History Very ugly, but kind of cool

There's a book called "Flywheel - Memories of the Open Road". It's a motoring magazine written by British POWs in WW2. Well worth a read and it shows the link between motoring, freedom and imagination. I feel sorry for kids today that will only know calling an Uber...

 

Found this one in an old hot rod book from the late forties and early fifties. I think I sometimes forget that there was a time before making cars look like show boats that there were guys that were more about speed than looks.

 

Most of the cars in this post could easily find a good place with parking spot in Bizzaro World. Add a set of square tires and they would be dandies. Maybe one them could belong to Bizzaro #1, Superman's opposite in a world where everything is done backwards.
I see a similar aesthetic that has been happening in a more recent trend where car parts are cobbled together with a similar randomness as the monkeys banging on type writers in a room for an unlimited amount of time and producing a literary novel for Steven King. Surpassing older terms like 'rust bucket' and 'death trap', and these 'anti- hot rod', ''wannabe be sports cars', there is something off-putting about them, like seeing wrecks in car race. You don't feel good about what's going on but you watch it anyway and while your sympathies are for the drivers but, still,you are titillated by the thrill of it.
You know they are everything you thought, and have been taught, is wrong; the design and completion of these shown here and, the rust rodents of the current, alternative trend. Some of all these creations have similar values as Folks Art, that is done by painters and sculptors who have no formal training or knowledge of the history of art, who express themselves regardless. It comes down to doing the best you can with what you have. Too often we are not capable of seeing our prejudices for certain forms and shapes, and how problems are solved in different ways depending on the individual's skill-sets. The ability to find interest that anything built on a one shot basis that can be driven, handles and stops, that is an achievement itself, requires objectivity, and the ability to think through what you are looking at and being able to understand how hard it is to build anything; especially when there is nothing to compare it, and to use as a a model. Plus, there is unintentional humor in some of them. I am Of course, as in all endeavors there are some better than others, if you can see yourself building a better version of it. My thoughts on doing that in the present would be based on modern junkyard parts. I am thinking of photographing possible donor material. The only problem is quality of the steel and not using plastic or fiberglass to retain, if only in the spirit of the originals. ON ANOTHER NOTE: egotiating the sale of the one at Old Union Car Company is now complicated by the death of the owner. The future of his collection of junk cars, parts, and cars he built for himself is now in the hands of his wife. If anyone has an interest in it, I will put you in touch with her. Just PM me.

 

You can see what influence the designers of these home built cars had back in the 40,s

 

That looks like Gene Winfield's racer The Thing...Love it...this is where the lines get crossed here when inspiration from the purpose built which still I might add was still visually scrutinized is mixed with the Hotrod on the street and tempers flair...but not all Hotrods were in fact pretty...

Don't forget a lot of these racers had the tape, sheet metal and cardboard peeled off for the drive home and things still may have been ruff around the edges but that was unquestionably a reality and as much a part of the big picture as the rest.

Personally I don't forget...I look forward to it...

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Gene_Winfield's_1927_Ford_Model_T_Coupe

Credit to Photographer, Owner

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Actually there is a lot in this hobby and love of Hotrod/Custom/Race that evokes the WTFWTT...and I guess if you look at it as a Spoked Wheel with the Hub being the Basic building Block of Automotive Base Material all the spokes lead to deviations of the creative thought and that is in fact a varied as our opinions here.

This is also a world away from the design studio at the Big Auto Companies and clearly many fall short of capturing what they rely on year to year to survive albeit that is not the intention.

It's interesting you are so close to one of these oddities.

