the 50s were just that incredible for hot rodding,
Tony Nancy was a shop away from someone famous too, and Barris, Jeffries, etc etc.
Famous guys just seemed to have businesses in the vicinity of other famous guys
the 50s were just that incredible for hot rodding,
Tony Nancy was a shop away from someone famous too, and Barris, Jeffries, etc etc.
Famous guys just seemed to have businesses in the vicinity of other famous guys
Not ever having had a particular interest in hot rods, Barney Navarro was a stranger to me. But the names of Frank Kurtis and Ed Winfield and their place in the history of open wheel racing are as fresh in my mind as this afternoons pizza. What groundbreaking giants. Frank cut his fabricating teeth while employed at the Don Lee Cadillac distributorship in California. Don’s son, Tommy, had Frank build him a street legal custom (Tommy Lee Special---accessible online with a little help from Google), and the rest is history. And Ed Winfield and his racer carbs...what is there to say? Ed cut his teeth working for Harry Miller. And Ed’s brother Bud, was the main man behind the Novi V8. Bud conceived it and laid out the specs, Leo Goossen (another Harry Miller alumni) drew it and Fred Offenhauser built it. The engine was shoe horned into one of the failed mid 30s Miller-Fords for the 1941 500 and the disastrous results were predictable. The Ford chassis was built for a much smaller Ford V8 and incompatible with the Novi (called a Winfield at the time). Frank Kurtis tried to convince Lew Welch to use a rear wheel configuration for the post war cars, but Welch insisted on front wheel drive and Frank obliged. Welch came around a few years later and Kurtis built a rear wheel drive chassis for Paul Russo to drive in 1956. Lord, lord I love this stuff.
ReplyDeleteBarney Navarro: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Navarro
ReplyDeleteNot Ed Winfield, but who I said, Gene Winfield:https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Gene%20Winfield
Kurtis: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kurtis and https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Kurtis%20Kraft
Without help from Google, the Tommy Lee Special https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=tommy+lee+special
Don Lee: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Don%20Lee
Ed Winfield:https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=ed+winfield
Miller Ford race cars: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Miller%20race%20car
Shoulda known any guy that eats water with a fork would be way ahead of me...without the help of Google. You have stuff here that would be the basis for some prestigious university offering a graduate program in automotive history. The Don Lee link you provided was of special interest including the images of the Mercedes 154 with Luigi Chinetti looking on. (Another degree program in itself, you’ll probably have a Car Guy link to a previous post about him...) Iron Duke of course was assigned the driving chores. Duke showed up at the door of a friend of mine in Bedford, Indiana about 20 years ago, asking for something. My friend, Eddie Evans, had been a very successful businessman in the Bedford area, owning several large limestone quarries that provided ’Bedford stone’ to numerous markets nationwide. Eddie was a car collector, with an emphasis on open wheel racing stuff. He displayed his cars at his museum. One of his adult kids had created, out of limestone, the life-size likeness of several racing cars for the museum. One of them was a front wheel drive Novi, now (or up until recently) on display in front of the IMS Museum in Indianapolis. I went down to visit Eddie one day and was within 20 minutes or so of Dukes visit. Eddie greeted me with a big smile and announced that had I been a bit earlier I could have met Duke Nalon. Eddie went on to say Duke wanted to buy the limestone Novi to use as the headstone on his inevitable grave. Eddie had to turn him down. Eddie also had in his museum one of the 10 Miller Fords you cover in an earlier post. He was giving me a personal tour one day and we came to the Miller Ford. “Get in it,” Eddie said. I replied that if I got in the thing (being of ample girth) he might need a crowbar to get me out. “Get in,” he insisted. So I did. (Knowing Al Jarreau was my first claim to fame. Sitting at the wheel of a genuine Miller Ford is my second.) You have great stuff here Jesse. Literally "great."
Deleteoh pish posh. I haven't used the fork trick yet... it's a "open in case of" thing.
DeleteAnyways, yes, I've covered a LOT but there sure ain't much I can talk about without having the blog on hand to reference. I've forgotten so damn much. I suppose it's inevitable, as I've posted about 47,000 things.
What surprises me, it to learn stuff, that I've never heard of, and I guess that's what has me on on the hunt, every single day, looking for new interesting things.
As for a grad program, awww shucks. Thanks!
I bet you no university would credit me with even an associates in auto history.... but I sure would love to be paid to teach it!
That's only getting a paycheck, for what I do here, for free!
Well, I'd have to be a lot more organized I suppose, as this blog is complete scattershot dealing with things as they pop up.
I've had a lot of fun helping others, like Prof Wang with the exhibit he's working on, about 2 years in the future, to research and complete a look at the Japanese descendants in America, and the part they had in hot rodding... the Prof hadn't even heard of some people I've posted about, nor did he have much info on Larry Shinoda, nor know about, well, anyways - it's so satisfying to help with that sort of thing.
And a professor in Spain, got his doctorate with a dissertation on the advertising of Michelin, with Bibendum! He made a 4 book set, and they said, damn! Poof! Your a dr of advertising! https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/11/great-news-translated-version-of-alll.html
I hope some time you get the chance to take the time needed to go through the archives, and find the jems in there... and learn about the truly incredible people, like Barney Navarro, who among things like inventing the hospital used blood circulation pump, made a 700 hp 199cu in AMC slant 6 for Indy racing.
DeleteHe's one of my favorites, and though not as well known as Hurst, or Barris, etc etc, he was a founder in Hot Rodding, equally impressive
you blow my mind by having the ability to be conversant on so many of the people, and what they've done. I don't have that, unless I can access what I've wrote.
DeleteJust a lack of memory recall I suppose.
Not that I can't talk your ear off about this stuff, I just find so many gaps in what I want to remember to say about them, and what they've done
Oh, and feel free to email if that's more efficient for discussing stuff.
Not that the comment function isn't... just throwing that out there