Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Custom Car

Pat Ganahl AS WE WERE GOING TO PRESS ON THIS ISSUE OF CUSTOM CAR, news broke that Pat Ganahl had died at the age of 75 while racing his instantly recognisable Ike Iacono dragster at Riverdale Raceway in Washington. A legend among hot rodders, Pat was known throughout the community as a journalist and historian whose wisdom and knowledge was without equal. More than that, though, he was famed for his warmth, humour and sincerity… not to mention his tremendous height. We mention this because one of the many, many tributes made as the American rodding community was coming to terms with the news stood out for its pithy charm: ‘Though he was eight feet tall, he never talked down to you.’ More than just a writer, Pat was part of…

Hot rod enthusiasts from around the south of England flocked to Valley Gas Speed Shop on the first Saturday of August, as Jimmy and Ellie threw their doors open to all comers as they prepared to welcome Gerry Gaughan and the Revenge Reliability Run. Though Revenge wasn’t due to arrive until early afternoon, a crowd of vehicles was lining the streets outside the company’s Andover premises from early in the day. Their owners were lured by the promise of tea, coffee and bacon rolls – not to mention the opportunity to poke around the Valley Gas workshop and see the array of vehicles Jimmy’s team currently have in various states of build. An undisputed highlight of these is the Boston Brawler, the legendary 1933 Willys gasser which Jimmy first built…

The long weekend boasted a staggering total of 12 different organised cruises. There was certainly no excuse for not getting in your car and driving it. All but one were planned by Dave and Lesley Brown, and here’s a look at just some of them. Space dictates a couple of the Friday drive-outs aren’t highlighted here; the Model T cruise to Buckland Automotive and the Pop/Prefect/Fordson cruise to a village pub. Thursday Anniversary Cake Cruise This was a six-stage cruise with the first group leaving Old Warden at 10:15 am and the last at 2:30 pm. It was a quintessentially British affair involving an eight-mile drive through picturesque countryside to a village hall, to enjoy a cup of tea and a slice of anniversary cake before checking out the museum.…

Writing two-car features is always a bit of a tricky business, as you want to avoid giving one of them preferential treatment over the other. But it’s doubly hard in this case as the cars are owned and worked on by a father and son, and the last thing I want to do is cause a family rift! So, here’s the deal: Mark Palmer owns the ’35 Ford Panel Delivery. He’s dad. Dudley, his youngest son, owns the ’40 Ford sedan. They have numerous other cars between them and work on them together, their different skill sets combining into the finished vehicles. But here’s the fun part. An electrician by trade, Mark is essentially a restorer. Dudley, though, he’s a fully paid-up member of the Vintage Hot Rod Association (VHRA),…

An overnight stay at Sywell was followed by an early start for our fifth and final drive out, a 185 mile round trip to the Oxfordshire Rumble. The start point was Wet’n’Wild at Queensford Lakes near Wallingford where we had breakfast in the sunshine whilst watching people wandering about in rubber suits. Once fed, the 50-mile circuitous tour took us through the picturesque Chiltern Hills and familiar villages (courtesy of Midsommer Murders) to the final destination in Didcot, and yet more food. There was a stop-off point on the way where we all managed to get up a head of steam. The organisers, Peter Kent and Emma Dolton, did a great job ably assisted by a merry band of helpers. we had breakfast watching people wandering about in rubber suits…

After the success of last year’s inaugural show, the team at Plus Four Four Automotive came back with a bang for 2022, with a new venue – and a huge car allowance.The date was set as 29 May and the new venue was chosen as Hartham Park and House in Corsham, not far off the M4. The team had an allocated 750 car spaces, which I’m told was pretty close to being filled as show day approached. The stunning house and huge grounds made for a great day exploring around the cars, which were parked in different areas. Outside the house was the Meguiar’s showcase, essentially the best of the best. Then there was Meguiar’s lawn which was full of everything from transporters to American trucks to K10 Nisan Micras.…

With only two entries in this class, Norway’s Linn Fløysvik said she was just hoping to provide Sandro Bellio with a bit of competition. Having struggled with engine issues for much of the meeting, however, these came to a head in her penultimate run when her supercharger blew up. The team’s pit crew went to work dismantling the engine and found minimal damage–but ran out of time to rebuild it, leaving her to record a no-show as Belgium’s Bellio ran an unchallenged 5.8848/262.00 in his Monte Carlo.…

