The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

[mlcraven]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

Great choices. Could debate the order and argue about the "left outs" forever, but you make a great case for each selection. I've always been intrigued by the link between aviation and hot rodding, in partic the proliferation of airfields that provided venues for racing and the abundance of post-WW II surplus aircraft parts that found their way into car crafters imaginations, hands and -- eventually -- vehicles.

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

lee holman - son of holman moody 's john holman , is not a big shelby fan

[NITMARE]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

Nice write up and nice outside the box take on influences...

My all time number one, however is Carrol Shelby. And in his honor I am combining two cars born of his influence ;D

[Freiburger]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

I think you missed one of the biggies... The ATF Bureau for chasing down all those moonshine runners in the south. Nothing drove creative engineering of hot rods like the runners being chased!

Actually, I meant to include that one in my number 1 pick, Government. It slipped my mind at the last second. Dang.

[ch1ll]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

Make it 12: David Freiburger


Ch1ll

[jays67]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

very cool and a couple of my hero's made the list duntov was one friend to my grand pa {he used to come to the tonawanda engine plant to do "stuff" and got to know my grand pa at the chevy dealer he worked at} and he was a cool down to earth guy gave my gramps 2 one off proto type cams for small chevy and told him "try theses in ur kids car should wake it up "{the car was my pops 56 chevy 265 with dual quads} the cams did wake it up on was lil big for the street and the other was run for a while both solid flats and crazy for the time and i still have them in cam tubes with from gm with hand writing on them that looks like a doctor lol{duntov}i so wanna run them but by todays cam standards they are tame and it is not worth loseing a peice of history for that lol

[Schtauffer]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

Very well thought out, DF. Hope you're not disappointed that I choose to not disagree with you.

[ProRauder]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

I think you missed one of the biggies... The ATF Bureau for chasing down all those moonshine runners in the south. Nothing drove creative engineering of hot rods like the runners being chased!

A good list overall though.

[nosnerd]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

as always, a good read! 8)



al

[SpiderGearsMan]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

some of my heroes


ed cole -small block chevy - word is he designed most of it , became GM president
smokey yunick - wildman , I thank heavens everyday I got to share the same room with him a few times , lived for a time in NJ
william crapo durant -founder of gm wildman - had a vision may have been a crazy vision , made and lost several fortunes , died penniless in NJ
john z delorean - wildman - brilliant engineer , may have designed the turbo 400 while at packard , gave us the gto and anti establishment , made and lost several fortunes , dies penniless in NJ
don garlits - speed king , built his own stuff , credibility , unofficially broke 200 mph in NJ
rick voeglin from car craft - influenced my interest in class racing
zora - the man survived bolshiveks , ww2 and worked for general motors
jim hall - chapparal - chevy power all over the world
richard petty -what a driver !! and car owner , credibility
junior johnson - rumrunner - driver who was under the hood
david reher ,lee shepherd and buddy morrison , my pro stock heroes forever

[tiresmoke!]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

Arrowhead, EXACTLY my view..the Blogs are a first-read.

[tcbnj]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

'nough said, these thoughts are another example of why I hit the blogs first - thanks

[Ron Ward]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

DF, I agree with your list of the top 11. It is clear quite a bit of thought went into your choices. I would like to throw a name into the ring for honorable mention. Granted, without the likes of Wally Parks and the foundations laid earlier by the contributors on your list, his achievements would probably never have materialized, but because there was a demand for performance products as a budding hotrodding community grew, this man made his mark. My pick is none other than Vic Edelbrock, Sr. Where would hotrodding be without Vic?



Ron

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

Bravo! another excellent read today!!! That's a great list, perfect order...

-scott

x2

I was just thinking to myself, "Hmm, I'm going to post a boring agreeable post" but really it is a great list in a reasonable order.

[dieselgeek]

Re: The Top 11 Greatest Influencers of Hot Rodding

Bravo! another excellent read today!!! That's a great list, perfect order...

-scott