Innehållsförteckning för August 2024 från Custom Car

It may be short notice, but you have time to support the British Drag Racing Hall of Fame’s fourth annual Dragstalgia Grand Auction on the weekend of 5-7 July. It takes place inside the event’s Historic Marquee, situated pitside near the grandstand, and features a wealth of artefacts and artworks generously donated to help in the raising of funds for the BDRHoF Benevolent Fund. An array of items from the USA has been collected by Tony Thacker, and major donations from the home front include a Paul Whitehouse Art painting of Commuter and, from Jon Benn, a 125cm x 47cm poster of Commuter which has never been displayed. From the USA, there’s a copy of Carl Olson’s book Racing Through Life, autographed by the man himself. Donations from Mooneyes include…

In 1963, the Brighton Speed Trials were on fire. Literally, as Mickey Thompson’s weed spreaders ignited the hay bales. The Yanks were over here, overpaid and over-powered. It was a fantastic introduction of drag racing to the UK. Maybe it was the bright yellow paint and abundant chrome, but the car that caught my eye was the Mooneyes dragster driven by Dante Duce. That is until I saw the Goodnight, Keith and Williamson Dos Palmas Machine Special, driven the following year by Bob Keith. Thanks to Keith Bartlett of Santa Pod Raceway, both Dos Palmas and Mooneyes will be back on British soil for this year’s Dragstalgia as we celebrate 60 years of British drag racing. If you weren’t already planning to go this year, the annual celebration of quarter-mile…

I guess if you’re a director of a tyre company, you don’t have quite the same concerns the rest of us have when it comes to choosing rubber for your ride. The hot rodders’ favourite latex-based products have become too expensive these days to just take a punt on a set of tyres to see if they fit. Or if you like the look of them. And, contrary to most forms of motoring, that’s largely what it’s all about for us, right? Why else would owners of million dollar, 100-point muscle cars choose to put woefully backward bias ply rubber on their cars because it’s ‘right’. Certainly not because they’re the best tyres for the job, but because that’s what they came with in 1970. Likewise, many hot rodders still…

In every neighbourhood, there’s a house whose garden is forever full of old cars. The people who live nearby are divided into the ones who mutter about what it’s doing to the value of their properties, and those who take their dogs out for a walk five times a day just so they can stop and chat motors with the bloke who lives there. When Roger Blount was growing up, his dad was the bloke who lived there. Herbert Blount used to buy cars if they were running or not, and he had so many of them that they surrounded the family home. He used to strip them for parts and then scrap the remainder. Growing up in that environment, it was inevitable that Roger and his brothers would have…

In a recent Auto Focus feature, I took look at race car names. One of those mentioned was Hemi Hunter, which was famously raced by the Stones team - in both front and rear engine forms. Both versions proved to be very successful, but it is the original slingshot version that I want to explore further. The Stones were known for always using Chevy power in their various team cars, and the name Hemi Hunter summed up their intentions nicely. This dragster was originally constructed by Allan Herridge as a blown Chevy powered fuel dragster for Peter Bennett – but it never actually did see action. Instead, a deal was done to sell it on to the Stones team, and the motor was changed for the injected lump powering the…

PART 4: ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE Deciding on the paint colour for a new build is one of the most important decisions to be made with any custom car project. Your decision can ultimately make or break the finished product. When it came to his Model A, Adam Sayers had already pretty much decided it at the outset. He also knew who to call upon to paint the car; the renowned man with the gun, Bryan Whitfield. Bryan has now retired but, having dedicated his life to developing his craft, he hasn’t fully turned his back on painting our sort of cars. Adam and Bryan bounced ideas off each other until the plan was more or less finalised. Bryan then checked that it worked in reality by spraying the design…

Modurstang Pro ET Matt Dowdy got off to a smashing start on his first qualifying run, when a 11.1502/119.78 pass was enough to blow the rear window out of his Chevy Nova. Cue a rather intensive clean-up operation. The real star of the show early on, however, was Tom Watkins, who ran a perfect ET of 9.0806 on a 9.08 dial to go top after Q1. Watkins was to hold that spot throughout qualifications; other notable performaces included a charge from 25th to 2nd by Brett Featherstone in Q4, thanks to a 9.622 on a 9.62 index, and Kirsie Tramm jumping from 30th to 6th a couple of rounds later. A word for Bill Wilson, too, who ran 10.8650/121.19 in his F100 – his best time ever. The most impressive…

Event: BHP Performance Show Date: 5 May Venue: Kent Event Centre, Maidstone After a successful move last year, the BHP Performance Show was back on at the Kent Event Centre in Maidstone on the first weekend of May. The date was brought forward from the bank holiday Monday to Sunday to try and eliminate any traffic issues – and along with a new entry and exiting system, this all proved a worthwhile investment. Saturday was set-up day, with cars entered into one of the three main halls allowed entry to set up and get the vehicles cleaned and positioned ready for the public. The media team were also allowed entry to get shots of the vehicles and have a decent chat with the owners before the public descended into the…

Event: Run to the Sun Date: 24-27 May Venue: Newquay, Cornwall Last year, Run To The Sun returned after a 10-year absence. It was a huge success – and for 2024, the legendary show was bigger, packed with more entertainment and back to three days. On the Friday, Spencer from The Old Dub Shop led the traditional big cruise. This started at Reading and headed to Gordano Services, then on to RE:FUEL at Cullompton for a big stop for refreshments. Around 300 cars made it there, and after that it was straight down the M5, on to the A30 and into the site. Camping was split into four separate categories: General, Modern, Preferred Vehicles and Car Clubs. This year there were three different event stages – the Main Stage, the…

Held a week before The Main Event, Doorslammers and VW Breakout is perhaps only partly of interest to Custom Car readers. But among all the modern front-wheel drive and four and six-cylinder stuff, the Pro-Street class included some familiar cars (many of which hung around to race again and are mentioned in our main article). There was also plenty of interest in the Jeff Bull Race Engines 7.60 Heads Up and Williams Bros Big Bracket Classes, which we’ll concentrate on here. Williams Bros Big Bracket 1 Starting with the latter, this was in effect two separate competitions held on the Saturday and Sunday, following a series of dial-in sessions on the Friday and Saturday morning. With no need for qualifying, it was then straight in to eliminations – where standout pairings…

Event: Offset Show Date: 29 April Venue: Royal Cornwall Showground Sunday 29 April saw the Royal Cornwall Showground host the annual Offset Show from the team at Wagon UK. Now in its fourth year, after organiser Brad made the bold move to go from hosting car park meets to Cornwall’s biggest modified show, the event has grown year upon year. This year, Sonax Detailing sponsored the show and had a selection of cars, including Axel Hildebrand’s rotary-powered C6 Corvette. Saturday was set-up day and vehicles entered inside and in the VIP paddock area were invited to come in and get set up and detailed ready for the public on Sunday. For people camping on Saturday night, a couple of food vendors opened and a licensed bar was on offer, along…