Tabla de contenidos para May/June 2020 en Rodding USA

For 2020, the hallowed grounds known lovingly as ‘Famoso’ was again the home for the annual March Meet, where home-built cars square off against several pro-built nostalgia cars, with a few piloted by current NHRA big show drivers and crew members. With upwards of five hundred entries competing, along with a quarter-mile long hot rod show in the Grove behind the stands, a swap meet from the finish line to the end of the shutdown area; a manufacturers row debuting the latest in speed products, wheels, T-shirts and more adds up to three fun-filled days of racing, socializing and meeting many of the legends in drag racing. The Grove, located directly behind the stands fills up with wild hot rods, customs, pickups, you name it, it’s probably there. You’ll easily…

“For many years Steve was into 1940 Fords and had a half dozen or so in his fleet and then eventually went back to ‘32’s.” Steve Lykken has lived in the quaint Dutch town of Solvang, California, his entire life, and began hot rodding in the early 1960s in his 1923 T roadster. He eventually opened Steve’s Wheel & Tire in nearby Buellton and is still the proprietor to this day. Over the years of hot rodding, he has owned many cars, eventually building a 1932 Ford Phaeton, which was based on a Wescott fiberglass body. He completed that car in the early 1980s and then built an Art Gooding fiberglass ’32 Vicky which he customized into a sedan delivery complete with rear “gull-wing” door. Then in 1985, he bought…

Even as a child, back in the ‘30s, I loved cars. Once in the ‘40s, I got a glimpse of a 1937 Cord supercharged roadster traveling on the Queen Elizabeth highway near Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was painted a Chinese red and had wide white wall tires. I was only five years old at the time, but the impression of its magnificence was permanent. When it came to family automobile favorites, The Packard won easily. The earlier V-12s and later flathead straight 8s were well known for their higher than average torque. By the time the 1950s rolled around, I was involved in street racing and an occasional visit to the drag strip. In 1956 I owned and raced a new Chevy Bel Air Hardtop with a factory Corvette engine.…

Jon Wright, owner of Custom Chrome Plating in Grafton, Ohio (a suburb of Cleveland), had purchased a ’57 Ford Del Rio from Gerry Burger many years before the arrival of the ’56 Ford F-100. The Del Rio came complete with a 429ci engine and a C6 transmission, but he was not thrilled with its performance or gas mileage. Out went the 429, which was replaced by a built small block Ford with an AOD transmission. Jon was thrilled with the new engine/ transmission combo and decided there was no need for the 429 and decided to sell it. He mentioned his decision to his wife Janet, and to his complete surprise, she said, “No way! You need to keep it. Some day you will have something to put it in.”…

The International Exposition (I-X) Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the nation’s premier exhibition facilities. It is the largest single building convention center in the United States, comprised of 2.2 million sq. Ft., including more than one million sq. Ft. of flexible presentation space. I-X Center is conveniently located adjacent to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, just 15 minutes southwest of downtown Cleveland, with nearby hotels and secure on-site parking for more than 7,000 vehicles. The I-X Center has hosted more than 1,500 events attracting 50 million visitors during the past 30 years. For more information, visit www.ixcenter.com.…

What appears to be a stunning new build of a Deuce pickup, actually has tens-of-thousands of miles on it and has been on the road since 1999. This cool hauler was built in Memphis, TN twenty-plus years ago by George Poteet, Jerry Kyle, and Mike Lyon for friend Melanie Martin. The truck racked up some serious miles in a couple of years with several long journeys, and it performed flawlessly. A few years later, the truck changed hands and ended up in Iowa. The new owner added pinstriping and replaced the Halibrand wheels with painted wires and the black wall tires gave way to white walls. Dick Walker of Kansas City, MO, had recently finished his black Deuce roadster, so he and long time partner Carol Croley drove the new…

Jeff, “The Woodman” Hobgood, has been creating automotive art for over 20 years and has gained worldwide notoriety for his incredible woodworking skills. He turns the various species of wood into automotive masterpieces, from signs and wall plaques to scale model cars, furniture, and woody wagon restoration. All of this takes place in his home-based shop in Newburgh, Indiana. Jeff graduated from the University of Southern Indiana in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Art and a minor in sculpture. Before that, in 1989, he met Steve and Rich Bonenberger, members of the E’ville Iron Street Rods, who produce the Frog Follies car show. He submitted a t-shirt design (he is also an automotive illustrator) for the Frog Follies show, and it was chosen as the artwork for the…

