History The California Rake

Your car sits perfect. Chrome wheels, wide whites. The only thing to want would be 348, tri power, 4 speed. Love the color.

 

What was righteous then is righteous now!

 

Thanks! Pulled the engine this winter to clean up a few things, turns out it's a .060 over '64 409, with a '59 tripower and a soon to be 5 speed! (used to be a 4 speed and what I thought was a 348 when I bought the car stock)

 

Nice, probably gets 40 MPG!

 

I like the California Rake and that's what matters to me.

 

Looks like Roy Brizio's roadster, but doesn't look like Roy driving it. Did he sell it, or do I have the wrong car in mind?

 

The California Rake started around 1953 where I lived and for 2 major reasons, 1) was it sent a message that you probably had a big heavy overhead Buick, Cad, Olds engine, even if you had a stock engine you Dumped your car in front to "fake em out". 2) and even funnier, the speedboat look had run its course and no one wanted to be accused of having the "Back East Look" cause we were Cool West Coast which ran 5 to 10 years ahead of the east coast so they were in the middle of the speedboat thing in 1953 we were at the end of it. When Kids would show up with the Speedboat Look in our town, they'd get beat up or pull off their skirts. When this was all happening the Rake was the most important thing followed by "Spinners" which were Olds Fiestas, Buick Blades and 55 Dodge Lancers. This is the way it was in Sunland California the home of Grabowski's T

 

John Lee, sounds about right to me.

 

Of course early hot rods used big & little tires even before WW2, so rake has been a feature of hot rods since then. IMO the first cars other than hot rod roadsters and coupes that exhibited rake as a style were '40 Fords -- there are a couple of features on raked '40s in magazines from the early '50s. Postwar cars were a bit slower to adopt the style, but it was definitely in place by 1955. My perspective is also SoCal.

 

Around 1953 the Rake started for a couple of reasons 1) the tail dragger thing just played out in Los Angeles and 2) people would think or know you had dropped an overhead in your car. And there was the fact that the 52 54 Fords and 53 to54 Chevrolets were just out and looked better "Dumpped" than tail draggin'. Where I lived, in Sunland Ca Norm Grobowski had a 53 Cad hardtop with a La salle floor shift that set the standard, if somebody new showed up with skirts on their car at the local Frostie Freeze hang out We'd make them take the skirts off because it was obvious that they were "Back East Guys" and because they ran 5 to 10 years behind us they were in style back home and way out of style on the west coast. Lowered all the way around with an inch lower in front was what was happening thing, then add sidepipes (lake pipes) and you had the look.

 

This is just a model, but I built it the way I remembered cars in the early 60's.

 

My little herse when I first pulled it out of a barn I really liked the rake but the front end was full of slop

 

update on the handling issue I brought up one page back on this thread. A few days ago I installed 1" blocks in the back to see if that small amount would help with the handling. I was totally amazed at how much of a difference it made. I put 100 miles or so on the car since, and the 'wanting-to-come-around" feeling on a downward curve is totally gone....even with a full tank of gas. Yahoo. I would have prefered to leave the rake as it was appearance wise, but it still has about 3", so I can live with the compromise. I did, afterall, build the car for cruising, lol.

 

My car had chopped coils in front and the handleing was dangerous. I fixed that right after I got the brakes working

 

My 55, whites and chrome steelies are in its future.

 

Here another shot without the skirts!

 

From 1956.

 

1956


Hello,
This is the image of what the California Rake looks like in a sedan delivery. Low in front, slightly higher in the back and just mean looking. For a while, a lot of the drag racers had this look on their street cars and drag cars. But, as the so called "new" ideas pop up now and then, the rake angle went back to low all around, then, mild up front because someone said it throws all of the power back to the rear wheels. Finally, because the gas coupes had tremendous horsepower raising the front ends on acceleration, it transferred to that raised in front look all of the time. That "high in front" image stayed in the minds of many from the late 60's to the present.
Jnaki

Doug Cook 1958-60

 

My 65.