Low

Low, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Didn't we do this last week? Anyway, here's another beautiful chopped custom, this one a '49 or so Mercury Eight. The first postwar Mercs to both have all-new styling as well as being significantly different from current Fords, the '49 Eight was immediately popular with the custom car crowd, both for it's style and it's V-8 engines. Some of the most famous customs were Mercury Eights, including Sam Barris' original '49, as well as the legendary car of Bob Hirohata. The Eight just looked good however you reworked it, from mild to wild.

This one features a lot of the classic touches-a chopped top, a new grille and bumpers, flipper hubcaps, rounded hood corners, and the removal of the original badges and logos. I also love the color-it's very subtle, like a lot of the earliest customs were, and is suitably elegant.

Hemi

Chrysler Fire Power, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Some engines are known by their numbers-289, 350, 427, 3.8 litre (that's a Jaguar). Some by their name-Flathead, Commando, Twin-Spark (that's an Alfa Romeo). But one seems to always tower above all the rest-Hemi.

In the broadest terms, a "hemi engine" is just an internal combustion engine with hemispherical combustion chambers at the top. This puts the intake and exhaust valves on opposite sides, providing a direct path for the gases to flow across the combustion chamber. It's an old design, dating to the early twentieth century, and plenty of illustrious manufacturers used the design. Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Ford, BMW, Bristol, and the wonderful racing engines of Harry Miller all used this design. However, when you say the word "Hemi", one other word usually pops into your head-Chrysler (or maybe Dodge. Or Plymouth. Or DeSoto if you're weird).

Chrysler has been the largest, and arguably most famous, proponent of the hemi-head design. Best known in it's mid sixties 426 version, Chrysler's earliest hemis were introduced in 1951, to power the company's big luxury cruisers. Hot rodders and drag racers soon learned that these engines were quite a bit more powerful than the Ford flathead V-8, and they were easy to tune and able to take serious amounts of forced induction. In fact, these early engines were popular well into the sixties, after they ceased production-plenty of top flight drag racers were using them, running huge blowers and nitromethane on junkyard blocks.

This one's a Fire Power that I saw in a hot rod-I was told it came out of a '54 New Yorker.

Ask The Man Who Owned One

Fading Glory, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Once more, a rusty Packard. Sadly, this is an eulogy of sorts. This car, and several others we've seen have been removed from their rural location, to points unknown.

I'd stumbled across this collection by accident-railroad tracks run very close to this property, and I was driving over a bridge to cross the tracks, when I looked off to the side and spotted one of the cars. Being an inquisitive boy, I pulled a uey and went back.

What looked like an old lawn mower repair shop turned out to have several outbuildings, and a big open space with a bunch of old cars in it. Not just old cars, but old classic cars-rare ones, too. In addition to this Packard (a badly accident damaged Four Hundred), were a Studebaker GT Hawk (with the R2 engine option), a Kaiser Manhattan, four Crosleys, four more Packards hidden in the bushes, and probably a couple of cars I can't remember.

Anyway, I made several trips to this location, and shot hundreds of frames of the various cars, in winter, summer, with different lenses, TtV, the works. I found it endlessly inspiring.

It's gone now. I last visited in April, and got some good stuff. The buildings are empty now-some even open to the elements-and there's nothing to tell what once stood in the weeds. It's almost like I imagined it.

Fading Glory

Fading Glory, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

I haven't visited the old Caddy in a while, so I felt that the new Argus was as good a reason as any to drop by and see the old girl again.

Russetta Timing Association

Plate, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

In the earliest days of hot rodding, guys would form clubs, partially to have a group of like-minded buddies to go to events with, and partially to gain acceptance to a timing association. One of the most famous (if not the most famous) is the Southern California Timing Association, which would sanction speed events at places like Muroc Dry Lake and Bonneville.

However, the SCTA would only accept open cars, and plenty of rodders owned and wanted to race closed cars. The Russetta Timing Association was formed in part to cater to this group, and proved popular enough to be around into the sixties. It was also not uncommon for drivers and clubs to be members of both the SCTA and Russetta, so all members could race their cars.

Club and timing association plaques were a popular accessory back in the day, and remain so today.

Pininfarina

Alfa Romeo, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Founded in 1930, Pininfarina is one of the world's most famous automotive design firms, as well as a legendary coachbuilding firm. Some of the most famous manufacturers have been the firm's clients, including Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Cadillac, and Maserati.

This happens to be an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, an unrestored example from the fifties that still sports the Pininfarina crests.

Surf Naked!

This is a vintage bumper sticker for Plastic Fantastic surfboards, which were made in Huntington Beach, California, from the sixties up until the 80's or so. It's on the back bumper of a '66 Mustang notchback, an original, black plate, one owner from new California car. I loved this car. It was mostly original (the owner had done some engine work, and it had some different wheels on it), and it wore it's 45 years with pride. Some pitted chrome, faded paint, a little surface rust on the back axle, foggy plastic lenses, that worn spot you get on the door top from leaning your arm on the sill while cruising, it was all there.

And a bunch of period stickers.

Clipped Redux

Clipped, originally uploaded by William 74.

Another day, another sad, decrepit old car. I've visited the Clipper a few times, and shown it here at least once. I can't help but be a little sad at the sight of it, covered in dead leaves and mold, slowly going to ground.