Fender Skirts & Frank Lockhart

Apparently, Frank Lockhart was the first to coin a term for the fender skirt, naming it "pants" in his remarkable 1928 Land Speed vehicle. When the fender skirt became an accessory in 1950s America, remains a research question that can only be answered by reviewing old copies of Motor Trend, Hot Rod, and Rod and Custom. Why were they popular, along with Continental Kits? In an age of conformity, expecially apparent to those living in working class America during that time (remember gettting a lunch box like your father's to take to school?), the fender skirt was a cheap add-on that visually lowered the car a bit, streamlined what could be a clunky early 1950s model, and distinguished one from the crowd -- or in one's mind, anyway.

1959 Chevy custom

An early 1950s Chrysler Product -- sort of an embarrassment, but at least a coupe

A streamlined Nash Airflyte

I need a new snow blower -- this time with some guts!

Hi folks -- thanks to my friend Peter Haigh for this story. We had another 7 inches in Dayton, Ohio yesterday, with another 1-2 inches today. I have a small Snapper two-cycle snow blower that has been incredible over the years -- it simply will not give up or die! But it is small, and now the choke needs to be set in an awkward fashion because a wire connector fell off during the last storm. Kaye simply doesn't know about setting chokes, and flooded the engine out yesterday when I was not around.

Next time around, this is what I want! ---

If you're tired of anemic, one-lung snowblowers with their slipping drive belts, you migh t consider Kai Grundt's V8 snow blower which raises the bar on the traditional snow blower in every respect. With electric start, electric block heater, antifreeze heater and eight cylinders, it has no drive belts to freeze up and you'll never get bored with the job as the 454 cubic inch big block Chevrolet V8 produces 412 horsepower, 430 foot pounds of torque and can throw snow 50 feet at just 3500 rpm.

Nor will you get c old as the machine has been ingeniously designed to route the engine coolant through the handle bars, with the rear mounted, enclosed radiator keeping the operator nice and cozy.

Maneuvering the massive beast (it has a total wet weight of 912 lbs) is a breeze thanks to the hydraulic-drive 4WD skid steer on independent walking beams which offers a zero turning radius. It's also as fast as you like, with an infinitely adjustable speed range on the drive wheels via dash mounted flow control. At the opposite end of the scale, it has more than enough torque to pull your car out of the ditch before the hydraulic motors stall!

Adding to the well-balanced feel of the unit, just 15 pounds of down force on the handlebars will lift the auger blade off the ground in order to climb stairs/walkways for ease of snow removal. Safety has and continues to be paramount with spring return to center "fail safe" type directional controls with emergency stop and tether cords.

Safety is one of the key theme, with a flashing blue light (as required by law in many areas) being the least of the safety features. No-one will fail to hear you with those twin throaty exhausts, which come standard with 92 decibels at the controls, though if the rumble of a V8 exhaust is music to your ears, you can obviously go much louder. Even at the standard baffling, hearing protection is strongly suggested.

The powerful yard machine lights and a dashboard with backlit gauges complete the package to ease the burden of this normally reviled task. The custom 42 inch, two stage auger has a Chevrolet 10 bolt truck differential with spool and a centrifugal auger clutch with shear pin protection, further adding to the image of this "automotive theme blower." As each unit is custom-built, optional extras for the snow blower are both diverse and outrageous as the base unit - there is unlimited auger choices from single to multi-stage designs and various motor combinations to suit the religious preferences of the customer (Chevy, Dodge Hemi, Ford) and such exotica as a V-10 or a diesel engine or remote starting can be accommodated. And if, after a while, you feel you've outgrown the 400 horses, this particular engine is well catered for in the performance modification area, with Lunati camshaft, Milodon Gear drive, Holley and Edelbrock components to name a few, and there's always the fuel injection option too, if you feel you need to throw the snow out of the county or ensure your seat in the "neighborhood blower blingster hall of fame."

The Origins of the Demolition Derby -- More from Tom Wolfe's "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby"

More great fun reading Tom Wolfe. See chapter 2, "Clean Fun at Riverhead,"
where we are introduced to Lawrence Mendelsohn, who was inspired one night in August, 1958 to come up with the idea of the demolition derby.

"So why put up with the monotony between crashes?"

