Innehållsförteckning för May 2025 från Custom Car

Legendary hot rod and custom builder Gene Winfield, who passed away on 4 March at the age of 97, built his first hot rod at his home in Modesto, California when he was just 15 years old. After that ’29 Model A coupe was written off in an accident, he built a ’31 roadster. Following a brief spell in the Navy, Gene decided he wanted to build cars full-time and set up Windy’s Custom Shop in the backyard of his mother’s house. He enjoyed racing on dry lakes, something he became very good at, until he closed his shop and joined the Army in 1949. Gene still had modifying in his blood and, after having been stationed in Japan, he rented a small workshop with three other GIs where they…

If you remember the T-shirt designs offered by C-uk Nitro-Stevens, you’ll recognise the images on the mugs pictured here. Colin has reproduced three of those original designs for printing on to mugs so you can remember days gone by while enjoying your morning brew. The Mr 6 design was done with full approval from Dennis Priddle, who often wore one of the shirts when at the Pod. The Summer of ’73 depicts Stardust and Paula Murphy’s car, while the third design is a homage to the original Dragfest. Priced at £8 each plus £3.95 p&p, or £4.50 p&p for up to three, the mugs can be ordered by email to colinhotrodts@btinternet.com or via the C-uk Nitro-Stevens Facebook page. Payment can be made by either PayPal or bank transfer.…

Restricted access is no problem with this lowprofile socket and bit set from Laser Tools. The highly versatile 52-piece kit features a 252mm dual-purpose flex-head ratchet spanner and bit driver, along with a comprehensive selection of low-profile sockets, bits and ¼” drive extensions. The ratchet spanner is equipped with a springloaded retaining clip to keep the sockets in place and the bit driver features a three-position lever for left, right, and lock. Two ¼ inch drive extension bars, a ¼ inch drive socket adaptor, an 11mm hex drive to ¼ inch shank magnetic bit adaptor and a 60mm magnetic bit holder with quick chuck end are included in the set. www.lasertools.co.uk…

Pulling into North Weald Airfield for this year’s staging of the NSRA Southern Swap Meet invoked emotions previously unencountered at this event. The bright blue skies and brilliant sunshine were a phenomenon rarely associated with this season’s-opening gathering of eager traders and overly enthusiastic punters. Okay, I had to scrape the ice off the car before setting off, but that was a small price to pay for a day of warmth and brightness. I’m sure some people exhibited Pod face before trading ceased, and I’ve never experienced that before. Was that an omen though? It’s on the cards that after a run of seven years, this was to be the last Swap Meet to be held at this particular Essex location. That was another reason for the mixed emotions, but…

“A length of railway track welded across the rear chassis rails” It may be best if we start by clearing up any possible confusion. The ’54 Chevy 3100 pictured here is known as Frank’s truck. The thing is it’s owned by Richard Hodson, not Frank. We’ll let Richard take up the story. “Frank was my dog, a much-loved companion who went everywhere with me until he passed around 2½ years ago. He was a bit of a character and everybody knew him. So much so that the Chevy became known as Frank’s truck. I even set up a Facebook page in the name of Frank Hodson, and many people know me as Frank, not Richard.” Back in the day, Richard, as we’ll call him, was an out and out Ford…

We last visited Colin Ayres’ latest project in the August ’21 issue, so maybe a brief recap is in order. Project X, as we refer to it, had been buzzing round in Colin’s head for around 30 years before he embarked on the build when Covid hit. In the feature we ran almost four years ago, the first stages of the two-door coupe conversion had been completed in Colin’s workshop. Meanwhile, Ray and Connor had been busy over at Rayvern Hydraulics in Guyhirn, Cambridgeshire. It was there that the chassis had been upgraded and notched, with a new chassis section being grafted on at the rear to ensure the car lays frame when parked up. Considering who was fabricating the rolling chassis, it will come as no surprise that air…

The news regarding funny car racing at Santa Pod this season is sounding very positive indeed – especially in the ‘big show’ category, which will be running at four events and is excellent for race fans. The return of the Showtime name – coupled with US racer Terry Haddock driving – will be a combination to watch. Dale Leeks will also be a driver to follow, as he transitions from two to four wheel competition at the sharp end. In addition will be the nostalgia nitro funnies in their own battles as well. Way back, 50 years ago now, funny car racing was very much in its infancy, as it was less than two years previous that this class of car actually started to compete in Europe. What 1975 brought…

Some of you will know Alice Fairhead through her contributions to CC for several years, and this year she’s taking on her third Macmillan Mighty Hike. This will be a 25-mile walk in the Lake District along a pre-planned route on a set day, regardless of what the weather may bring. Raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support, Alice decided to complete her first Mighty Hike after losing her nan to Cancer. Alice is hopeful she can smash the Mighty Hike in June and raise money for such a worthy charity. If any of you wonderful readers would like to support Alice and donate to Macmillan Cancer Support, you can do so at www.justgiving.com/page/pretty-wild-2025. Alternatively, scan the QR code (right)…

In the thoroughly modern age in which we live, things are just done differently. The Luddites among us – and I do include myself in that group – might prefer face-to-face interaction and good old telephone calls but, as those of us with young kids will be painfully aware, that’s not necessarily how the younger generations want to operate. That said, I’m still taken aback when doing interviews for Custom Car features and people tell me they don’t use email / WhatsApp (other messaging services are available) or the internet. That’s not the case with the young guns at Old Bones Fabrication in Andover though. A quick Google of that company name will bring up countless Facebook, Instagram and YouTube links, with a rash of accompanying hashtags. #retrorace is just…

So many of us have our dads to thank for getting us into cars. It might be the classic old dailies they took us to school in, the brightly coloured hot rods they brought out at the weekend or those times we spent helping them in the garage… gather together any group of car people and a story about dad will never be far away. Gary Byrne’s dad managed to get him into it without even being interested in cars himself. ‘His idea of working on his own cars was limited to emptying the ashtray!’ laughs Gary. ‘But dad worked in flight operations for Air France at Heathrow all his life and if he found any interesting magazines people had left on inbound flights, he’d bring them home for my…

Event: Cold Turkey Run 2024 Date: 28 December Venue: Cromer, Norfolk As you probably know by now, the Brass Monkey run to Wells has come to an end. Fear not, though, we’ve all been rescued from the post-Christmas blues by a replacement meet in Cromer. Rather than one cruise to the finishing point, we had four, from Great Yarmouth, Swaffham, Bury St Edmunds and Peterborough via Kings Lynn. The cruises weren’t really on route for me, so I headed straight to Cromer to watch the cars arrive. With everyone gathered at the various starting points, they set off aiming to arrive in Cromer at around 11-11.30. The Swaffham cruise arrived first, followed by Great Yarmouth, then Peterborough/Kings Lynn and finally Bury. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side, with…