Kevin Chapman described his 4th qualifying run as ‘a wild ride,’ which sounds like a bit of an understatement when you see images below of the monster stack that blew his Mustang apart. He had the strip to himself after Steve Ashdown shut off on the start line but slammed into the wall before the eighth – causing his fuel tank to explode, blowing the car’s chassis and body apart. There was a palpable sense of relief around the whole of Santa Pad when he climbed out unharmed. In the final, Jason Phelps posted a new PB of 4.6395/201.49 to take the trophy, with Ashdown’s Dodge not far behind on 5.1398/171.09.…

The 31st NSRA Hot Rod Supernationals was always going to be a tough call. The event didn’t take place at all in 2020, apart from in virtual format, and last year numbers were limited as Covid restrictions were only just starting to ease. This time round, then, it was to be the first full-on staging for three years. Oh, and it just happened to be the 50th anniversary year of the NSRA – so everything had to be that bit more special. Did it hit that mark? You bet it did, and more besides! The gates opened at 9am on Wednesday, giving pre-entered NSRA members and their guests five full days of hot rod nirvana. Add to that five days of a heatwave, a celebration of 90 years of the…

Participants’ Choice: Steve Roberts, Flat Pack 40 Willys A well-deserved winner – even more as the now Chrysler-powered coupe was a sedan when Steve first bought it Top 10 Added Induction As is traditional at the Supernationals, the four NSRA Hall of Fame inductees announced at the previous year’s AGM were presented with their plaques and certificates:…

It was just another day for Steve Neimantas, as it is for so many of us. He was perusing the internet, looking for cars for sale, when up popped a mildly customised’61 Cadillac. ‘I’ve always had a bit of a thing for Cadillacs,’ he says with a smile,‘and this one caught my eye straight away. It was somewhere in northern California at the time, and I told the guy I’d wire him the money immediately. He wasn’t having any of it though, he must have thought I were some sort of scam artist as he insisted on cash.’ Having got over this little hurdle, the deal was eventually concluded and the car was soon on its way down the coast to LA. But not before $1000 had been knocked off…

Drama even before the Bedfordshire Rumble began when Andy Gardiner’s ‘27 Model T caught fire just before he arrived at the start. Police and fire brigade attended and there was a brief road closure, but fortunately nobody got injured and the car only suffered minor damage. Whilst that was going on the rest of us enjoyed tea, biscuits and a chin wag at Tempsford Village Hall before 17 vehicles set out on the morning’s 47-mile drive around mid-Beds. We filled our boots at the lunchtime stop at Oakley Sports and Social Club before setting out on our 41-mile afternoon tour around North Beds and East Northants. Talk about a game of two halves. The sun came out and with it the car fans, with the locals cheering us as we…

After two years of staying in and waiting to get out, Coffee’N’Cars took the plunge with the return of its annual Weekend of Wheels – a show for American cars and anything pre-95 that has wheels.The event was supporting Aid to Gambia – a charity which restores old ambulances and donates them to the West African nation where they are put back into service. The show was held at Moorgreen, near Nottingham. Organisers Attila Csorba and Jane Clarke, supported by their team of Yasmin Madge, Martin Summers, Martin Hurley, James Russell and a few others, worked with Acacia Radio to provide the entertainment for a fun-filled weekend. Vendors included classic car parts and drive-up pinstriping as well as face painting and rides for the kids. There was live music, too,…

Jan Ericsson laid down a major marker in the final qualifying session with a run of 5.7245/250.45–a new European and FIA Pro Mod record. Bruno Bader had earlier posted a new PB with his first run in the 5.8s aboard his Corvette–while in the previous session, Estonia’s Andres Arnover had a visit to the grass beyond the end of the strip after his Mustang’s chutes failed to deploy. The following day, Ericsson defeated David Vegter in an all-Camaro final, the Swede running 5.7944/246.89 to his Dutch rival’s 5.9093/225.62. In the semis, Vegter had survived a back half fightback from Arnover while Ericsson cruised home after Bader was slowed by tyre shake.…

