The last couple of weeks have been abnormally busy around eastern BangShift world HQ and for very sucky reasons. Four major league all stars in the world of hot rodding left this mortal coil and headed to the great beyond. EJ Potter, Harry Schmidt, Jim Nelson, and of course Carroll Shelby. Outside of that, I attended the Beach Boys 50th anniversary reunion tour concert at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. These two seemingly unrelated situations came to a pretty poignant head for me during the Beach Boys show when tributes were made to both Carl and Dennis Wilson who were original members of the band that are now dead. I found myself with sopping wet eyes during those two moments of the show when photos of both Carl and Dennis were shown from their youth. As I sat there, it really hit me that we are the generation that will see to the sad end, the loss of hot rodding’s foundation and true royalty.

I get that we all die, I am not five years old. I also get that the men that are passing have led adventurous, exciting lives that have helped enrich the existence of others. That doesn’t mean I have to like it and sit back saying, “Oh well, there goes another one”. While sitting in the stands listening to Brian Wilson, Mike Love, and Al Jardine sing I came to appreciate what I was seeing a lot more. I think I got emotional more because I was able to see the living members of one of the greatest bands in American history play what will probably be their final string of shows than I did due to some sort of sadness over the loss of automotive/BangShifty icons. The fact that the guys can all still sing and carry those awesome tunes sweetened the pot to a higher degree than I could have ever imagined.

I feel that many people in this industry/hobby/passion (including myself) are squeezing a fistful of sand. As the grains slip between our fingers (TC Lemons, EJ Potter, Carroll Shelby) we press our muscles even harder to keep what’s in our palms from dropping and our efforts are for naught. When we consider that guys like Garlits, Phil Remington, Ed Iskendarian, and Alex Xydias all range in age from 80 to 91 years old it becomes a very stark reality that we are close to hitting terminal velocity with respect to the living history of hot rodding leaving our company. When they go, what happens then? Who will my son or grandson be writing about as someone that has had huge impact on hot rodding decades down the road? Who has forged themselves such a trail to be remembered by the masses for something achieved with cars over the last 20 years? There is a short list, if it is even long enough to be considered a list.

My wife and I left the Beach Boys show so blown away that we immediately looked at the tour schedule to find another date to score tickets for. We did and will see them again in NY come June. I am thinking the same way with respect to hot rodding. I’ll be at Bowling Green for the NHRA Holley National Hot Rod Reunion to cover the event for BangShift and a personal highlight will be seeing Don Garlits in his cackle car. It’s like seeing the Beach Boys. I wasn’t there in 1966 to hear the first release of Good Vibrations but the live version I saw in Connecticut was spellbinding. I never saw Garlits win the US Nationals but I have seen him in a slingshot with header flames belching from the pipes. Same deal. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I had my wet eyes at the Beach Boys show because it was time for me to come to grips with the fact that an era is honestly ending. The cynics in the crowd will say that it already ended, but frankly I don’t buy that. If I were alive in the time of Wyatt Earp, I would have told you that gun fights happened right up until the time that he passed. The same can be said for our aging titans in the hot rodding and high performance world. Most are no longer super active in the field they once dominated, but it matters nothing to me. If they walk and breathe they can still tell the stories of a bygone era, fill our ears with knowledge we’ll never get anywhere else, and inspire the dreams and hopes of the current generation of BangShifters. My fear stems with whomever is coming next to do the same thing.

Like the band of musicians playing with the Beach Boys, there will be guys like me and others of my history obsessed ilk around to keep the stories and facts alive for decades, but it doesn’t sound the same when they/we play someone else’s music and tell someone else’s stories. To hear the famed, “pocket symphony” known as Good Vibrations played live with Wilson, Love, and Jardine involved was a musical highlight I will never forget. Seeing Garlits in his cackle machine at Bowling Green again will sit parallel to it in my mind. Two artists that are still producing that beautiful music and enriching the lives of others while living theirs to the fullest. Nothing’s better than that.

I’ve vowed to stop dreading a future I cannot predict in hotrodding and to start loving the present I am lucky enough to live in every day.

Thanks for reading,

Brian