Bill Burnham was one of hot rodding’s greatest gifts. A highboy guy through and through, Burnham had a string bitchin fenderless roadsters which spanned decades. He was a pied piper of sorts – a renaissance man who was as genuine as the day is long.
Every month, Goodguys Gazette editor Damon Lee and I kick around ideas on who will be our next Legend of Hot Rodding. This month, we agreed: Don Garlits. We were both flabbergasted that to date he had eluded our attention. It would be like a
In the quest for speed, aerodynamics has proven just as important as horsepower. The machines that hurdled across the dusty dry lakes of SoCal and the salty flats of Bonneville caught on early that reducing aero drag resulted in a boost in top speed. While the
It was a hot Friday afternoon at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. This was in the mid-’90s. A call came over the radio that an unauthorized police officer was directing event traffic at the top of Grand Ave. A few of us loaded up in golf carts
Over the course of hot rod history, journalists have played an equally important role to that of car designers, engine maestros, and metal craftsmen. And no scribe was as influential as Dean Batchelor, whose given name was prescient: He was widely recognized as the dean
The week before he passed away, I heard someone briefly mention that “Low Fat” Larry Westervelt was dealing with a health issue. Less than a week later came the dreaded call that we all get at some point in our lives. It’s shocking. You wish
Some outstanding hot rods look the part. Their brilliance is immediately apparent. Others are more muted. Parked on a fairground these rides barely merit a head-turn. But if you did peer underneath or squint under the hood, a dazzling display of style and ingenuity would
When a movement begins, be it in sports, politics, music, community, or otherwise, a lot of moving parts have to come together to create synergistic momentum. Hot rodding has seen its share of major movements. Postwar dry lakes racing was hot rodding’s first signature movement. Young
To this point in our exploration of Legends of Hot Rodding, our heroes have been powered by internal combustion engines, all those warmed-over Flatheads, tweaked small-blocks, and nitro-gulping Hemis. But this month’s subject – Craig Breedlove – took another tack. He eschewed petrol-driven piston power
If you ever had the chance to hang out with San Diego’s Bob McCoy, you were richer for the experience. You would be hard pressed to find a man with a deeper tapestry of life experiences. Throughout his life, McCoy had that rare ability to
