History Eric Rickman photos for Hot Rod

The guy directly behind Brock helping to push. Maybe longtime HRM editor Bob Greene?

 

Yep. Good eye Finn!

 

great pictures

 

Actually Ray Brock didn't engineer Doc's jet car. He helped with details of the build, but Alan Bradshaw, the guy on the other side of the car, was the engineer that designed it. That's Doc in the seat.

 

The Wild Dragmaster Two Thing Of Dode Martin (left) And Jim Nelson. If This Single Enderle Injector Ever Actually Ran, It Was Quickly Abandoned In Favor Of The Dual Units That Appear In Every Other Picture We Recall.





From Twin Blown Chevys To The First Jet Engine Ever Bolted Into A Race Car, Rick Was Right On Top Of The Latest Technology. Northrop Institute Engineers Conducted This Historic Initial Firing Of Doc Ostich’s Surplus GE J47 Flamethrower At Their Facility, Using A Test Stand Developed For Aircraft Applications.



Seiden Brothers’ Highland Plating Special (originally Built By Crafty Dick Kraft) Was Destined To Become One Of The First Early Hot Rods To Be Restored (by Ron Weeks).



According To The Biography Roy Richter, Striving For Excellence, Neither He Nor His Company Was Ever Properly Credited For Creating The Cragar Chaindrive That Enabled Mickey Thompson’s Previously Unblown Challenger To Become The First 400 Mph Car: “This Remained A Sore Spot With Roy Through The Years, Even Though He Never Talked About It And Always Remained Courteous To Mickey . . . .”

 

Great photos Loudbang, Thanks for posting them!

 

So many great pictures. So many great ideas from those pictures...

 

Eric wanted this shot for the cover, but he got overruled.

 

While It’s Debatable Whether Howard Johansen’s Plywood Sheet Was The First Airfoil Ever Attached To A Drag Car, It Was Likely The First One That Worked, Curing The Howard Cam Special’s Scary Tendency To Lift Its Front Wheels In The Lights.


After Two Years Of Covering Its Construction In L.A., Eric Followed The Flying Caduceus (named After The Medical Symbol) To Utah For A Disappointing Series Of Checkout Passes That Began On August 7. The Revolutionary Jet Car’s Fiberglass Air Ducts Collapsed Both Times Doc Ostich Approached 250 Mph, Prematurely Ending The Maiden Outing. Its Best Clocking Was A Coasting 228 Mph—less Than Half The Announced Goal Of 500 Mph.





Imagine Being At Bonneville To Witness The Arrivals Of Both The First Jet Car And The Just Supercharged Challenger. Moreover, Rickman Got The Only Shot We’ve Ever Seen Of Yarn Tufts—“the Poor Man’s Wind Tunnel”—attached To M/T’s Aluminum Body Judy Thompson Relayed Our Curiosity To Crew Chief Fritz Voigt, Who Recalled Towing The Tufted Car While Someone Rode Alongside With A Movie Camera, And That The Resulting Film “didn’t Prove Anything.” The Yarn Was Removed Before The Now Dark Blue Streamliner Made A Pair Of One Way Passes To Check it's speed.



Ford Walters Took A Different Approach With This Steam Powered Digger. Car Craft Ran A Photo From A Car Show With A Prediction That “this Could Be A Real Threat.” It Wasn’t.



This Setup Produced Both A Color Cover (with Dode Martin Aboard) And This B&W Lead Shot Inside, Minus Eric’s Blue Background Paper.

HRM Explained How Dragmaster’s Two Thing Was Named Accidentally: While Simultaneously Working On Their Old, Single Engine Dragster, Nelson & Martin Started Calling That Car “One Thing” And This One “Two Thing,” To Prevent Mixing Up Their Respective Parts.

Two Weeks After This Photo Shoot, The New Car Collected Both The Best Engineered And AA/Dragster Class Trophies At Detroit’s NHRA Nationals.

 

What Looks Like A Scene From A Thunder Road Sequel Is A Training Session At The CHP’s Emergency Vehicle Operations Course.

Retired LAPD Officer Sharp Referred To This Battered ’50 Merc As “the Bad Guy’s Car.”



Unintended Consequences Of NHRA’s 1957 1963 Fuel Ban, which Was Supposed To Reduce Both Speeds And Costs, included A Widespread Switch To Dual Engines.

At The Detroit Nationals, Bill Tibboles’s Olds Chevy Combo (far Lane) Advanced To The AA/D Trophy Dash After Jack Moss’ Two Much Tossed One Of Its Blower Belts.



Possibly Reacting To Rick’s Plea For “just One More Shot,” Tex Smith Puffed Up In This Humorous Outtake. A Similar Pose Was Picked To Lead An Article About Troubleshooting Ignition Systems.



Fred Offenhauser (right) And Employee Ollie Morris Posed For The Lead Shot In A Tech Story Introducing Offenhauser’s Dual Carb Setups For 170ci And 225ci Slant Sixes.




