History THAT FIRST RIDE IN A HOT ROD OR CUSTOM - AS A PASSENGER

My avatar when I was 14.

 

As a kid dad had a buddy with a 50 Studebaker truck in the barn, I played in a lot, no ride. As a 12 or 13 year old dad was buying hunting land with some old cars on it I pick out a 39 Chevy for me, dad said no so no ride again. About 1985 my stepbrother got a 47 Chevy and I got my first ride.

 

I think it was a 1934 roadster. But the hook was really set when I was about 8 years old and with my older uncle who was stopping by his car club hangout. It was an old industrial building the club used to work on their projects. I got one look inside at the coupes and roadsters in various pieces of completion and thought I was in heaven!

 

In about 1960, my older cousin had a 58 Impala convert, white, 348, three on the tree, lakes pipes (the long ones) and lowered and dechromed. Good pipes. I don't know where we went, I am sure it wasn't far but I was an impressed 14 or 15 year old kid. I'd heard that it was low enough that on hard cornering the Lakes Pipes would drag and throw sparks. Yeah, probably not true, no pictures.

Before that he had a 53 Ford hardtop that he swapped a SBC in probably in 58? I ran into him a few years ago and commented on the 58 and he showed little interest in discussing it. I guess he got his hot rod itch scratched adequately

 

My first ride in a hot rod was when I was 14 and I was in the rumble seat in a 1932 ford roadster, it was cold but I was having the time of my life.

 

In the summer of 1956 we moved to San Francisco. I met the across the street neighbor, Joe Carlomagno, a member of the San Francisco Ramblers car club. One Saturday, Joe asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in his chopped, high-boy deuce 3 window coupe. I immediately said yes. we went down to the pier area to meet up with John Adams, another Ramblers club member with his full fender-ed deuce 5 window coupe. We had an impromptu drag race, and halled ass before the cops showed up. Joe and I went up to Green Street where we lived, Joe made a hard left, and left rubber from my house right into his garage, We quickly shut the garage door, and came calmly walking out as the police car came by. Not only was that my first ride in a hot rod, but my first time in a drag race. I am 79, and Joe is 85, I have my roadster, and Joe has a full fendered deuce roadster. I called him recently and thanked him for being a mentor in my early hot rodding years. He was very happy to hear from me, and he didn't realize what an impression he left on me. Again, thanks, Joe.

 

So as I've said in other posts All my cars have been mid 60s to early 70s. The car in my avatar is my first HotRod. The day I got it was the first time I ever drove any thing like it. I got it 50 miles from my house and drove it home the whole way at night on the highway at 60mph. It was a crash coarse in driving a HotRod. Exciting and scary at the same time but I loved it. The first time being a passenger was the next day when I brought it to my mechanic's shop and let him take it for a ride. He has build and drove many cars like this so I trusted he could handle it. While in the passengers seat I realized that they have a lot more room than the driver. It was pretty comfortable over there. It will probably be a long time before I find myself over there again. I usually don't like being the passenger in any car but it was pretty fun experience.

 

It would be cool if you guys could get together after all these years and cruise around together, great story! HRP

 

My first ride in a hot rod wasn't as long ago as some. About 10 years ago went to a small car show in a local town and there was a group of cars that people were offering rides in and proceeds went to charity I thought why not. There was ferraris porsches and other so called exotic cars but the one that stood out to me was a 32 rpu satin black no hood mopar small block with tri power. I was not disappointed I had been interested in hotrods for along time before but I knew I had to have 1 after a couple of seconds and the drift round a roundabout I will never forget. The rpu did come up for sale a few years later but had just bought a house and funds weren't there
Luke

 

My friend Rick had a old hot rod, it was a cut up model A, could have started life as a pickup with the top cut off and a wooden bed, it had a flathead with 3 carburators and chrome reverse rims.

Rick died in 1968 so it most have been a year or two before that, it was a cool looking car for the time, it had that east coast look.

 

Had to be the summer of 1976 in George Hull's 1931 Chevy 5Passenger Coupe, the GM version of a Vicky. It was a magazine featured car that he repainted, we took it to Timonium and a run down in Virginia. George was one of my first friends to pass away, I'll always miss him. Bob

 

My first ride in a hot rod in 1960 I had walked to a little grocery store about a mile from my house. I was heading home when a guy that lived up the street from my house came roaring up the street in a 41 ford sedan that he had bought. He slams on the brakes backs up and says where are you going? I saw I`m going home he says get in. So I get in he floors it and we are flying down the road. When we get to my house I am thinking he will drop me off at the end of the driveway. But he turns into the driveway hits the gas and the pedal goes to the floor. We are heading for my moms flower bed and go right through it then into the neighbors yard he gets stopped but not before crushing the azalea she had got for mothers day. Mom said that I was to never ride with him again.

