Whiskey Cars

I just finished a great read by Neal Thompson. Driving With the Devil, Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels and the Birth of NASCAR. One intriguing aspect was how much Henry Ford and his cars directly influenced the success of the early bootleggers. Men like Red Voght, a mechanic who got his start modifying the early "whisky cars", Lloyd Seay, moonshiner and racer, and Red Byron, who won NASCAR's first race in 1948, all sang the praises of the Ford V-8. It was also interesting reading the dynamics of how these cars handled while carrying a full load of moonshine, how far they could be pushed, and the driving techniques employed to gain any edge while outrunning the law. Later in the book, you get the perspective from the driver's seat in some of the early NASCAR venues like Daytona Beach. This was decades before seat belts or any regard for safety. There was actually a technique used where the ruts in the soft sand would allow the drivers to get up on two wheels and power through the corners. Vehicles often rolled in these dangerous turns. The ones that still ran (and whose drivers weren't incapacitated) were flipped back over and would continue racing. Check out the following clip about 40 seconds in.

 

Barn Find

Maybe "quonset hut" find might be the more appropriate term judging by the looks of these photos. This dust covered beauty is a 1932 Lincoln KA Victoria Five Passenger Coupe, also designated the Model 506. Weighing in at 5,270 pounds, the V-8 powered coupe was described in the original sales literature as "the perfect car for families with small children". Well-off families that is, with an out the door cost of around $3,200 during the depression. I'd love to poke around this storage space to see what else might be hiding in there. Here's a nicely restored 1934 version of a similar model, this one with the V-12, on RM auctions' website.

Rumble

I saw Pulp Fiction the other night for the umpteenth time. This song makes the movie IMHO... Link Wray was the man. Worth a quick listen here.

Lucky Stars

Set the way-back machine to March 26, 1941, Staten Island, New York. My father was a salesman at the time for the American Tobacco Company, selling Lucky Strike cigarettes. He managed to make the front page of the Staten Island Advance that day after sideswiping two other vehicles and flipping his company car. He was lucky enough to walk away with a bruised shoulder. Be curious to know what the make was on that vehicle. I can tell it's a panel wagon and the grill looks fairly distinctive. Judging by how heavily congested that street looks, he must have really had his foot into it. Check out the ads for a $710 Nash and Oldsmobile's "heating and ventilation" system in that same edition.

Resolutions

New Year's day was brisk (for Charleston) and a good one to get out and exercise after the foodfest of the holidays. I was thinking about resolutions (like how I never keep them) when I spotted not one, but two nice old classics that I hadn't seen around before. Mind you, this is a rather small city, and after living here for ten years, I've mentally catalogued any interesting vehicles older than say 1972. What surprised me is that these were both local. One was a 1957 Thunderbird and the other I'm pretty sure a 1960 Oldsmobile 88, neither of which have been at the car shows. Makes you wonder how many other nice rides are hidden away in their owner's garages only to be driven on rare occasions. I happened upon one of those last summer while looking at some real estate. I was suddenly more interested in the 66' Galaxie convertible hiding under a tarp in the garage then hearing what the agent had to say about the house. As for resolutions, I resign myself to stop eyeballing that 1963 Riviera down the street with the For Sale sign on it. Definitely not in the budget right now.