History What was your best experience with a famous vehicle?

There was the time I nailed Catherine Bach on the hood of the General Lee and...... wait, that was a boyhood dream that never materialized. Got to sit behind the wheel of Rizzos budget RPU a few years ago and as a kid got to see about every big time movie car from the 70's and 80's at the World of Wheels shows. Oh, I have also met George Barris and Linda Vaughn..... Just a few things I recall.

 

When I was a kid, my Dad ran a truck stop on the old route 66 in Santa Rosa New Mexico. I remember Tommy Ivo coming through in his glass sided Dodge truck with the dragster inside and a Corvette on top. I washed the windshield on the truck. Is probably 8 to 10 years old and still remember it well.

 

I loved reading the build articles on that car. At the time i was into main stream hot rodding, probably before I even had a license and the Willshire Shaker pointed me to the past. Man I loved that car.

 

I get shaky knees whenever I get a chance to visit Kurt McKormick...
He even let me get this close to The Dream Truck....

 

Well my experience with a famous car is not a happy tale but here it goes. When I was a very young man my folks took me to a nationals meet at Greenvalley. Now this was back in the early 70s when you could still walk right up to even the top name cars. Chris Karamesines was laying on the ground under his dragster which was up on a floor jack uh oh. Well you know how little kids can be I just had to reach up and play with the jack handle. Needless to say I ended up letting the jack down on Mr. Karamesines luckily it wasmt a high speed drop lol. He came out from under the car screaming and cussing. My folks jerked me up and shagged ass lol. And that's my sad tale of a young boy and a famous car.

 

So you are the reason that car is in a plexiglass cube now...

 

you win.

 

The restoration shop my buddy works at, restored "Christine", the red '58 Plymouth Fury from the movie. It was the one used in the opening shots on the assembly line. One night I was at the shop, the car was on stands, he had me stand in front of the car, turned out the lights to the shop and then turned on the headlights to Christine. It was very erie!!!
I also sat in it later after the restoration.

 

Probably like 1,000 other people, I had a tour of Roy Brizio's shop. Roy is a true gentleman. He had a couple of Eric Clapton's cars there. The coolest was the right hand drive Chev pickup Roy was just finishing.

 

Got to help Eddie Hill with his twin Pontiac car right after he lengthened it and brought it to El Paso to race Bobby Langley, Vance Hunt, etc. Worked for Ray Standoff at Bellflower Auto Center mid-sixties and met Frank Pedregon, Edie Potter, Bill Butters and Dave Gerard and lots of Lions racers.
Lately I've really enjoyed getting to know Red Greth of Speed Sport Roadster fame and the cast of characters he's associated with.

 

Learned how to change spokes on Jag wires without taking the tires off the rim by crewing on Janet Guthrie's SCCA XK140. Photo from a Halloween race at Lime Rock, hence the black cat.

 

I've been fortunate to view many famous cars over the years... In the 70's I once thought I'd discovered the Polynesian abandoned behind a body shop in Akron, OH - here it was just waiting to be restored and forty years later - I was there for its debut... I was visiting Billy Belmont's shop & he asked if I was in a hurry, if not he had something I'd appreciate seeing after he closed up shop - It was the Gade Idol...

I was fortunate enough to have my 33 in with the "Historic Hot Rods"

 

Sitten in a Devin at Bobby Box's house.

 

Mine was last year riding in the rolling bones 40 sedan delivery down the salt at Bonneville to pick up the salt shaker race car after a run. Most guys won't think this is any big deal. But I love that 40 if it could only talk. Thank's Ken for the ride.

 

I got to sit in Honest Charlie's "double exposure" at the Nats in Louisville a few years ago.

Also went to Rad Rides by Troy open house in september and the "blowfish" was in the showroom

 

not sure where the pic ended up, but I got to sit in (one of the many) general lee's when I was about 5 or 6 in the "Dukes" heyday about 1980 or so. talk about making a hot rod kids' day!

 

I interviewed for a writing job and drove with Chris Shelton in Gray Baskerville's 32 roadster . . . . That was a fun trip.

 

This year at Bonneville getting to drive around the Doug Rice 39 Ford coupe for about 20 minutes through the pits. Epic for me. This is my alltime favorite custom. Smooth as butter baby!!!! I also sat in the Orange Crate along time ago when it was stored in the back of old dusty bodyshop in Midland, Wash. before it was brought out of hiding. Now my friend owns it and I could sit in it anytime I wanted to if I was back in Washington.

 

Burke Le Sage was good friend of me and my Dad's. In the early ' 90's he was doing work for the SCTA promoting the save the salt campain. Burke aranged for for some of the LSR heavy hitters to display their cars, and make personal appearances at the show. He gave me a couple of passes, so I went out on Saturday. When I found Burke, he was talking with Al Teague. They were standing by Al's Spirit of 76 streamliner. I was in awe. I had only seen the car in magazines. The canopy was open and I looked into the very cramped cockpit. When Burke introduced me to Al, I asked him what it felt like to be sitting in there, and have the canopy locked down over you. To my total shock Al said "climb in and see"! Here was a man who had built a 400+ mph car in his mother's garage, and this car was his whole life, and he let me climb into it after just meeting me. I've done a lot of things with race cars in my life, but looking out through that small windscreen over that skinny long bullet in front of me has to be right at the top of my list of thrills. Meeting Al was a big part of that experience. A more humble, genuine man you'll never meet.