Posthumous Feature Stories Are Extremely Rare, But ’60 NHRA Nationals Top Eliminator Leonard Harris Was Killed (testing Another Team’s Rail) Before Rick’s Photos Of The Winning Scrima, Adams & Harris Dragster Made It Into Print. Also A Champion Gymnast, Harris Was Nationally Known For Winning 12 Straight Events At Lions.

 

That's my wife's Uncle Alan. He was Doc's only full time paid crew member. My wife remembers seeing the car in the driveway of Alan's home in La Mirada CA as a young girl. When I met her and started dating her, as a Hot Rod subscriber I couldn't believe her family knew who Ray Brock was. Alan shared many stories about the times they had, all of the funny, he had a great sense of humor. He and another Uncle, Bob Baier, worked for Chrysler as field service engineers for many years after the Flying Caduceus days. Uncle Alan passed last year. He spent the last decades firmly in the antique furniture hobby, traveling around the country to shows, he was on the Antiques Roadshow at least once, maybe more.

 

That's a great shot, but I think they made the right call. Then gain, maybe I'm just used to seeing it that way.

 

Frank Petersen’s Deceptive ’36 Ford Packed A Rochester Injected ’59 Corvette 283 And Hydramatic Tranny. Rickman Is Reflected In The Flawless Black Paint, Hoisting His Flashbulb Unit In The Parking Lot Of A Drive In Theater



Harvey Berg Had To Be Among The First To Stuff A Chrysler Hemi Into A ’55 Chevy, But The Feat Was Never Acknowledged In Print, Until Now.



The Banker Brothers Owned This Matched Pair Of Black Lacquer Deuces. Both Boasted Dual Quad 283s And ’59 Chevy Three Speed Transmissions. Larry’s Sedan Turned 102 At The Pomona Drags, While Walt’s Coupe Was Selected As One Of The 75 Most Significant ’32 Ford Hot Rods For FoMoCo’s 75th Anniversary Celebration.




No One Knew It Yet, But This Chassis Style Would Eventually Render All Others Obsolete.

Here’s The Second To Come Off Of Kent Fuller’s Jig (following The Prototype, Ernie Alvarado’s Shudderbug).

The Same Basic Design Was Copied By Every Successful Slingshot Builder Of The 1960s, Enduring Until Don Garlits’ Back Motored ’71 Model.



Max Balchowsky And Wife, Ina, Became Legendary In Racing Circles For Their Series Of Old Yaller “road Race Specials” (translation: Hot Rods).

This Third Edition Ran A 430 Inch Buick, A Jaguar Four Speed, And A Homemade Jag Pontiac IFS With Buick Brakes. Drivers Balchowsky, Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney, And Bob Drake Often Showed Their Taillights To Exotic European Machinery.

 

The photo of the girl putting the Hubcap on the T,that looks like Himsl.s car.
The one under it of the 33-5 Willys drag racing,That looks like Peggy Hart,s (CJ Hart,s wife) car

 

This Shapely Team Was Employed By A Marine Insurance Agent To Distribute Brochures At The Long Beach Boat Drags. We Dunno How Our Man “E. Rick Mann” Got The High Angle That Produced Such A Classic SoCal Background.


Vic Hickey Demonstrates The Impressive Off Road Capabilities Of His Trailblazer. Editor Bob Greene Was Sufficiently Impressed To Make It One Of Six Cover Subjects.


Fred Nuesca His Yellow, 238 Powered ’34




Bill Stroppe Allowed One Of His Employees, ’57 Indy 500 Rookie Of The Year Don Edmunds, To Design A Sports Car Patterned After A Sprint Car (much Like Kurtis Had Done With An Indy Car Design A Decade Earlier).

An Aluminum Body Was Shaped Over The Wooden Buck Shown Here, Its Seams Welded And Shaped Until They No Longer Showed. After Financial Reverses Forced Stroppe To Suspend Everything That Didn’t Help Pay The Bills, The Project Was Abandoned.

Edmunds Moved On And Opened Autoresearch, Which Built More Than 500 Midget, Sprint And Indy cars.




Zora Arkus Duntov Buckles Himself Into The Chevrolet Engineering Research Vehicle I During Riverside’s Grand Prix Weekend.

Reportedly Created To Test Ideas That GM Engineers Wanted To Try, CERV I’s All Aluminum, 353hp Small Block Apparently Pushed The 1,600 Pound (minus Driver), Fiberglass Bodied Roadster To 170 Mph At The GM Proving Grounds.

At Riverside, Dan Gurney And Stirling Moss Both Turned Exhibition Laps Under 2 Minutes, 4 Seconds, Which Compared Favorably To Moss’s Lap Record Of 1 Minute, 55 Seconds In A Grand Prix Lotus.

 

loudbang, thanks for this thread! its great! eric was a hero for alot of us growing up with his great photos! recently i found out that he did an article for hot rod in 1963 of the bantam i now own. he sure had the eye!

 

Good stuff I looked all over the Hot Rod archives for more of his stuff and no more long articles in different years and only two photos listed under his name.