As Wolfe describes the scene of a Mendelsohn promotion on Long Island (the 154th in two years!):

"The effect was exactly what one expects that many simultaneous crashes to produce: the unmistakable tympany of automobiles colliding and cheap-gauge sheet metal buckling; front ends folding together at the same cockeyed angles police photographs of night-time wreck scenes capture so well on grainy paper; smoke pouring from under the hoods and hanging over the infield like a howitzer cloud; a few of the surviving cars lurching eccentrically on bent axles. At last, after four heats, there were only two cars moving through the junk, a 1953 Chrysler and a 1958 Cadillac. in the Chrysler a small fascia of muscles named Spider Ligon, who smoked a cigar while he drove, had the Cadillac cornered up against a guard rail in front of the main grandstand. He dispatched it by swinging around and backing full throttle through the left side of its grille and radiator."

And a bit more:

"The unabashed, undisguised, quite purposeful sense of destruction of the demolition derby is its unique contribution. The aggression, the battering, the ruination are there to be enjoyed.. The crowd at a demolition derby seldom gasps and often laughs. It enjoys the same full-throated participation as Romans at the Colosseum."

George Barris, Ed Roth, and Tom Wolfe's "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby"

Ed Roth at his craft

One of Roth's custom cars

A young George Barris, at the start of what would become a fabulous career

Barris' "Stray Cat"

Barris, a photographer entranced by Marilyn Monroe more than any car!

One of Barris' most famous customs

Hi folks -- the next required outside reading in my HST course "The Automobile and American Life" will be Tom Wolfe's 1963 The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. Why this book? the students will spend sometime looking at the film "American Graffiti," a story that purportedly took place in 1962. I want my students to enter that world of the early 1960s, and using Wolfe's book as a touchstone, to explore what the world was like, and the role of the automobile in that world.

Of course, the lead essay deals with the rise of youth culture and customized cars, with George Barris and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth as the chief characters in the chapter. Personally, as a young kid, I was never into custom cars. For me it was more about performance and handling, and more traditional designs. Customs are about art, color and the ability to do body work, something that I never had the patience for.

Of late I have been looking at some of its origins in Motor Trend issues from 1952 and 1953, and I can say that the Continental Kit craze coupled with the new material of Fiberglass were two important catalysts for the growth of this part of the car hobby. Barris initially was about chopping cars, channeling them, removing excess chrome, and opening doors and trunks with electric switches. With fame came more radical customs that were the centerpiece of automobile shows and Hollywood films.

The Learner's Permit -- youth now free !!!

A pretty girl out to have some fun on her own!
Miley Cyrus, 2008
When do Learner's Permits become commonplace at state licensing offices?


My thanks to Ed Garten for the following:

A young boy had just received his driver's permit and asked his
father if they could discuss his use of the car. His father said he
would make a deal with his son..

"You bring your grades up from a C to a B average, study your Bible a little, get your hair cut and we'll talk about the car."
The boy thought about that for a moment, decided he'd settle for the offer and they agreed on it.
After about six weeks his father said, "Son, I've been real proud.
You brought your grades up and I've observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I'm real disappointed you didn't get your hair cut."
The young man paused a moment then said, "You know, Dad, I've been thinking about that, and I've noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair. And there's even a strong argument that Jesus had long hair."

To this his father replied, "Did you also notice that they all
walked everywhere they went?"

Car Collecting in 1952 -- what I could buy for $3000!

Note: $3000 in 1952 is equivalent to 24,447.06 in 2010.

Hi folks -- lately I have been looking through 1952-3 issues of Motor Trend, for no particular reason. I was attracted to Robert J. Gottlieb's column on classic cars (for example, January 1953, "Why Drive a Classic?" What always intrigues me, even when I look at 1960s issues of R&T, are the ads in the back of the magazine. I know this is a was of time and an exercise in total futility. Here are a couple from January. 1953 from MT:

Sell -- '36 eight cylinder Pierce-Arrow five passenger wire wheel sedan. Very good throughout, Penna. inspected, second complete car for parts, is restorable, $600 for both.

Sell -- "15 Saxon roadster, four cylinder, 15,000 miles, new car condition throughout, complete, curtains to chains, exceptional car, $750.

Sell -- "36 Cadillac V-12, Fleetwood sedan, engine and clutch just rebuilt, body, upholstery, and finish extra good condition, radio, heater, $325.

Sell -- SS 100 Jaguar two-seater sports, near mint condition, spare parts stock, repair manual, $2250 or offer.