 

...Pretty Wild,
Oozing with character,
and as with many enough to
capture your interest...

https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Bill_Carash's_Roadster

Credit to Photographer, Owner

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The roadster above has a similar aesthetic as those zooming across the dry lake beds in the Lancaster area before it was evacuated December 7, 1941 because someone there was listening to the radio. According to Don Blair, who was there that day, told me, to"After everyone had heard about it, they just shut down Andrew went home. "
Many of them never raced again. Only afterwards, when World War Two was over, did those who had lived through it, and made it home, began over. And, they had new ideas and high test gasoline, improved metallurgy, new machining technology, advances in welding methods and welders, and the refined appreciation for the adrenaline rush from a need for speed. To see cars of that era, prewar or postwar and in the late forties carries an extra zap for me. What I also enjoy are postwar and customs built by people who lived inland between West and East who made cars based on those they saw featured in the burgeoning car mags that first brought the basics of the Gospel to the second generation of those who became and will die hard core Hot Rodders.

 

I think many of the posted Hybrids here are well constructed and have their own appeal...and interestingly most are postwar...I have posted the above Carash Custom Hotrod before and it is a work of genious...regardless of some of the negativity towards these oddities.

A quote from Kustomrama...
"The build was completed in 1949. After completing it, Bill towed it to the Reno Dry Lakes to compete there. Spence recalls Bill saying that it didn't go as fast as he had hoped."

I just saw similarities to the cruder creations and felt the cruder vehicles were for lesser skilled individuals who wanted to create a fun street vehicle without breaking the bank or being a full blown craftsman...It also coincidentally was featured in the Mechanix Illustrated as well...




https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Bill_Carash's_Roadster

Credit to Photographer, Owner


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Probably built after 1959.

 

That I have saw before...in fact it's in the homogenized thread and I'm not going to go back and find it either......despite that I'm still game for knowing what the story was behind it...in a bizarre way it could be alot older than we think...

 

It's in Northern Indiana.....maybe in South Bend or Elkhart.

 

bttt

 

Yes, The numbers on the cars are backwards, film got swapped around I guess. Bob

 

From a FB group

 

Poor thing!

 

Very ugly yes. Cool, hell no.

 

How do you explain this? UNsectioned??

 

Dare I say.. a first generation Ratrod...

 

Lots of Fugly,not much cool.

 

... @J.Ukrop bumped into one of these and did an extensive Thread on it as again these were based on Vintage Ford Chassis and motive power with some hopped up a bit here and there...


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Fun to see this thread revived again. But most of the picture's posted yesterday are better suited to @Ned Ludd's delightful Automotive Weirdness thread, and have nothing to do with this thread's original topic. So thank you, @Stogy, for bring us back to the subject of the old Mechanic Illustrated speedsters.

I will always have a soft spot for these oddities, if for no other reason than that they indirectly led me to my speedster. When I got the car, the seller assumed what he had was an old MI home-built. Turns out while it may have been inspired by the MI fad, at the core of my car was an original Mercury Sport Body, preceding the trend by 30 years!



Here's one my brother spotted just the other day. He sent me this pick as a joke. But I may go check it out; not because I'm in love with the faux Rolls-Royce-esque grille, but I'm real curious to know what lies underneath.

Re-reading this thread, I'm amused at how many people are turned off by the crude and aggressive home-made grilles. What, you think all period hot rods had pristine '32 shells? For every one of those crude home-built MI shells I'll show you two period hot rods that didn't even have a grille--they just ran with an exposed radiator. So esthetically speaking, at least the MI specials were one up in that regard.

The following image is from a 1956 poster for the movie Hot Rod Girl. That right there is the period pop-culture perception of what constituted a hot rod. Not a radiator shell in sight.

 

[QUOTE="Re-reading this thread, I'm amused at how many people are turned off by the crude and aggressive home-made grilles. What, you think all period hot rods had pristine '32 shells? For every one of those crude home-built MI shells I'll show you two period hot rods that didn't even have a grille--they just ran with an exposed radiator. So esthetically speaking, at least the MI specials were one up in that regard.[/QUOTE]


In high school I drove a 31 Model A with a stock flattie and an ugly '37 Ford radiator with no kind of grille. Sold the car for 90 bucks so you can imagine what it looked like.

 

How about just plain ugly and not cool

recently seen on auto trader ad 1934 ford 2 window



https://www.autotrader.ca/a/ford/co...showcpo=ShowCpo&ncse=no&orup=33_15_68&sprx=-1