 

Two Daily Driven Ts That Had Appeared In (unnamed) Movies Came Together For What Became A Cover Shot, Sans Beer Steins. Only Martin Holman’s Olds Powered Roadster, Featuring A Kent Fuller Frame And Don Prudhomme Paintjob, Reappeared Inside Norm got left out



How This Unpublished Shot Of The Miss Spokane Unlimited Hydroplane Wound Up On The Same Roll As A Car Feature Is Among Many Mysteries Left Behind In The Archive By Our Man E. Rick Mann.



Is This The Original Junior Dragster? All We Know Is That The Budding Cha Cha And Crew Were In The Pits At Colton For An NHRA Record Meet, And Were Not Included In The Subsequent Event Coverage.



Rickman Folded Himself Into This Basket To Shoot What Was Arguably The Lightest And Most Advanced Top Gas Dragster Of Its Era.


With Jack Chrisman Aboard, Chuck Jones’ Third Sidewinder Floated Across Lions’ Scales At Just 1,443 Pounds. A Laid Over Engine Mounting Put The Body’s Highest Point Within 30.5 Inches Of The Ground. For Some Unexplained, Surely Intentional Reason, Rickman’s Four Rolls Included Not A Single Engine Shot—unheard Of In A Race Car Feature. Whereas A Blown Chrysler Had Appeared In Construction Photos.

 

The One Time Only United States Grand Prix For Formula 1 Cars At Riverside Raceway Was Viewed By A Disappointing Crowd Optimistically Pegged At 20,000 Fans.

Stirling Moss, Driving A Lotus 18 Climax, Finished Ahead Of Innes Ireland And Bruce McLaren. Others In The Field Included Jack Brabham, Phil Hill, Jim Hall And Dan Gurney.


Mopar Fans And Others Regard The ’60 ’61 Ram Induction Models As The First Muscle Cars. With Its Dual Quads, 330hp 383, And 3,920 Pound Running Weight, The ’61 Dodge Seneca Made A Strong Case. We Liked This Mulholland Drive Photo, Overlooking The San Fernando Valley.



It Didn’t Take Car Painter Prudhomme Long To Stuff His Little Fuller Car With The Nitro Burning Chrysler That Dave Zeuschel Kept Under His Work Bench At C T Automotive. It’s Not Surprising That A Fuel Race Received No PPC Coverage During Wally’s Fuel Ban.



Fritz Voigt Checks The Mains While Mickey Thompson (lower Left) Steadies The “sideways” Tempest Four Banger That Powered The So Called “Little Car” That Clocked What Tech Editor Don Francisco Termed “almost Unbelievable” Times Of 9.94/151.51 At Pomona One Day Before Rickman Turned In This Film.

However, The Overhead Action Image That Led Off HRM’s Feature Story Was Shot Earlier, At Lions—evidently From The Same Tall Ladder Upon Which Rick Is Seen Perched In The Large Action Photo That Started This HOT ROD Deluxe Installment.



As We’ve Demonstrated Repeatedly In This Eric Rickman Series, Mickey Thompson Would Try Anything To Go Faster—including Reconstructing A Set Of Pontiac V8 Cylinder Heads To Put The Intake And Exhaust On The Same Side! We Have No Idea How Well This Weird Combination Worked, But The Fact That Rick Found It On M/T’s Dyno Indicates That The Engine Started And Ran, At Least.

 

LB,

I don't know how I missed this thread but I sure am glad that I found it! Thank you for all of the effort you have put into collecting and presenting this photos. Much appreciated.

Steve

 

That Olds motor actually resided in Rickman's '54 'Vette, shown here with Von Dutch adornment.

 

In Another Corner Of Mickey’s Shop, Rickman Stumbled Upon The Frustrating Four Wheel Drive Car That Helpers Dubbed The Monster.

Built To Better International Distance Records Already Owned By Thompson, The 3,000 Pound Project Was Plagued With Drivetrain Failures In Dragstrip Testing And Eventually Abandoned.



Greg Sharp Informs Us That Frank Arciero’s Red Lotus 19 Monte Carlo (Chassis No. 951)—one Of 17 Originals With A ’glass Body, Tubular Frame, And 2,500cc Coventry Climax DOHC Four—was Driven By Dan Gurney To Multiple Victories, Including The Nassau (Bahamas) Trophy Races In April 1960 And October 1961. Note The Spare Tire And Passenger Seat Required By Rules.




Discovered On One Of The Last Rolls, If Not The Final Roll, Of Film Exposed This Year Was A Christmas Photo That Captured The Biggest Smile We’ve Ever Seen On Eric’s Face.

Seventeen Year Old Mike Rickman Had Only Recently Hitched A Ride To L.A. From Texas (where He Was Raised By His Mother, Rick’s First Wife), Arriving As A Total Surprise.

Mike, Now 67, Received A Warm Welcome From The Late Ethel Rickman (pictured), Whom He Described As “one Of The Sweetest Women You Would Ever Want To Meet.” ★




Well sad to say "that's all folks" these are the last of them. But I will be searching the Hot rod Archives for more good stories to post.

 

Another great thread filled with pictures from the Golden Age of Hot Rodding.

 

Found another of Eric's out takes. This one is special to me because it is one of only two photos of Dad and I with the roadster. I still have my jacket, but it seems to have shrunk.

 

btt