 

It was in the late 60's and there was a big gasser race at the Kirkersville Ohio strip.Stone Woods+ Cook, Big John Mazmanian, K S Pittman and I believe Ohio George Montgomery were featured. I got there early and went to the pits where I hung around the cars and tried to ask questions. I got chased away from a couple but Pittman seemed willing to talk a bit. He asked why I was asking about some things that others seemingly didn't. I told him that my second car was a hemi powered Studebaker coupe. They were having some issue with the rear end of the car and were not being pleasant with each other when he came by (toward to tool trailer) and asked if I knew how to change plugs in a hemi. Yep I do says I. He pointed to a box of plugs and said do it. I asked about the gap and he said they are ready. When he finally came back from his meeting at the rear I had to old plugs layed out on a shop rag in order and pointed out one that had the pocelain tip blown off! I also had the gaskets taken from the new plugs on that shop rag. He asked why I had taken those off and I said aint that the way ya do it? Yep he said. Stone, Woods and Cook won the race and I'm hoping that it was because of the rear end problem!

 

ive been helping my buddy Bubba67 restore the pierson brothers 36 coup back to how they had the car in 1949



also ive been able to do alot of work on Ayala bros shop truck. heres a pic of it in my shop.





and soon we are gonna attack the ayala bros t bird..

 

Back in the 70's Don Garlits,Tony Nancy and Paula Murphy came to England's main drag strip ,Santa Pod. I helped unload Paula's STP funnycar and was woken up the next morning by Big Daddy's rail being fired up just 20ft behind our Van. What an alarm clock.!!!

 

Noticed that some of the posts are of famous people met not cars. So here are a few of mine . Meeting and going to lunch with Ed Iskenderian and John Athern during a visit to the States in 2004, great guys . I still have a doodle Isky did on a napkin and one of his cigar butts. (sad,I know) .Meeting Gene Winfield ,Larry Watson and Bill Hines at Riverside Leadsled Rendezvous in 2000 and having Gene remember me in 2006 at the Primer Nats.Meeting K.S .Pitman in Sacramento in 1991 and talking about when he came over to England in the 60's with the U.S. Drag team. I saw him race at Blackbush Airfield in 1964. Going to Gene Mooneyham's shop in 1991 and meeting him and Larry Faust, and being given a hatpin of the 554 '34 Coupe by Gene. All absolute diamond guys. But the memory that tops it all is riding across Bonneville in the 617c '34 Ford coupe of Ray Forbes in 2010. Thanks Ray and I still wear the Zephyr Speed Shop T shirt. .

 

Many years ago when the Peterson was opening I was at Jim Travis' shop. I helped load the Challenger on the trailer and JIm asked if I would take the canopy. He didn't want any damage to it on the open trailer. When we got to the museum and placed the car I got to back my El Camino into the building to deliver the canopy. While there a discussion broke out about how to display the car for the opening. It was my idea to suspend the engine cover above the car so that all could be seen. The car is on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Museum in that manner to this day.

DW

 

I got to sit in the Aston Martin from the Goldfinger movie when I was about 8 years old when they toured the car around the country.

 

K S Pittman... Wow you brought back memories... I guess we all qualify our response to "best experience with a famous vehicle" with our favorite famous car... I apreciate them all... but, when it comes to people KS was special in my mind - I'm walking with my 5 yr old which just loved the bright red Willys... so, I bought a T shirt that looked more like a night shirt... KS saw it and asked if we wanted pictures with him & the car... he tossed my son on his knee and spent time with him... nice... Then the next year (boy bigger/shirt smaller) he sees my son and laughs, tells him how much bigger he's gotten, and said lets take some pics with the car... when he realized I didn't have a camera he gets his wife to get thiers... later I get a letter in the mail about how the season is going and a print from that day... My son is 25 and he may be to old to remember the "hell of a nice guy" that took his time for a kid - but I won't!

 

In the pits one time, Glidden asked me to occupy his Doberman. Dog wouldn't leave him alone while he was wrenching...

Wouldn't let me sit in the car, let alone make a pass....

 

Probably sounds a bit lame, but I got to sit in the So-Cal Speed Shop roadster - was sitting out the front of their shop, and I hopped right in.
Famous roadster? Nah, probably not, but it made me happy while I was sitting in it.
Cheers.

 

I sat in the world record holding (at the time) Vesco / Kawasaki streamlined motorcycle as a kid. For some reason it was sitting in a Kawasaki distribution warehouse in Gering Neb. when I went with my Dad to pick up a load of bikes. I used to race MX, and was sponsored by that distributer, they also let me race a couple of factory prepped Jet ski's once, and lied about my age when they entered me....boy, those were the days.

 

I got to drive Chezoom with Boyd riding shotgun.

JH