Larry Watson painting Roth's Road Agent
sans respirator avec beard.
sans respirator avec beard.
Welcome to the berserk world of the fuel altered. Overpowered and under engineered, these barely controllable fibreglass missiles were driven by deranged madmen, often sideways, in a haze of tyre smoke and nitro fumes. The combination of an extremely short wheelbase, light weight and ludicrous amounts of horsepower may not appear to be the ideal design for drag racing but as far as the fans were concerned it was the perfect formula.
Here's what happens when tomorrow suddenly becomes yesterday. The poor old Ala Kart wasn't cutting it with the small fry so AMT gave it a psychedelic face lift.
Contrary to popular belief not all pre war hot rods were black. Check out this link for some amazing colour images from the 1948 meet at El Mirage :
"Discover the curse of the Red Baron in your own darkened room, if you dare! See his gently rocking head lull you to sleep at night!"
Bonneville has long been the proving ground for hot rod ingenuity. A myriad of contenders strove for victory in the various classes, pedalling everything from ungainly family sedans to stripped down roadsters. However it was the streamliners that took outright honours. Borrowing aesthetic references from pre-war European record breakers, hot rodders assembled their own interpretations using custom built bodies and modified mechanicals from domestic automobiles. Speeds of well over 200mph were achieved during the early 1950's with horsepower plucked directly from the junkyard. These high speed gurus paved the way for millions of power hungry disciples to savour their need for speed, whether realised or not.