Karl and Veda Orr represent the first family of hot rodding. In 1940, Karl opened up what many to believe to be the first speed shop in Southern California. He built engines, sold heads, cams, carbs, you name it… And his business thrived well into World War II. In fact, during the war Karl went [...]
The Orr Trophies
Posted on November 6th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: History
Filed under: History
San Francisco Hot Rod… 1951
I used to help run a few hot rod shows in Northern California, and one of my favorite jobs was receiving cool pictures with entry forms. Sometimes I would score an old photo of a family car, thrown in just for kicks. This image came in an envelope with a letter explaining a little bit [...]
Vintage Soap Box Cars
So I was browsing one of my favorite blogs the other day and ran into a post about vintage Soap Box Derby cars. One thing lead to another and the next I knew, I had been sitting at my computer for over an hour just searching out images and studying… Although not specifically hot rod [...]
Dealer Giveaways… Pontiac Rules.
A friend of mine recently gave me this incredibly cool Pontiac ruler that was most likely a giveaway item in 1938. It made me realize the nice stuff the dealers used to hand out many years ago. Nowadays you have to beg them just to get a brochure, but there was a time when match [...]
Bosley MK 1
Here’s one that I know very little about. The Bosley MK1 was conceived and built by Richard Bosley in the mid-1950’s. It was widely considered to be one of the most beautiful sport-specials of the time, but very little has ever been written about the car and very few were ever made. In fact, the [...]
Drag Racing: In Full Color!
Steve Johnson, owner of GarageArt.com, has been a long time supporter of ours. If this site was a garage and all of our members were walking about bullshittin’, wrenching, and hanging out, Steve would be the guy in the corner with his hat down low and a smirk on his face – quietly enjoying and [...]
Lowered and rolling on 20’s…
I’m not talking about the latest “X-treme SEMA Edition DUB Ridez Playa mobile”, I’m talking Train Rail Inspector cars from the 20s – 40s. Steel disc wheels mounted on a car chassis with a cattle guard in the front- Maybe I’m nuts, but I think these things look pretty mean all dropped down like this. [...]
Garage Storage
Ferrari Fascination
Last night, a member on the forums brought up an old article that I wrote on Kellison sports cars. As a result, I wound up re-reading the piece, studying the accompanying gallery, and finding myself in a complete tail spin dreaming of the perfect Kellison to park in my own garage. Of course, that in-turn [...]
Bloody Mary
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Octane magazine out of the UK, but its a very high end, glossy monthly with great photos and articles, mainly on classic European racing and sports cars. I caught this fantastic article in the October issue and had to share: Two boys in England in [...]
Through the years we’ve had some pretty amazing articles pop up here on The Jalopy Journal. The following is just a few of them:
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Tom Cobbs
The story of Tom Cobbs, his legacy, and his hot rod roadster. Read: Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3.
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The Bob Roddick Story
The story of a set of lost photos that literally take us all back into time. Read: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, or Part 4.
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The Ferrari Shoot
Comparing and contrasting three very different cars with three very different purposes in life. Read It >>
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Inspiration
This post is actually a continuation of two other posts that were written in 2006 (Part 1 & 2). The stuff you guys came up with is breathtaking.
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Gary Howard
Gary is one of my heroes and after interviewing him, I got to check off an item from my dream list. Read It >>