Showing posts with label midget racer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label midget racer. Show all posts
Monday, March 16, 2026
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Sunday, September 21, 2025
California's contributions to the automotive world - nope, I didn't get on the list, (I am adding myself to it) but Don did with his Garage Style Magazine! So, congrats Don!
Creative Californians lead the world in entertainment, aerospace and automotive, particularly around Southern California, the car culture capital
Notable car-related firsts and founders:
Notable car-related firsts and founders:
1919: Car Styling — Harley Earl, Los Angeles (incl. use of clay models.)
1925: Motel — Milestone Mo-Tel, San Luis Obispo.
1926: Kelley Blue Book — Les Kelley, Los Angeles.
1931: Drive In Take Out Restaurant — Pig Stand, Los Angeles.
1930s: Hot Rods — developed around Los Angeles, tested on nearby dry lake beds.
1930: Art Center College of Design as the Art Center School.
1936: Maurice Schwatz — custom cars. He made the Topper Car.
1948: Road and Track magazine — John Bond, Burbank.
1948: Hot Rod magazine — Robert Petersen, Wally Parks, Los Angeles.
1948: Drive-Through Restaurant — In-N-Out Burger, Baldwin Park.
1949: Motor Trend magazine — Robert Petersen, Los Angeles.
1950: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance — Sterling Edwards, Beverly Hills.
1951: National Hot Rod Association — Wally Parks, Glendora.
1951: Custom Cars — George Barris Hollywood custom cars for tv shows, Los Angeles.
1953: Pinewood Derby — Don Murphy, Manhattan Beach.
1956: Go Kart — Art Ingels, Echo Park, Los Angeles
1948: Hot Rod magazine — Robert Petersen, Wally Parks, Los Angeles.
1948: Drive-Through Restaurant — In-N-Out Burger, Baldwin Park.
1949: Motor Trend magazine — Robert Petersen, Los Angeles.
1950: Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance — Sterling Edwards, Beverly Hills.
1951: National Hot Rod Association — Wally Parks, Glendora.
1951: Custom Cars — George Barris Hollywood custom cars for tv shows, Los Angeles.
1953: Pinewood Derby — Don Murphy, Manhattan Beach.
1956: Go Kart — Art Ingels, Echo Park, Los Angeles
1957: T Bucket — Norm Grabowski, Hollywood
1963: Dune Buggy — Bruce Meyers, Newport Beach
1963: Dune Buggy — Bruce Meyers, Newport Beach
1968: Hot Wheels — Mattel introduces kids to cool cars via toys
1973: Toyota Satellite Design Studio, El Segundo.
1983: Automotive Fine Arts Society — Ken Eberts, Temecula.
1984: Motor Press Guild — Matt DeLorenzo, San Pedro.
1986: Automobile magazine — David E. Davis, Los Angeles.
2003: Cars and Coffee — Marc Greeley, Bob Cheatley, Newport Beach
1973: Toyota Satellite Design Studio, El Segundo.
1983: Automotive Fine Arts Society — Ken Eberts, Temecula.
1984: Motor Press Guild — Matt DeLorenzo, San Pedro.
1986: Automobile magazine — David E. Davis, Los Angeles.
2003: Cars and Coffee — Marc Greeley, Bob Cheatley, Newport Beach
2004: Tv reality shows about custom cars — Boyd Coddington
2006: Just a Car Guy blog — me, San Diego
2008: Garage Style magazine — Don Weberg, La Habra.
2020: Modern Rodding magazine — Tim Foss, Brian Brennan, Fullerton.
Peter Aylett (Laguna Nigel) founded Car Art in 2002 in Southern California he is the great-grandson of a London carriage maker, and during his 25-year career as an automotive design engineer with Ford, Lotus, Mercedes, GM, Nissan, and Mazda, he helped create concepts like the Corvette Stingray III and production cars like the Esprit, De Lorean and RX-8.
2006: Just a Car Guy blog — me, San Diego
2008: Garage Style magazine — Don Weberg, La Habra.
2020: Modern Rodding magazine — Tim Foss, Brian Brennan, Fullerton.
