Hot Rod Salt Pilgrimage Part 1

Posted by Hechtspeed on Oct 12, 2010 in Racing, Vintage Rides | 0 comments

Hot Rods at Bonneville Salt Flats

 

Every year tons of hot rods, rat rods and some customs make the road trip of a lifetime to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week.  I spotted these hot rods cruising around the pits and thought you might like to see ’em.  I gave you all a sneak peek in the Speed Week 2010 Cruise In blog post for some of these rods.  This time we’ll get down and salty with my favorite rides of Speed Week.

 

 

This is H.A.M.B.er Bass’s bad Model A 5 Window Coupe that made the Hot Rod Pilgrimage from Dallas, Texas by himself.  Yes, SOLO!!!.  My jaw dropped when I saw this Coupe parked next to the tech inspection area.  All I could say was “Wow!”.  I was too curious and found his thread on the HAMB HERE and read that this is bare metal.  It had already started to surface rust by the time he got home after being out on the salt and going through a humid Texas.

 

 

I really like this photo.  Gives you a detailed shot of the well executed chop and the original and beautiful Ford Model A body lines. Add chrome steelies with white letter Firestones and you get the perfect hot rod combination in my opinion.

 

 

Adding to the bare metal and clean chop is this fire red painted Hemi V8 topped with 4 carbs and Fire Power chrome valve covers.  Is there a more sought after engine for an early Ford hot rod? Maybe a flathead? What do you think?

 

 

Red Ford Coupes, moon tank, louvers, and Bonneville, everything to love about this view.  Thank you Rolling Bones for bringing your rods out to play in the salt!

 

 

This is one of my favorite photos at Speed Week.  The way those guys parked their rods in the pits made for some cool shots.  Dig the reflection in the Mercury hubcaps and the hot rod standard issue steelies with bias ply rubber found on most of the traditional style hot rods of the Rolling Bones crew. Speaking of hot rod pilgrimages, the Rolling Bones guys drove out from New York state. Now that’s the road trips of all road trips.

 

 

Another road trip, this time from Kansas judging by the license plate.  This street rod inspired traditional hot rod looks good out there with some American Racing Torq Thrust mags.

 

 

This chopped pickup featured a unique exhaust done in chrome with header wrap venting the flathead gases. More steel wheels, this time wrapped in wide white walls and this traditional cruiser becomes one of my favorites. Look closely at that front license plate from British Columbia.  Another great road trip, this time from Canada. Oh Canada!!!

 

 

This photo was taken at the Old Crow Speed Shop pits area where they always display this “Tank Crossing” sign. But dig this fully detailed custom convertible with dark green metallic paint topped by subtle and well done, stylish pinstriping.  See, Customs like salt too!

 

 

There it is again.  Yes, this mild custom ‘vert is representing both the H.A.M.B. but also Wisconsin.  Dig my 1959 J.C. Higgins beach cruiser bike in the background. Hechtspeed cruisin’ the pits in style!

 

 

I show this photo for 2 reasons.  First, obviously, you can’t get enough of this Hot Rod Mag cover car, a blown Packard straight 8 on a custom frame and amazing craftsmanship.  Secondly, the design of the header.  What I noticed was it is both aesthetically cool lookin’ and functional.  As each exhaust port comes into the header pipe, the header pipe is increasing in diameter, allowing for more and more airflow as you move down to the last cylinder.  The final diameter of the pipe looks to be 4 times larger than the diameter as it exits the first cylinder.  That’s just one piece of this “work of art.” This hot rod is full of ’em!

 

I think I’ll save the other hot rods for Part 2.  Thanks for looking.

 

If you wanna see more check out this links page for Bonneville Speed Week Coverage