Sunday’s eliminators started without Alan Medley, whose Oldsmobile Omega put a rod through its sump in the final qualifying session the previous afternoon. Amy Watkins won her second-round race against Leigh Morris by 0.002 but lost out to Dave Fulton in the semis–before his ’66 Nova came second in the final to Simon Gough, who ran 8.5311/153.11 (8.50) in his 582ci Camaro.…

A major highlight of Dragstalgia is the Cannonball event. Now it features nostalgia funny cars, dragsters and altereds in a special aggregated time format over three initial rounds, with the two quickest performers then taking part in a heads-up final clash to determine the overall winner. This particular competition owes its existence to the classic Cannonball Run movie, which was released back in 1981. The Cannonball Run is one of those amusingly mad road movies which few car nuts will not have seen – and probably more than once or twice. It starred Burt Reynolds and Roger Moore, plus many other well known faces, taking part in a 3000-mile car chase across America, from coast to coast. For the Santa Pod July 1981 International race, the promoter came up with…

Safe to say, Greta Thunberg is not the first person you expect to see in a world of V8s and smoking tyres. And we’re not here to kick off a debate on everything to do with the environment. Always nice to pop the hood on a 383 stroker and be confronted by an artfully positioned sticker to remind you of your, er, responsibilities, though. Ms Thunberg, who was Time magazine’s person of the Year in 2019, made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury this year. No sign of her at the Supernats, though……

This year’s Supernats was the first time that these four of Nick Butler’s iconic creations have ever been together. Thanks to Nick, they were parked up in the chronological order of the years in which each of them was built…

The Suffolk Rumble was one of the last to take place as it was on the final Sunday in May. We started at Krazy Horse in Bury St Edmunds, filling the majority of the car park in readiness for the 10am departure time. We headed off on the A143 to Ixworth, then to Stowmarket and after a few more turns here and there we arrived at Beacon Hill services where we met Suffolk Hot Rodders. After a quick stop off we were on the move again by 11am, heading across Suffolk through Stonham, Yoxford, Leiston and Thorpe Ness and on to our final stopping point, Moot Hall right on the coast at Aldeburgh. 58 cars were parked up on the sea front The cars parked along the promenade made quite…

A week after the return of Doorslammers, which we featured in last month’s issue of Custom Car, Santa Pod played host to the Main Event – Round 1 of the FIA European Championship and one of the biggest race meetings in the calendar. With 12 different classes (plus five more on two wheels), more than 180 cars were entered to take part. And the racing lived up to everyone’s expectations, with a number of records falling over the course of the four days’ action. Highlights included a new European Pro Mod record for Jan Ericsson, as well as the continent’s first ever 3.7-second run by Ida Zetterström in her top fuel dragster. The best news of all, however, came when Kevin Chapman walked clear of a spectacular wreck which saw…

The Super Gas eliminators saw plenty of tight battles–as well as a race in which Collin Morrice stopped mid-run, got started again, failed to register an ET but, thanks to a red light for Andy Harrison, still won. He didn’t survive the following session, however, as Andy Dibley and Tim Moore won through to a tightly fought final in which it was Dibley’s Camaro that triumphed with a run of 9.9811/145.33.…

An eventful competition saw Andy Bond line up against Anthony Higgs in the final after enjoying a couple of walkovers during the elimination rounds. His first came when opponent Mark Sheridan scratched with engine damage–a fate which also befell James Murray in his Cortina Estate. Murray’s misfortune was a stroke of luck for Alan McSweeney, who posted a RT of almost 27 seconds as he fought to get moving in his Volvo 162. Oddly, Bond also struggled for traction in the following round, resulting in a 10.5492 pass–which he got away with as he had a bye. This session also saw a new PB for Elliot Day, who got his Willys Coupe into the eights for the first time ever with a time of 8.9991. The perfect tonic after losing…

After a sabbatical of two years and a change of venue, the Duchy Capri and Classic Ford Club put on their annual weekend show on 21-22 May. Held at the new venue of Mother Ivey’s Holiday Park, located on the outskirts of Padstow and with good weather forecast, a great selection of old and new Fords turned out in force. Saturday saw a cruise take place taking on scenic routes ending up at Looe, with around 50 cars on the road. Sunday was show day and the field was pretty full with everything ranging from Escorts, Capris and Cortinas to modern-day Focuses and Mondeos. Sadly, despite a big push there were few classic American or hot rods – a real shame, as they would have been made welcome and not been…