 

Almost exactly 73 years ago (exact would be tomorrow or Monday) I got my first ride in a hot rod in this one on the way home from the hospital. I was 3 days old. It had the reputation of having the loudest pipes in town.

 

I rode with Rick in what he called a strip down, it had a lot of go and very little whoa.

I remember ridding down Pearman Dairy road and all of a sudden the engine caught fire, it seem the red plastic gas line got brittle and cracked spewing gas and the whole engine was engulfed, we slowed down a bailed out the car went a few hundred yards and coasted off to the side of the road.

We didn't have a fire extinguisher but a man in a wrecker turned around and came back and he had one, he putout the fire and hauled us and the car back to Ricks house, I never saw the car run again. HRP

 

1957, my older sisters boyfriend and his pal both had '50 Merc converts. Lowered in the rear, skirts and some hop up engine goodies. My first ride was off to a stable to ride horses. That was pretty cool!

 

I really like your sedan.

 

I had the first ride in a model A pickup, fenderless with a three foot bed and flathead V8. Couldn’t stop smiling for about an hour afterward. Loud, shaking, faster than anything else I’d ever been in. Just plain fun.

 

Thank you.

 

I still haven't popped that cherry yet.
At 56 I still haven't had a ride in a Hot Rod, sat in a few but never went for a ride along.
I've driven & ridden in a couple tri fives & that's about as close to a custom as I've got.
Muscle cars & a few high powered grocery getters is where I've spent most of my time.
when I was a kid my older brother had a 65 Chevelle SS that looked the part but was just a cruiser, one of his friends had a 66 Barracuda with a 340 & inline 4spd & he took me for a rip.
I knew that was a sound that I wanted my future cars to make.

 

Man, If I lived anywhere near you we would correct that problem, hopefully a hamber in your neck of the woods will see this post and take you for a ride. HRP

 

That would have been dad's 56 F100 although I was probably too young to remember

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I've wracked my brain, but I can't come up with anything earlier than the initial run in my Dodge hemi-powered "T"-bucket in 1966. Hot Rods were uncommon in my "neck of the woods" in those days. A few shoebox Fords, a'50 Olds or two, and a bunch of tr-five Chevrolets, but no real rods. I built the car over the previous couple of years, and obtained a Minnesota "Homebuilt" title that year. I drove the car quite a bit over the next two years. But someone broke into my winter storage in 1968-69 and stole every good piece off of it; the wheels and tires, the body and windshield, the chrome rocker arm covers and 4 BBL manifold, along with generator, starter, and all kinds of other stuff. They didn't get the title, though, and I've been dragging the remains from shop to shop for the last 51 years. About 10 years ago, I started a reconstruction. I had a lot of other stuff going on, and only got it to "roller" status. I have finished most everything else and plan on getting on it full time when I get back to Minnesota next spring.

 

Either a '57 Pink T Bird or a '57 White Corvette- rode in both but not sure which was first- the guys were dating sisters that lived across the street from me and didn't mind all my interest in the cars-

 

