History Eastwood & Barakat

I think Baskervilles unabridged dictionary defines Bithcin as:

Bitchin
1. The ability to make everybody smile just by looking at it !!

The sedan definitely does that

 

Finally got my TRJ. Great writeup, congrats to all involved!

 

Congrats on the TRJ feature Rick. Very nice!

Oh, and I vote for adding the side and rear glass.

 

Saturday I finally received my #61 TRJ.......
WOW!! GREAT PHOTOS & STORY!
Thanks Rick & Pete for allowing me to play a small part in this awesome project.
cw.

 

Craig

We have to thank You for being the keeper of the chassis for all those years. Without you being on board with this project, & making the chassis available to us, this could have never happened.

 

It looks like the Sedan will be racing at the Mooneyes event on December 7th. I'm going to try and have the windows done by then but if not, I'll just throw in some lexan ones to save time. We could probably use some help that day if anyone would like to.

 

Hey Rick, sounds like a fun day, I'll know for sure as we get closer to the 7th......

 

Hi Guys. Been off of here for a while, my pc went out like a shot down jet fighter-it crashed and burned. I wish a great Veterians Day for everyone and will be waiting for updates on the E&B cedan.............................

 

I picked my copy of Rodder's Journal up at our monthly Phoenix So-Cal get together yesterday. I got a chuckle this morning reading through it as Judy and I were drinking our coffee. I got to the part where it was describing how the car came to be in such a short time to go to the nostalgia drags after the sales of a couple of cars. I started to explain to Judy how guys, (including myself and my friends) used to do that fairly regularly, and as I did, I glanced down. There, on top of the ever changing, permanent pile of magazines next to my side of the bed was the September '81 Street Rodder with Pete Eastwood's red hiboy launching at what I presume to be the first nostalgia drags! Having just read about the car and it's sale, without skipping a beat I picked it up and said to her, "As a matter of fact, the sale of this car is partially what led to this car getting built so they could race in the next version of this race..." She looked at me, sipped her coffee, narrowed her almond eyes, looked over her reading glasses, and said "Why in herr you know such thing..." Clearly she was not impressed...

 

I hope Pete was spotting the other guy a few car lengths!

 

About that "Street Rodder" cover shot.
The other guy is Jim Vickery, a fireman who worked part time for Roy Brizio.
We both showed up at the first nostalgia drags in our Hi Boys.
Tom Prufer came up with the idea we should have a "North vs South",
2 outa' 3 match race. (San Francisco vs LA).
We went the three rounds, I don't really remember who came out ahead, but we were both winners because of all the fun we had!!!
It was just one of those deals that wasn't planned, it just sort'a happened & was a ton of fun !

 

Great backstory! Thanks!

 

Another story about the red hiboy, and how things get built & sold.
I was at the point in my life when I figured it was time to think about buying a house.
I have no ability to save money, never have, but I can build cars.
So I came up with a plan, build a car, have fun driving it for a year, sell it & use the money to buy a house.
January of 1980 I took a spare '32 frame to the blasters, & then started building a chassis. December 24th I picked the finnished car up from the upholstery shop.
1981, I drove the shit out of it, put 10,000 miles on it ! In November I sold it, & used the money for a down payment & bought my house in December of '81
Of course within months (early '82) we were building the E&B sedan.
and the rest is history.

 

I like how it looks like you're in "Full Speed Tuck" mode in that pic! ha

 

I drove that car to Femont (370 mi), uncorked it, took off the windshield,
& ran 12.50's 113 mph, 350 hp 327 & a muncie 4 speed.
Made about 10 passes.
Some of the most fun was returning home on monday. I drove down the coast, and some where between Santa Cruz & Cambria there is a straight stretch of hiway where I ran that thing flat out, It was flyin' !!!

 

Way cool...

 

Rick, Is that Dec.7 deal at the Irwindale site? If so I'll definitely be there!

 

Pete, you're who always wanted to be when I never grew up! Awesome plan!

