SoCal Diaries

Former Custom Car editor Tony Thacker lives in California these days, and this month he’s been enjoying the sound of fl atheads…

Mike Scaplo, who once owned one of the SoCal Speed Shops and now deals in early Ford parts, travels more than 1200 miles each way from his home in Colorado Springs, home of Pikes Peak, to Santa Margarita The RPM Nationals has to be one of my favourite events. It’s held at the Santa Margarita Ranch just off US Highway 101, about 100 miles north of Santa Barbara, California and 200 miles north of Los Angeles. The ranch has its own private airstrip which once a year roars to the sound of fl athead Fords rather than airplanes.

Founded in 2017 and organised by Justin Baas and Russ Hare, the RPM Nats is billed as an 1/8-mile drag race for pre-1936 fl athead V8 and four-cylinder hot rods and race cars. Even though the speeds are what you’d expect from 90 to 100-year-old engines, the fun factor is off the scale.

If you’re looking to take a trip out west, you could do worse than put the RPM Nationals on your radar. You can learn more at RPMNationals.com or on Facebook at RPM Nationals.

Long time racer Seth Hammond, a member of the Bonneville 300 MPH Club – as are his wife and daughter – races this super ’27 T powered by a four-banger fi tted with a rare HAL DOHC conversion The original ‘Red Baron’ was a 1968 Tom Daniel design for Monogram models but was built into a real car. It’s apparently one of the biggest selling Hot Wheels in history and was Monogram’s number one model kit

Left: Nostalgia Ranch’s ex-pat Jay Dean has been building hot rods in California since 1984 and his T is powered by a big-bore engine based on a ’41 block with Off enhauser heads, a Sharp intake and 3x97 Strombergs Above: Timmy McMaster of Hanford Auto Supply is well known for his Y-block builds but races this ’27 T powered by an Off enhauser-equipped fl attie with four Stromberg 97s You can’t get more patriotic that the course car, Squeak Bell’s ’39 Deluxe convertible sedan. But wait, isn’t Squeak a Kiwi? Yes, but when did that matter? He’s been building hot rods in the US since 1984

There’s nothing quite so tuff as a chopped ’32 3-window on the return road and this dualcarb’d S.Co.T.-blown beast with traditional white fi rewall and steelies is chopped hard

Left: Stefan and Katrin Immke of Cologne, Germany had these two cars built by Brit Jay Dean at Nostalgia Ranch, Fallbrook, California. They travel from Europe just for the RPM Nats Above: Stefan’s rail job was originally owned by Justin Baas. Its fl attie has a rare Hilborn-Travers fuel injection unit

Katrin T-bodied roadster barn fi nd was a forties race car that ran 113.63 at El Mirage in 1949. As guys got into drag racing, Dick Hogan raced it at Paradise Mesa and won at Pomona in ’55 and Riverside in ’58. Under the hood is a 265ci Merc with early Edelbrock heads, a medium-rise Thickstun intake and a pair of Stromberg 97s. Behind the engine there’s a ’39 trans with the original banjo locker

Above: Another build from Brit Jay Dean of Nostalgia Ranch is this heavily channeled ’31 Roadster belonging to Rob Sepe. Boling Bros frame has a swap-meet found 286ci 59A with Off enhauser heads and an intake with three Stromberg 97s Right: More than 120 racers turned out for the RPM Nationals, which every year seems to throw up more than a few barn fi nds – including the Culbert Automotive Special, which came out of the same yard as Katrin Immke’s T roadster

Ford never made one but hundreds, maybe thousands of hot rodders mated the narrow ’28-29 Roadster body to a wider ’32 Deuce frame and grille and powered it with Ford’s fl athead V8. It’s a winning combo One of the regular winners in the Street Roadster class is Rich Roberts in his wicked fast Deuce Roadster. Look carefully and you’ll notice the lack of front brakes on this Edelbrock-equipped fl athead As this very cool young dude illustrates, you don’t necessarily have to have started sprouting grey hair to be a hot rodder. And you have to admit that his fl athead-powered, ’26-27-bodied roadster pickup on Deuce rails has the perfect stance. Note the white fi rewall and wheels