For those that have been avid readers of Rodding USA right from the beginning, you will recall Issue #2 had a story on John Foxley’s purple ‘34 coupe ‘Lil Grape,’ which mentioned John was no stranger to building hot rods. If you attend the GNRS, you would have also seen a few of the cars he has displayed at the show. One thing not mentioned in the ‘Lil Grape’ article was how John got interested in cars and hot rods. It all started in 1968 when as an impressionable seven-year old, he attended a one-of-a-kind four-week event with 15 hot rods and other custom cars inside the Vancouver B.C. Art Gallery. Now if that’s triggering a “hey now hang on a minute” for some of you, “wasn’t there an issue…

I can still hear the thick German accent spoken by then 86-year old Zora Arkus Duntov when he addressed a PRI Trade Show (Performance Racing Industry) breakfast back in December 1995 in Columbus. Ohio. I had to listen intently and concentrate to understand what he was saying during that wonderful commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the small block Chevrolet. It was an emotional time as I, along with 700 others, sat before a true hot rod legend and one who could stand beside the great Henry Ford as a visionary, an innovator and someone whose footprints have left an indelible mark on the our hot rod and racing industries. I count myself as extremely lucky because a scant five months later the legend was gone. Zora Arkus-Duntov (December 25,…

(Editor’s Note – I had planned on beginning this series at the start of Year 9 in January 2021 to give our readers who missed the first issues Rodding USA a look back. Due to our current worldwide situation, which has canceled all car shows in the foreseeable, we moved the series to begin now…PM) Rodding USA was born in August 2012 when New Zealand Hot Rod Magazine publisher Paul Grace sent me an email asking my thoughts on the hot rod magazines being published in the USA. He wanted to know if I thought there was room for another publication. I said to Paul that I would do some research and get back to him in a few days. I looked at the newsstands and online and felt the…

Artist Miguel Rocha Bio: Windsor Colorado-based artist and printmaker, Miguel Rocha, creates in the age-old art form of traditional relief printmaking. His specialized techniques are relief and intaglio printing. He begins by hand-carving away using carving gouges at various materials such as linoleum, wood, Plexiglas, and copper. Once the image has been carved out, he utilizes a brayer to apply ink onto the block, then covers it with a sheet of mulberry paper. He then places the block on a printing press to transfer the image onto the paper, revealing the underneath image which was carved out. His inspiration for each print is drawn from his life-long passion for automobiles, both new and old. Letter to the Editor PAUL, Regarding the article on the Bernie Couch roadster published in Issue…

(Editor’s Note – I flew from Tucson, AZ to Cleveland, OH, on March 11 to attend and report on the Piston & Power Show. Unfortunately, on March 12, the governor of Ohio eliminated “mass gatherings” of 50 or more people due to COVID19. The I-X Center was 2/3 filled with vehicles, which meant they had to vacate the building since the show was canceled. I met with Show Producer Steve Legerski and Director of Marketing Claire Anter on Friday morning, who gave me a tour of the nearly-empty building.) Since 1967, Northeast Ohio has been serving motorheads with classic cars and hot rods at the Cleveland Auto-Rama venue. For 39 years, the show was hosted at the Cleveland Convention Center in the main exhibition hall (or “Great Hall”). The downtown…

It all started with a Corvette. It was 1968, and a young engineer owned a 1967 roadster with the L71 427 cubic inch/435 horsepower engine. He made some connections to get hop-up parts at a discount, and it wasn’t long before his drag racing buddies found out and wanted the same deal. From such humble beginnings, Summit Racing Equipment was born. Fast-forward to today and that one-man startup is now the World’s Speed Shop®—the go-to parts source for thousands of gearheads around the globe. They’ve gone from a little 1,500 square foot building to today’s four huge facilities with millions of parts in stock. If Summit Racing doesn’t have it, you don’t need it! You can be the neighborhood’s source of Summit Racing lore with these interesting factoids—some never-before-revealed: •…

As a high school freshman in 1950, Dave Weir picked up a Hot Rod magazine, and overnight the car bug bit him. There were several hot rod roadsters in school at the time, and one was Ron Delong’s. He had bought it from his brother and turned the family’s college ride into a real barnstormer. With a built Flatty by Bill Schnell Sr., the car did 112 mph in the quarter and even did some passes at the Bonneville Salt Flats. In 1956, after having gone through several owners, the roadster now belonged to Arnie Ostratt, who had launched the motor. Three hundred dollars changed hands, and Dave finally owned what had been the coolest car in high school. The flathead was rebuilt, and good times were rolling again!!!! However,…