Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i Custom Car

Dave Gibbons remembers The recollections of An Accidental Polymath is a memoir penned by Dave Gibbons of Rough Diamond Altered notoriety. Not specifically a car book, the light hearted and frequently funny text embraces everything from family and upbringing to relationships and injuries. Understandably, there are frequent mentions of cars and motorsports activities, which are not limited to drag racing. Russ Smith helped with some of the edit and the book contains a foreword by John Price. Although Dave never intended for the book to be widely published, it has so far been well received and he wants to expose it to a wider audience. After all, each paperback copy sold earns him 13p! The book is only available on Amazon, in either paperback or eBook format. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B093B238QX Sunny side…

It would have been the 14th Hot Rods & Hills (or even the 15th), but Covid put paid to that, just like it did last year. Falling, as it did, just before the proposed 21 June date for restrictions to be lifted, it would have been against the rules to organise a large event. However, this year the campsite was allowed to open, and people were able to book overnight stays. Along with those who held their bookings over, loads of us just happened to end up at Parkfoot Campsite in the Lake District on the same weekend in the middle of June. The ‘non’-event was the usual esoteric collection of all that’swonderful about hot rodding, and Not Rods&Hills turned out to be just as eclectic and inclusive, welcoming and…

It was while visiting Darryl Starbird’s National Rod and Custom Car Hall of Fame Museum in Afton, Oklahoma, that I had the idea to build a full-size replica of the Big-T. I went straight home and found an original scale model kit for sale on eBay, which brought back memories of 1963 when I first built the model as a kid, shortly after it was introduced in Sweden. Starbird built the original car in 1961 for plastic model company, Monogram, who used it as a PR show car prior to the release of the 1/8th scale (17in / 40cm in length) Big-T model. That was a huge model kit at a time when most hot rod kit releases were 1/24th scale, and the price reflected that. I wanted one bad,…

Back issues for reference, information and entertainment. Order now while stocks last. Visit our website at shop.kelsey.co.uk/ccaback or telephone 01959 543747 for UK orders and 0044 (0) 1959 543747 for international orders. Back issues: £4.99 per issue, including postage & packing (UK delivery only) May 2020 Daimler-powered Rover Bagged Chevy pick-up Tubbed Metropolitan Downtown New York Detroit Autorama June/July 2020 Naked Willys Chopped Mercury Nailhead-powered coupe Willys Wars NSRA Swap Meet Summer 2020 50th anniversary issue Al's Gasser Mustang Pro Mod The Duster story Stripped down Modifieds August/September 2020 Period perfect roadster A Minor influence The sport truck phenomenon Popular front Custom DeSoto October 2020 AWoodie like no other On Track at Santa Pod Custom Buick coupe Ford Maverick history RIP Stu Bradbury November 2020 VXR8-influenced '34 coupe '46 Ford…

As things turned out, this was the only class to enjoy any elimination runs, and even they were limited to just three pairings, thanks to the rain. New competitors in the class were Marc Huxley, Alfie Wratten and Simon Gough, along with rookie, Alan Schofield. Brett Featherstone’s Nova was wearing fresh paint, and Lee Huxley was driving a new-to-him Nova. Amy Watkins came out top in qualifying, closely followed by Thomas Watkins and Bob Molden. The limited elimination runs saw Victor Parsons (10.28 index) run a 10.362 / 127 to overcome Jon Giles, Jon Turner lost out to the 10.317 / 131.27 from William Clark (9.80 index), whilst Dave Fulton (9.10 index) ran through with a 9.165 / 146.74 as Geoff Cowley alongside fouled.…

We first introduced you to Colin Ayres’ latest project in the April issue and, since then, progress has come on in leaps and bounds. Back then we were somewhat cagey as to precisely what the base vehicle is, and we’re not about to spoil the air of mystery now. So, to keep things simple, and a little mysterious, we’ll refer to it as Project X. This project has been in my head for the last 30 years We left you last time with the first stages of the two-door coupe conversion completed, but that was just the start, as Colin explains: “This project has been in my head for the last 30 years. I bought the same base vehicle 20 years ago just after I got my truck on the…