Well, it would probably be my brothers '54 ford business coupe with the 6 and the 3 on the floor. Seemed fast to me at 12. Then about 1964, when I was about 14, I was scared and thrilled all at the same time when I stopped at this guys house on the way to school one Friday. He had a '64 Plymouth s/s setting on his lawn. 426 2x4's on cross ram and 4 speed. It had one bucket seat and a roll bar. Lettering that said The Frog with the usual cartoons. Then, on my way home from school, he was under the hood and looked at me on the sidewalk and asked if I was going to Lions on Saturday. I said no, no money. He said be at his door by 7 am and he would get me in. Needless to say, I was waiting for him at 7am, when he opened his door. I got in and said where do I sit? He said hold on to the roll bar. Now I was only about 4 ft 9 then and weighed about 100lbs. He hammered that car at every stop and pulled the front wheels all the way to Lions. I was flying around like a bb in a box car and loving every minute of it. Now, the thing I remember most, it was about 10:45pm and the last ride of the night, as the fog was coming in. They put a stock '40 ford coupe v860 about 100 feet from the finish lights and started the Frog at the starting line at the same time. The coupe beat him by about a foot. The ride home wasn't much different than the one going. I always said I would have one of those s/s type cars someday. Life got in the way, many other types of rides until I was about 36 and my friends son called me and asked if I wanted to buy this midsize Plymouth he had bought. His wife said it was the ugliest car she had every seen and wanted it gone. Turned out to be a '63 Plymouth Belvedere 6 cylinder but that could be fixed. No rust, stock looking on 14 inch rims and all. It had belonged to an 83 year old women who bought it new. I asked how much? Trying to stop the excitement in my voice, he said 300 bucks. I couldn't get the money out of my wallet fast enough. Which was strange to, because I usually never had two nickels to rub together. I took it home, put some custom wheels on it, put big and littles on it, jacked it up, put a scoop on the hood, gutted the interior, put in a roll bar and when my friends son saw it again, he couldn't believe how cool it looked. I still have it. It went through three 6's and 18 years of sitting in the back yard, waiting to get a v8. I first bought a 440, then I got a '56 Hemi, then a 318. My dd finally took a dump 4 years ago and I said, lets just get the Plymrock together. I put the 318 in it for the economy but I will eventually put the Hemi in it. Everybody keeps asking me if I want to sell it and I always tell them to ask my wife after I die.

 

Note sure if I rode in it. Uncles Model A roadster. I have his dash plates from El Mirage. Probably early 50’s in San Diego.


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I was a 14 year old hot rod fanatic! The school bus drove past this 40 Merc convertible custom every school day after school and one day the owner was out working on it with the hood open. I got off at the next stop and ran back...I was a shy kid but not today. I asked him all kinda questions about the slammed, red rag top with a very chopped Carson-style white top. Had a merc 255 with a stock trans and rear end. He'd molded in all the fenders and it had a 50 Nash grille with stude tailights...nosed and decked. I was enthralled and he took me for a ride in that loud, fast car. The guy had long [for 1962] curly hair, white T shirt and jeans and was skinny as a rail.
That cinched it up for me...now I was a dedicated car guy to the max! I got to be a regular, sneaking out my bedroom window after bedtime and jogging the 2 miles to his place and he'd show me how he tuned the two carbs. Adjusted the clutch, changed plugs and we'd take the Merc out and test the tune. One morning about 4, we blew an axle key out on the hiway, doing a burn out. No sweat, he jacked that thing up, ratted around in the trunk for tools and a key......had it back operational in 1/2 hr.

 

Long time ago so can't say for sure about the 1st but the one that really jumped out at me at the time ('59) to still remember well was a '52 Merc hardtop with a '53 Lincoln overhead that 2 cousins (brothers) bought jointly. Dual glass packs and flat hauled butt, hottest and loudest rig in the HS parking lot at the time. One ride in the back seat to a neighboring town for a pick up baseball game while my cousin rapped the pipes every time he had to let off and I learned there was more to living with glass packs than first meets the ear in a parking lot! Sure was fast though!

One brother joined the Marines, local chiefs showed up at his house looking for him the next day to discuss his "display of youthful exuberance" leaving school the day before..... Other brother traded the Merc in on a '57 shortly after.

Quite a while later a HS classmate came in one day and said a young lady had showed up with the Merc where he pumped gas after school. When he asked said she liked the car but didn't understand why it didn't get better gas mileage... No one ever heard any more about the car.

Ed

 

I'm pretty sure my first ride in a real hot rod was in '62. I lived a few blocks from Jerry Hammes (who owned our local Romy Hammes Ford dealership) and drove past his home daily in my '54 Ford to and from high school. Jerry was keeping Dick Brannan's '62 Galaxie race car in his driveway, and also stored Dick's very nice '32 Y-block-powered roadster in a garage. Occasionally I would stop by and gawk at the 406 car, then head to the garage and drool over the '32!
One day that summer Jerry drove past my home in the '32, saw me out front, stopped and offered me a short ride. You had to step over the large chrome exhaust pipe that ran on top of the running board. But once seated and the door clicked shut, the sound of that 312 coming to life, a dash full of gauges, an occasional grind from the '39 tranny and wind blowing by planted a seed that someday I would own a '32 roadster! A '40 coupe came first, but many years later I also have my '32!

 

What a cool memory. HRP

 

Growing up the kid who lived next door to us had a 49 Mercury which was the first hot rod I ever rode in.