History New Jersey Timing Association Part 8

New Jersey Timing Association (cont)

Two very different logos were used by the New Jersey Timing Association throughout it's years of operation. The following oval logo with the coupe was adopted in the early years and was available as a decal or plate topper.



It's stylized '32 coupe appears to have been adapted from the well known Quinton-Joehnck coupe as it appeared in the December 1953 Hot Rod Magazine article reporting on the Bonneville National Speed Trials (sic) earlier that year.



The following plate topper with a roadster was an alternate design that was also available as a jacket patch. Why the two designs were used concurrently is unknown.




***** END OF NEW JERSEY TIMING ASSOCIATION HISTORY ********

 

btt

 

Most all clubs back then had assisted card they would hand out on the side of the road when they helped anyone out. Mr. Carey do you have any of them or a club plaque???

 

Glad to see the Valve Rappers card. I was in that club. Bob Daum who is named on you card was president for many years. He's in his 80s now and I keep in touch with him. Several members of the Drivin'Deuces are still around and have cars. I do not have cards from any of the early clubs. But the NJTA scrap books have many and these were the principle source for my list of clubs. I have two plaques - Valve Rappers and Royal Rods. We changed our name to Royal Rods some time in the late 1950s.

 

Mr Carey,
Maybe you can shine some light on the eastern hot rod association for me and all of the world? I can not find any info on it. Do you know anything about it as far as when it started and ended?

 

Here's are some more cards

 

We all would love to hear some stories of your hotrod days what kind of cars did you have and raced what was it like, please take us back in time. We love our hotrod history here and we hope to preserve as much as we can. Thank you for starting this thread, it's always great to hear it from someone that was there and done it. Thank you sir. Bruce

 

I believe that the Eastern Hot Rod Assn grew out of widespread dissatisfaction with NHRA among east coast clubs. NHRA was perceived as West coast centric, a not wholly unreasonable perception. I don't know who the leaders of this new organization were. I think the center logo on the NJTA truck is that of the Eastern assn but the resolution is poor so I can't be sure. The truck was painted circa 1956 so the Eastern Assn may have existed by then. I have no recollection or them doing anything - no shows, drags, etc. I suspect it was stillborn. We're getting some topic drift here. Maybe time to start a new thread.

 

For kinds of cars see parts 1, 2, and 4 of the NJTA history. Most rods I remember never ventured far from home. The few places in NJ where there was serious street racing was all fifties cars. No rods. None of my crowd had show quality cars. Everything was primed with little or no body prep. None of my crowd knew how to build engines. We ran stock low mileage junk yard overheads in 29 thru 40 Fords. I ran a 265 in a channeled 34 coupe. Never got under 16 sec. None of us were competitive at the drags but we didn't care. We sure had a good time. Serious engines were being built by machinists for themselves or for the few high-rollers. Some very fast cars were out of Jersey City. Don't know who did their engines. I could go on all evening. Gotta go ...

 

Awesome thank you.

 

Last night I posted some stories from the old days in response to paintslinger's request. Upon reading those stories this evening, I thought I ought to try to put them in context lest you think we were sorta weird. Those stories are from the late 1950s. Our hot rod club was about ten guys. We were all teenagers, we were all single, we all had jobs, and we all lived at home. None of us had a lot of money. None of us had any car-building skills. No body men, no painters, no welders, no machinists, no mechanics, etc. And no bosses, parents, or older car guys, we could learn from. In retrospect its amazing we were able to accomplish anything at all.
Cars were cheap. I bought a project channeled 34 3-window coupe plumbed for brakes and with a roll bar and dropped axle for $100. Another guy bought a complete '40 Ford standard coupe for $100. Another guy bought a '34 pickup that was missing the grille and tailgate. It had lots of surface rust but no rot. That was $20. And we bought an amazing original deuce tudor with superb original paint that we could have polished. $20. My one year-old 265 cu. in. was less that $200 at the junkyard as was the '58 hemi that went into the 40 coupe. The pickup got an old but running 303 Olds. We all used adapters to the original Ford transmissions. I soon broke my original '34 trans and put in a '38 Buick trans. Hot Rod Magazine taught me how to adapt it to the Chev bell housing and to the Ford torque tube. I did the job myself using my father's drill press. We knew that a LaSalle trans would be best but could never find one. I bought the big Buick boxes at the local junk yard. I bought several just to have a spare. Used one of the spares in a Model-A roadster pickup, my next rod. I'll digress to tell the Model-A story. I used to cruise rural NJ looking for cars. Spotted a field across some railroad tracks that was littered with junk trucks. Big trucks. But in their midst was a tarp covered shape that looked like a Model-A coupe. Turned out to be a Model-A roadster pickup that was an old drag car. Flathead with Fenton heads and a Harmon & Collins dual coil ignition. I drove it home for $320. The engine had a Winfield cam but was shot. Wrist pins had floated out and scored the cylinders. But back to the barn.
One day a member showed up at the club barn with his mother's vacuum cleaner and an attachment for spraying clothing with moth proofing liquid. We primed four cars that day with that setup and got it back home before his mother returned.
Enough for this evening. Maybe more tomorrow if festivities of the 4th don't interfere.

 

Hello
I found that one in an antique store today

 

Interesting, I grew up in the area, graduated Nutley HS in 65.. To be honest I never saw a 30's hot rod. There were lead sleds and fast stock looking 50's sedans but no hot rods..The mandatory yearly state inspection was strict and my 56 Ford failed for having no front bumper..