Legends of Hot Rodding – Coupe de Thrill, The So-Cal Speed Shop ’34 Ford
Since this column is dedicated to exploring the roots of hot rodding, one name continually pops up – the late Alex Xydias. We all know him as the founder of So-Cal Speed Shop in 1946, one of hot rodding’s first-ever dedicated retail performance centers. Xydias and So-Cal helped usher in Southern California’s postwar embrace of a car-mad lifestyle. Today we’d call him an influencer.
Any shop with the word “speed” in its title would naturally turn to building race cars to boost its reputation. Alex figured this out early. He, along with host of talented craftsmen, built a series of dry lakes and salt flat racers that re-wrote the SCTA record books in the 1950s. These machines became some of the fastest and most celebrated hot rods ever assembled. His V8-60-powered belly-tank lakester – flying So-Cal’s iconic white-and-red livery – ran a blistering 136mph in 1948, fast enough to land on the cover of the January 1949 Hot Rod magazine.
So-Cal teamed up with legendary journalist Dean Batchelor to design a purpose-built streamliner. Powered by an Edelbrock-equipped Mercury V8, the wind-skirting land-missile flashed across the salt in 1952 at a head-slapping 210 mph. This duo was part of a trio of racers, the multi-car So-Cal Speed Shop Race Team. The team’s cars became the first hot rods to break 160, 170, 180 and 190mph in speed trials and earned it Mechanix Illustrated magazine’s Number One Racing Team title in 1952.
Which brings us to the third car in the aforementioned trio – the radical So-Cal ’34 Ford three-window coupe.
This car was originally constructed in 1950 by Jim Gray and Russell Lanthorne. It was powered by a GMC six and featured a Frank Kurtis-crafted track nose as its signature element. It was no slowpoke. That six-banger propelled it to 153mph in 1951 at Bonneville, good for fourth in class.
Coincidently, Xydias just happened to be looking for a ’34 coupe to add to the So-Cal race stable, one that could be as speedy on the salt as it was over 1,320 feet of tarmac. The Gray/Russell coupe was an ideal candidate. Alex, aided by pal Buddy Fox, swapped that GMC six for a 258c.i. Merc flathead with a GMC roots supercharger coupled directly to the crankshaft. A quartet of Stromberg 48s delivered the fuel, at times juiced with a touch of nitromethane.
The combination proved successful. The So-Cal team broke the Class C record with a run of 172mph at the 1953 Bonneville meet. At the Pomona drags, sans blower, the car still ran 121mph, fast enough to land on the cover of Hot Rod magazine as the “Double Threat Coupe.”
Perhaps most importantly, the coupe featured the classic color scheme of the So-Cal Speed Shop, a vibrant red that transitioned to white, with the So-Cal logotype emblazoned on the door. This branding was given new life when Alex and Pete Chapouris relaunched the dormant brand in 1997.
The coupe received a makeover in 1954 as Xydias employed more demon tweaks, looking to improve aerodynamics and power. Sure, Gray and Russell had chopped the coupe, but if some is good, more is always better. They sliced the top even further, to what some described as “gun slit” proportions. The side window opening was so pinched a #10 envelope would barely fit.
As for increased oomph, the innovative overhead valve (OHV) conversion kit developed by Zora Arkus-Duntov and known by the name Ardun was installed. With 460 ponies at the ready, additional speed records seemed assured. Not so fast (literally in this case.) A host of mechanical gremlins combined to prevent any improvement.
Meanwhile, back at the drag strip, more bad luck ensued. At Pomona, seconds after the green flag dropped, the clutch detonated, covering the coupe in flames and fatally burning driver Dave DeLangton. The accident was a severe blow to Alex. He never raced again.
Devastated, Xydias sold the car to John Moxley, who rechristened it “Miss 400.” At Bonneville it continued to set speed benchmarks. A series of owners followed, with Jim Travis racing it at the drags and Bonneville from the early 1970s until 1996. Travis hit 236mph at Bonneville with a supercharged Chevy engine tucked behind that famous track nose.
Prominent hot rodder Don Orosco purchased the car from Travis in 1996 and restored it back to its original 1954 Hot Rod magazine “Double Threat” form, replete with those Ardun heads. The target? The 2001 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Historic Hot Rod Coupe class.
There, among the manicured lawns and phalanx of Lacoste polos, the So-Cal coupe faced off against two cars it had faced off decades before – Art Chrisman’s Model A competition coupe and the Pierson Brothers‘ ’34 Ford coupe. The So-Cal coupe, with Alex Xydias looking on, stormed victory once again, earning both the class win and the Dean Batchelor Award for the most significant Hot Rod.
As good a definition of legendary as any.
