Built For Speed Stray Cats Editorial. !!!!! This was fun to read. It may sound dumb, but I could have written this myself. (Almost spooky) .........and I willl MEMORY FLASHBACK THE BEGINNING: Back around 1981 - 82 I was already into 50's rock and cars (I'm born 69 do the math). One day at the local library I found that you could loan Music casettes. Among them I found one with A band called The Stray Cats. Cool looking guys. Brought it home and my head snapped. This was my 50's music but with more sting. I loved it. Rushed to the local record store, just to be met by a strange sarcastic smile and "sorry son"..we got the soundtrack from Grease if you like..........he he he ????.........Yack I guy at school had a double deck casette player so I had it copied. HIGH SCHOOL DORK: On a school trip to Gothenburg (large town in Sweden) when going to High School I found Rant'n Rave when looking for 50's music. HALLELUJA the cover . Cars like that where totaly absent in mags over here at that time. When I later in 1986 bought a compilation LP with Elvis's Sun recordings, my pals at school realy thought I was going nuts. They listened to Depeche Mode - and other gay synth sounds like Erasure and that shit. " Dude, your born 30 years to late" that was the description I got in the high school newspapers presentation of graduating class of 1988. I knew shit about Hot Rods then. Nothing more than what I learned by seeing American Grafitti a zillion of times. Beeing a poor college student in 1989 I bought an 1959 Opel Kapitän. A 4-door sedan resembling a 1955 Chevy with a 58 Chev roofline (neg C pilar angle-- will dig up some pics later) Happy days and I could dream of Van Nuys .... Years go by with love for US cars - and Rockabilly music. MODERN TIMES THE OLD WAY Then around 97 - 98 My urge for Hot Rods began to be STRONG. Not until the year 2000 I was able to buy the first project. A running stock 30 A Pick Up. Never got to cut it up since a 28 roadster and other incidents crossed my path. Just after buying the PU I was introduced to this fella baptised Clas (that's klazurfer to you guys), by a mutual friend.... Clas dropped by the garage to give some hints on the PU demolition. Clas has been into this hobby since 1980 or something I guess. He's a bit older than me .....but still looking young and strong Thanks for letting me have your extra copy of The little pages "HOT RODS from 1951" that autumn night in 2000,Clas......made a world of difference. PU had to go, roadster on the way in..... a pure 40's Hot Rod had to be way. Today me and Clas are good friends and each build our own 40's roadtser in a mutual garage. Have done a looot of reading since then and what a Source the HAMB has been since I listed in 2002. WOW For you not noticing I live in NORWAY !!!!! This is not a geografical thing. It's a wibe that spreads from man to man like the flu. The greatest hobby once you get it under the skin. We owe it to a lot of men from 1900 up until today. SHOW GRATTITUDE and place cred where cred is due. I'll help the spread. I need the pilgrimage to the dry lakes. . . .can barely stand the attraction THANKS Bob Bleed and Ryan FOR BRINGING UP 1000 GOOD MEMORIES : Paul PS ........and I still listen to my Stray Cats records from time to time
The Jalopy Journal