Old school weekender One of the longest established rod runs in the UK, the Kings Lynn Kruisers Vehicle Extravaganza will take place on the weekend of 23-25 July. The venue is Walpole St Andrews playing field (PE14 7JW). Numbers are limited and there will not be a bar, so take your own, or go dry. As always, Sunday is show day when all customs, hot rods, classics, bikes and military vehicles are welcome. Tel. Wendy 07883 091339 Muscle peach The biggest muscle car doorslammer event in Europe returns to Santa Pod Raceway from 30 July — 2 August. The 27th staging of the Mopar Euro Nationals offers three days of RWYB track action, a burnout contest and a show ’n’ shine car corral, all for American muscle cars only. This…

Pin pointing Dear CC, further to DB’s Ed and shoulders piece in the June issue, I remember going down to Jago’s place sometime in the mid-’70s. There was a UK map on the wall with a load of pins in it. Geoff said each pin represented the sold-to location of one of his T bodies. I can’t remember the exact number but it was around 100, which we found difficult to believe as we could only think of about 10 finished cars at the time, and we were pretty active on the rodding scene at that time. Bob Roberts, via email > That’s some memory of times gone by, eh Bob? I can easily believe Geoff sold over 100 bodies as we’ve heard similar stories from many body and chassis manufacturers…

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Kev Slyfield improved from a lifted 8.065 / 111.24 to a 6.614 / 224.49 to qualify in top spot. Despite his Corvette wandering a bit on his second run, John Tebenham was next with a 6.922 / 209.84. Trying out a new Rossler TH400-based auto’ instead of the manual Lenco fitted in the Firebird last year, Nick Davies ran a cautious first pass, but next time out clocked a 6.993 / 224.74 to secure third place. In fourth was Jon Webster, who hadn’t been able to improve on the 8.471 / 159.59 pass he made in the first round when he lifted as he got rather close to the wall.…

I make no apologies for the contents of the news pages in this issue being pretty much summed up in one word – events. With lockdown having become less restrictive in recent weeks, gates are being opened, venues wiped down and cars polished in eager anticipation. And boy, are we here at CC ready for it. Okay, smaller local events with social distancing have been occurring with increased regularity of late, but it’s now time for the big hitters to make their voices heard again. By the time this issue hits the shelves, or drops on your door mat, the NSVA Truck-In will have come and gone, as will the National Hot Rod, Custom and American Car Show in Peterborough. The first weekend this issue is on sale will still…

Dear CC, I was intrigued to see the mention of my brother John’s Mk2 Jag on p65 of the July issue. Having both been made redundant in 1972, I suggested we visit California to check out the real McCoy, after becoming imbued with blown nitro cars since our first visit to Santa Pod. We made that trip in late ’73, after having the Jag shipped out first so we had some wheels to roam around in. Initially intending to stay for three months, we ended up sticking around for a year longer than that (long story). John later bought himself a ‘67 Camaro SS to run about in and I drove the Jaguar for quite some time. We visited a variety of drag racing tracks and were made very welcome…

The Coffee & Classics meet has been running since 2016 and, following the decimation of the last year and a bit, it was back on for Sunday 23 May. With restrictions easing a touch more, the Route 5 diner at Haldon Hill, Exeter, was open again for business, albeit on a socially distanced basis of course. The meet is a simple affair, with anything pre-’85 welcomed, and is held three times a year, normally once in spring (April or May) and twice in the summer (July, August and occasionally September). a simple affair, with anything pre-’85 welcomed Starting at 7am, and running through to 10am, it’s not one for those who like a lie in, but we were happy to get up early and check it out. Unfortunately, this time…

The top three qualifiers were Rick Denny (10.95 index) on 10.970 / 122.42, Jim Chandler (10.00 index) on 10.039 / 129.80 and Simon Rickwood (9.78 index) on 9.859 / 131.36. Other runs of note were a PB 9.376 / 142 for James Oliver, following recent work on the Firebird’s engine by Williams Bros Racing, and a first timed run of 10.585 / 117.63 for Dave Billadeau’s genuine old school Pro Stock Challenger.…