After WW2 Larry Shinoda got into the Southern California hot rod scene, and built several hot rods named “Chopstick Specials.” He won his class in the 1955 NHRA Nationals in a 1924 Ford roadster powered by an Ardun V-8.

I don't find it useful to repeat what everyone already knows, and I do appreciate relaying what I learn about some famous people who were successful in racing, hot rodding, and were in the military. 
I find it has been the more interesting stuff to learn, instead of the normal stuff everyone rehashes on the other websites

As a kid, Larry was always drawing cars with pencil stubs he found. At the age of eight, he did a large color painting that years later hung in the Los Angeles Museum of Art.

He built hot rod Ford coupes and roadsters called “Chopsticks Special” that he street raced, drag raced, and speed raced on the dry lakebeds of California’s Mojave Desert. 

I didn't know until now that Shinoda worked at the Weiland Company to put himself through two years at Pasadena City College.

After college Larry had a two year stint with the Air National Guard and spent 16-months in Korea.

In 1953 Shinoda set the SGTA Bonneville Nations D-Class Speed Record with a two-way average speed of 166-mph in his Chrysler-powered roadster. Then in 1954 Larry won the Fuel Roadster class at the first NHRA Nationals in Great bend, Kansas.

I didn't know until now that he'd been in the Art Center College of Design, or that he'd joined racecar builder A.J. Watson’s Indianapolis 500 team for a season, he designed the car’s sleek, cigar-like body and wild pink livery in addition to working on the crew. 

Pat Flaherty drove the car to victory, giving Watson one of his six career wins at the track... and he spent some time designing the body and the car’s paint scheme of  the John Zink car, as crew that raced and won the 1956 Indy 500. 

When working at the GM design studio, with Bill Mitchell, he drove a white 1956 Ford. The engine was a Bill Stropp race-prepared 352 with dual quads, headers, NASCAR shocks and a full roll cage.

Below is his 1932 Ford three-window coupe he built for drag racing. He cut away most of the firewall and placed a Ford flathead V-8 as far back in the chassis as possible seeking optimal weight distribution at launch

 The driveshaft to the quick-change rear was only 26 inches long. The car ran over 120 mph in the quarter At El Mirage, on pure alcohol, it was clocked at 138 mph, Russetta Timing Association certified. The car was later sold to Don Montgomery.

https://www.3dog.org/project/1932-ford-3-window-coupe-larry-shinoda

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by.428585/page-5869#post-12881072

https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/know-your-designers-larry-shinoda

http://www.corvettereport.com/corvettes-founding-fathers-larry-shinoda-sting-ray-mako-shark-designer/

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/?p=36828

https://www.fujisan.co.jp/articles/courrier/14/