivable the chops were typically in the 2" to 4" area. They looked "bitchin". When the coupes started running at the Lakes in 1948 the guys started to radically cut the tops to reduce the frontal area of the car and try for more speed. Finally the rules were set to require a 7" windshield to stop some extreme chopped tops. That somewhat limited the top height although racers did take advantage of angling back the 7" of the windshield to lower the top some more. My conclusion: Street driven coupes and sedan had their tops chopped for appearance while the Lakes racers were chopping to extreme to improve the speeds. Don
Hi, Don ! As always, we're paying strict attention to your history posts and learning something every day. I've been hoping to see a few details/fond remembrances of your '50 Olds Club Sedan ... Thanks for doing what you do so well.
Don thank you for answering my question. Sounds like even back in the day everyone thought the same as we do today. They looked bitchin back then and they still make us say the same thing, man that looks bitchin. Thanks again don. Bruce
Don, Just wanted to say thank's for taking the time to post all the great photos and history lessons for all of us gear heads to dig on. Keep on keeping on with this as it is the best of what the HAMB offers....
Here is a little information about the time when coupes began to compete at the Lakes. When the Russetta Timing Assn, (RTA) was formed in 1948 a big selling point was the opportunity for coupes (and sedans) to compete at the Lakes. The early entrants were basically street driven hot rods. By the way, the roadster guys did not think of coupes as being hot rods. The RTA set up 3 classes for coupes to run in. They were A Coupe -stock bodied; B Coupe - stripped coupes(no fenders) and C Coupe - modified coupes. Sedans ran in the coupe classes. An interesting thing happened when the fastest coupes turned out to be full fendered 1936 Ford coupes. The first picture is of the famous Bob Pearson coupe. Bob was in the Coupes club and was running with Edelbrock assistance. The coupe was a nice street rod style hot rod. As you know the Pearson '36 coupe has now been restored to as it was in 1950. Here is a photo of it in 1948 before the top chop and complete with Desoto bumpers. Bob's best time in 1948 was 120.32 mph. His consistent performances earned him no 1 in the RTA Individual Points Championship.
The next picture shows the '36 run by Bob Cantley. Bob was also in the Coupes club and was running with Edelbrock assistance. His best time in 1948 was 121.29 mph. He finished as no. 4 in the RTA Individual Points Championship. As you can see this was basically a street rod with a very strong engine. Note the solid hood sides, disc hubcaps and Desoto bumpers
The last coupe here is the '36 coupe run by Don Brown. Don was also a Coupes club member and was running with Edelbrock assistance (think Bobby Meeks). At the end of the 1948 season Don had earned the A Coupe class record at 123.12 mph and the C Coupe class record at 120.80 mph. A car could be changed to move up a class but not back to a "slower" class so Don could move his A class car up to B or C class. It is interesting to compare the performances to the other classes. The B Coupe record was 121.47 mph, set by Lou Baney in a fenderless, chopped '32 coupe. The A Roadster record was 125.51 mph set by Jim Guptill in a fenderless '29 roadster. The real story on Don Brown's coupe is about the concern by some that the times were not accurate. As I said, there were some roadster guys who could not accept coupes as being hot rods. After Don's coupe hit a 120.32 mph speed at an early RTA meet, the conversation resulted in a challenge for his coupe to run at an SCTA meet where the clocks would be accurate. So the Don Brown coupe ran at an SCTA lakes meet as a guest. The full fendered '36 coupe recorded a 121.68 mph speed on the accurate clocks. The chatter about coupes being hot rods would soon fade away. These photos came from Allen Hall I want to thank those who have made nice comments about this old hot rod history information.
Thank You again Rockerhead...this stuff just brings an interesting perspective to the reality I never experienced. You captured a lot of I would say one off types of stellar rides. Just a great mix of coolstuff in a hot setting.
Holy cats, the last couple pages of this thread have been pure gold. I feel like I was there, all great stuff. The pictures are great, but the stories behind the pictures really bring them to life. I love how the T bodied roadsters had an "unfair advantage" against the Deuces. Weren't even stock-bodied T roadsters forced to run in a different class from the A's and newer cars for a while, due to the percieved size advantage?
Thanks @Rockerhead! This post has been great to follow along on. You've got such an excellent base of knowledge and photographic evidence. Thank you for taking the time to share.
Here is a couple of photos of the Dick Winfield-Bill Fisher '32 coupe. These came from Mrs. Dan O'Regan, after Dan passed away. This photo was taken by Dan in May of 1952. Here is the coupe at the Pomona drags.
Error on my part to post the photo twice. I might add that I was at the February 1952 meet when that photo was taken. The photo here shows my Cord at the same meet. This was when I was trying to get my new Jimmy running up to expectations. This photo was also taken by Dan O'Regan (Gophers club). The initial outing at Pomona with the GMC engine resulted in a broken main cap. However on the next Sunday (shown here) the Cord won the trophy with the fastest time it had run - 107.14 mph. I know that may not seem very fast but remember this was 64 years ago. I will add a coupe of photos later to show what the Pomona drags looked like then.
The Jalopy Journal