Peter Aylett (Laguna Nigel) founded Car Art in 2002 in Southern California he is the great-grandson of a London carriage maker, and during his 25-year career as an automotive design engineer with Ford, Lotus, Mercedes, GM, Nissan, and Mazda, he helped create concepts like the Corvette Stingray III and production cars like the Esprit, De Lorean and RX-8.
Von Dutch and Ed Roth, maybe they should be included, selectively then based on your first comes makes the list for one category, unless you categorize them differently.
For all I know you might think Ed Roth and Barris are the same category, but when I think of Roth, he was not in a category because of the monster shirts, and comic book marketing, and airbrushing the shirts and sweaters at car shows, plus the Choppers Magazine, and not just the singular focus on wacky custom cars.
Barris started as a reporter for Hot Rod, then customized cars for celebs - unlike Roth who made cars, for car show wins.
Who invented flame jobs for hot rods? Two Red Lion Special sprint cars in 1934
Von Dutch certainly was not in a category with anyone else, though he did teach others like Jeffries to pinstripe, he was certainly the originator, and his contributions to hot rodding include the invention of lace paint - though Watson took that and popularized it, and Von Dutch got to working with helmets and did the design for the stars and stripes that was copied for the tank of Easy Rider's Capt America bike.
Also, Norm Grabowski who invented the T Bucket was also the one that created custom shifter knobs. But, that T Bucket - that was pioneering a trend.
Mr Jalopy invented blogging about car stuff.
Max Bulchowsky for putting hot rods into GP racing with Ol Yaller
Gene Winfield, not just for the fade paintjob, but also for making Hollywood movie vehicles
Pete Chapouris hot rodding revival in the 70s
Bruce Crower
Cal Club plates
Joe Bailon for inventing candy apple red paint
Monday, December 02, 2024
Sunday, October 16, 2022
Monday, May 30, 2022
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
1930s Gran Prix racing around the world with the fastest cars of the 1930s, mostly the Auto Union Silver Arrows, plus midget racing, and Indianapolis
this is easier to watch on You Tube, which formats the movie properly, far larger than this
Thursday, September 02, 2021
Monday, August 30, 2021
Sunday, May 30, 2021
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
Did you know Elvis bought a 1946 Solar Midget race car from Von Dutch, took it back to Graceland, ran it into a tree, and then it was ignored and hidden until 2017, when Cofer Classics restored it?
http://cofersclassics.com/about.html
In November 1944 Solar Aircraft held its annual Craftsmanship Contest which usually produced a number of small inventions. Elmer Ross, a member of the Research Department submitted a midget race car that he had built and was racing in the Southwest. In October, 1945 approval was given for the production of twelve pilot kits to test the manufacturing process. Four of the kits were made of aluminum, four of stainless steel, and four of auto body steel. The pilot kits were completed in 1945 and all twelve were sold prior to production to enthusiasts in the San Diego area. Approximately 100 of these kits were made in 1946 and sold through a distributor. Most of the cars were powered by a Ford V8-60, with some running with Drake or Offenhauser engines. The entire production period lasted six months and there were only two changes to the body kit...elimination of the stainless steel wheels and replacement of the handmade wire grill with a cast aluminum unit.
The production of the Solar midget race car was stopped for several reasons. The introduction of the Kurtis Kraft Midgets by Frank Curtis with their tube frames and torsion bar suspension were light years beyond other midget cars built at that time including the Solar midget. America was on the verge of space exploration and Solar executives were ready to get back into the business they really knew... aircraft components. The Solar midget played its part in helping to keep Solar alive during the early post World War II years. Today an original Solar midget is a rare find.”
http://www.midgetmadness.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16465
If you want to buy one of the Solar midgets, they still are out there, and still come up for sale https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/ever-wanted-1946-solar-aircraft-midget.html
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Saturday, December 12, 2020
AgustÃn Aguaviva's v8 Ford rear engined midget was a revolutionary design, so small that in order to sit in the Midget's seat, he had to remove the steering wheel. An engineering feat because at this time, only the Union cars were designed as rear-engined race cars
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Tuesday, August 11, 2020
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