It doesn’t surprise me it went north of $250 large. History sells. I love the dash and all the tags. thanks for the history lesson
I always enjoyed the story about how Duffy got the 55 chevy warrantee engine from the back lot at the chevy dealer with a hole smashed in the side and welded it up. I work with his daughter and we talk about the car often.
It sure would be nice if there was a sport that is as big as that was where a guy could show up with a hot rod and go up against the world’s best. Corporations have taken over completely, but that’s what makes stories like that all the more amazing.
The costs associated with racing historically has always interested me. I see guys like Alex Xydias and Tom Cobbs building these exotic race cars in the late 40's and 50's and one of the reasons it's so damned romantic is that it feels like they are conjuring these cars up from relative nothingness. In reality, these guys had more resources than most... I mean, the barrier to entry was much lower and you didn't need corporate sponsorship, but still.... you needed more than a brilliant mind.
Yes that book a good read. At some point when the flathead was replaced the 3 speed was replaced with the 4 which helped big time. Great little hot rod. Like the “old yelled” series & the “cock roach” Mexican road race car.
A great read but I find Yates rather pretentious. Going back 20 years on Barrett Jackson his lack of real car knowledge blew me away. I blame him as the first person to ad-lib and utter the dumbass term RESTO MOD back then. He did it while stumbling over his words trying to make up something to say. It will always be Duffy's car to me.
Our forefathers came home from some pretty ugly environments and experiences from WWII. A fair number of them had the hot rod disease going in so I'm sure that beside thinking of the girl they left behind stateside they had time to conjure up the dream hot rod or race car( often one and the same) they would build when they returned home. Many came back with the knowledge of materials, components and processes the average guy didn't have, often using this knowledge to form racing related businesses. One name that is mentioned a lot is Ted Halibrand as he used his experience from the Air Force to incorporate many of the lightweight materials used in the production of aircraft, specifically magnesium, to manufacture his racing wheels, probably the single biggest impact the hot rod and racing world has ever experienced. Also, there were a large amount of other components used in the builds of these race cars that were supplied from the many war surplus sources in Southern California, often called the birthplace of hot rodding. The very wheels, quickchange rearend and related components on Duffy Livingstones' car came from the hands of Ted Halibrand.
Do you have a better term to describe an old car that has been restored but also modernized? You could call them customs, but that doesn’t really capture what has been done.
One of the coolest cars ever to hit a track I wouldn’t call these home brew race cars “average Joes”. Nothing average about the crazy people that built and drove em
Resto-rods were a thing in the 70s. Restomod is like I said, some gobblygook that he came up with on air 20 some years ago.
Yeah, access to a lathe and a Bridgeport mill would have been a great help, and not everyone back then had or even now has that access. If I need a simple straight cut made on a mill, the cost is prohibitive. Just had a local repair shop who has both a lathe and a mill narrow the sides of a front generator plate. I showed him pictures of the measurements on the plate and the intake manifold. He dutifully wrote it all down, called me up later and said it was done. When I picked the plate up, he had cut almost a quarter of an inch too much off. Now, I've got to find another plate and somebody better to narrow it. Not everyone sees what most of us want to do and explaining it doesn't always work either.
Being a really old guy......I can remember in the 1990's when a classified ad appeared in both weekly Autoweek and monthly Hemmings. While working my butt off and raising two soon to be teenagers, I hesitated. Had some old projects I thought about selling......I snoozed.....I lost.
Guilty !! When I started out as a Field Service Mgr. for Chevrolet Div. of GM in the mid-late 1970's, it was my job on dealer contacts to destroy valuable ? parts replaced under warranty. On blocks, I would usually take a sledge hammer to one on the main caps with the bolts kinda loose and the webs would break out. I felt bad and so did the mechanics watching me do it. Had one larger dealership with a really good drag race guy as a mechanic. Since I was the new guy, he tested me by replacing 400 blocks for "oil consumption"....he did not like the fact I had to do my job. Sometimes his good friends would complain of "oil consumption" so the mechanic could replace their short block and do a little "blueprinting" when it was put back in. Fun times.
Brock Yates was a giant in journalism, broadcasting, commentary and just plain lover of all things internal combustion. To diminish his stature in all things automotive because of some maybe bumbled comment that rubs people the wrong way especially on the HAMB, cannot and should not in the least way be his legacy in the much larger discussion, I was a subscriber and reader of Car and Driver for a gazillion years. Whether writing about the automotive industry that I was involved in, road testing everything from A to Z, commenting on popular culture and the human condition, always giving great insite into all things automotive competition, he was a giant. During a stint of working in Detroit in the 1980's, a few of us hung out with him at the end of a very long day of media, corporate ass kissing, eating, drinking etc. etc. during One Lap of America......still have the hat somewhere. Probably the most memorable interaction was at the Knoxville Nationals sprint car race way, way back. My brothers and I were in the pits......Doug Wolfgang was trying to work his way up from the D main ? to the A main. Left rear got damaged. Brock and ESPN camera crew were there for all of it.....my brother is in the video. I can tell you that he knew everything that was going on and was flawless in his commentary, description of repairs and sense of urgency for the viewing audience......priceless. I could go on....but....how can you not love a guy who had a glass top coffee table in his home that used a complete Offy 110 midget engine as the support structure for the table. RIP
... In the mid '50s ( I'm still in grade school pretending to do homework, while working my way through a stash of my Uncle's M. I.s ( remember Mimi anyone? ), and Popular Mechanics mags, When a pal of My Father's points out a guy at some old car meet and tells us that the gent is a ghost writer for Mr Brock Yates. I felt my world shake. ( I mean I could not sleep that night! ) As far as that Red and White masterpiece of a Bucket,,, What's not to like? Thank You Ryan
Ohhh.... how I wish Pat G was still around to tell his Brock Yates stories right now... Pat actually introduced me to Brock. He came across as loud, brash, and the type that loves to hear his own voice. Being in a conversation with both Pat and Brock was my worst nightmare - loud noises, crazy facial expressions, one-upmanship, boisterous claims left and right... All qualifications that lead to Brock being incredibly successful in just about everything he ever tried - editor, screenwriter, commentator, reporter, etc... Success on that level and at so many disciplines isn't just handed out either - it's earned and typically comes with a side dish of simmering resentment from those left in his wake. I think Brock was probably the best general automotive entertainer to ever have lived. I don't think anyone before or since could match his portfolio in a broad sense... but, for whatever reason... I find myself immune to the allure of his work. Most likely, I'm one of those resentful people...
Sheesh...I just liked reading about the car. Didn't think it would produce a firestorm. Certainly wasn't meant as a glowing endorsement of Yates.
I mean... If you are starting a magazine and needed an editor or making a car movie and needed a screenwriter, I'd give him a glowing endorsement. It's easy to talk shit about Brock, but damned well impossible to match his success.
Don't get me started on Steve Magnante................... And @tractorguy , I said I liked the book. My ex inlaws gave it to me one Christmas. The rest of my statement was simply MY opinion of a certain moment of live TV 20 years ago.
The Jalopy Journal
