Dragstrip

Dragstrip, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

I took this at Byron Dragway in northwestern Illinois, during an historic drag racing event. One of the challenges of shooting old cars is finding an appropriate backdrop - it's a bit jarring to see an vintage car parked in front of a new grocery store or something. It can be particularly hard at racetracks, which are usually full of advertising signs and modern cars.

This is as true at drag strips as it is at road courses. Particularly at the starting line, where there's usually modern safety equipment and an emergency vehicle, right where your subject's doing a smoking burnout.

Anyway, the organizers of the races I was at hit the mark with their start line truck, which was this well patinated old sixties Ford, complete with a Holman & Moody logo on the door.

The Big E

Big E, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

We've talked about the Edsel before, so I won't go into the history of the marque again, except to say that I've always had a soft spot for these underdogs.

This Edsel hood ornament would usually be in the center of the hood, but this car was pretty heavily customized and featured one on each fender. How heavily customized? The front clip was all Edsel, and from the windscreen back it was all Ford Ranchero.

The owner called it a "Fordsel".

Parkston Co-Op

Door, originally uploaded by William 74.

One of the maxims I live by is "It's always worth it to ask". Such is the case here. This well-seasoned sign is on the door of a sixties Ford pickup truck. Actually, it's just the cab of the truck-no chassis, no engine, no glass, no fenders, no box, no nothin'. I found it in the back of a repair shop in rural Illinois, and the only reason I saw it was because they had a nice old Chevy parked at the side, and I asked if I could shoot it. The guy said told me to go ahead and look around, and walked back into his shop.

I loved this door the second I saw it. I love the fact that the signwriting was never painted over-this truck clearly led a long life with the Parkston Co-Op Association. It's also a long way from home-as best as I can tell, this is Parkston, South Dakota. This fact makes me even happier that I stumbled across it.