 

Here is the new deal about the windows for the Sedan.
Leave the Lexan in where they are and put glass in the doors only.
This does two things.
1. Give the security the car needs.
2. When the windows are down, leaves the original flavor of the Sedan.
That was Pete's idea.

 

ha ha ha….nice edit job Rick

 

I like Pete's idea. I'm picking up TRJ next week and can hardly wait. Good reading................

 

TRJ #61 (Subscriber's cover):





"UNFINSHED BUSINESS"
by Curt (Curt Six) Iseli
photography by Geoff (TRJ) Miles

The Eastwood-Barakat story is a tale of two friends, Pete Eastwood and Rick Barakat, with a passion for bare
bones hot rods and nostalgia racing. We explore the impact the first Eastwood-Barakat Deuce Tudor had on the
hot rodding world when it appeared in 1982, and the winding trail the car and its parts took after it was sold
a year later. But at the heart of the story is Rick and Pete’s recent resurrection of their famous sedan, which
combines tried and true hot rod components ... Deuce rails, buggy springs, polished magnesium Halibrands, and a
stout 360ci smallblock Chevy in a seriously fun street/strip contender. Some parts came from the original car, and
the rest were found in junkyards, swap meets, and on the Internet and assembled with the help of Rick and Pete’s
hot rodding buddies. Some of those friends, like Eric Vaughn and Bob Blum, even had a hand in the original car.​

 

WOW!!! Can't wait to get my Rodders Journal.......................

 

Couple observations on TRJ...
1. Typically, TRJ does TWO covers, one for subscribers, and one for bar-code. I'm wondering what newsstand customers got for a cover on TRJ 61 ?
2. This issue of TRJ makes a big deal, big article, on the Doane Spencer Deuce. Both the Doane Spencer Deuce, and the Eastwood-Barakat Tudor made the 2007 list of 75 Most Significant 32 Hot Rods. Author Pat Ganahl offers the opinion (p. 36) that if he had to pick "the most significant Deuce hot rod of all", it would be the Doane Spencer Deuce.
3. Rick & Pete's Tudor, 'Down & Dirty' (Gray Baskerville, HRM, Nov '82), the guys from Pasadena, Monrovia, TC, Bradbury, etc, made the FRONT cover of TRJ (a beautiful, head-on shot). And... The Doane Spencer Deuce made the BACK cover.
I can't help but have a small chuckle from the irony of that. I guess it's my distorted sense of humor.
I'd like to have witnessed the meeting in which Mr Coonan & company selected which car to put on the cover. I can't help but wonder if their sense of humor played a part.
JMO, still chuckling.


edit... with reference to #1 above, I see that TRJ used the Doane Spencer Roadster on the cover of the 'bar-code-edition'. Cover of subscriber's edition is shown on post 2608, above.

 

robH.....now that you pointed this out I to have a big smile on my face!
Maybe the coooolllist 32 HOT ROD TUDOR EVER!!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Rick and Pete's stories while we were working on this article. I think we can all get a little obsessed with the details of the cars we're building, and that's a good thing to some degree, but it doesn't mean you can't just have fun banging together a well built and really bitchin hot rod. I'm really glad Rick and Pete resurrected this one.

 

Curt Six, yeah, I'm sure this car was originally built like you describe. The irony though, is Rick and Pete almost did the opposite with the REbuild. An almost (ahem) fussy restoration! haha But when it's this funky and bitchin' who can blame them for wanting to stick to how it was?! I've looked at the pics, read some captions....I need to read the story soon!

 

Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank has the Sedan on the cover of their newstand copies.
I'm not sure how many other places do. Anyone out there seen it on the newstand anywhere else?

Curt-
Great story! Thanks!

 

If you go to TRJ's website, it shows the sedan is on the street cover.

 

The people I know who subscribe also said it is on their cover. Oh well.

I'm just glad we(all the guys who contributed) got their car in the magazine. Not to be redundant, but this was a group effort! And a large group at that.