Imagine finding a 100-year-old letter, from the original owner of this Ford hot rod, hidden in the trunk. At this year’s Motorama custom car and hot-rod show, there was a surprising number of cars from the 1920’s still rolling. Did any of these automotive archaeologists find mementos like that?
The wealthy would certainly have bought new cars in the 1920’s. But the Ford Model T was an everyman’s car. What would a gearheads of the past hope that the cars would still be kept in original condition?
You’d have to assume that they would love the modifications made to the car. Wheels so wide and engines so powerful, such customizations couldn’t even be dreamed of the 1920’s. Green metal-flake paint and exposed ‘zoomie’ exhaust pipes? That’s a Hot Wheels, not transportation.
While some of the custom machines at Motorama are made in an ‘era-correct’ style (the way a 21 year old gearhead would have modified a Model A Ford back in the 1950s) some of the modern interpretations of the classic hot-rods are just amazing. Forget about those skinny tires, what does a 1929 Ford ride like on modern Goodyear rubber?
Soma cars at the show ere kind of a halfway point. Externally kept stock looking, but with modern internals to make the vehicle more roadworthy. Some owners of these classic machines bragged about driving them up to 5,000 km per year.
Stock engines are long gone, replaced by powerful V8 engines. Silhouettes have been altered by chopping, decking, pancaking and Frenching these vehicles into something the original owenr wouldn’t even recognize.
There’a a whole hot rod industry in American (and Japan) that make go-fast parts for these vintage vehicles. From replacement rubber to racing fuel tanks, companies like Mooneyes and Coker Tire can keep a ride on the road indefinitely.
Imagine 100 years from now, some gearhead is installing a flux capacitor in a 2003 Subaru you drove as a teenager, and finds a letter you wrote and stuffed in the headliner. What would they think? What would you say?
Hopefully it would say to either keep the car totally original, or chop it and modify it… do whatever they want. Just keep it running, drive it hard into the corners, and keep the rubber on the road for the next generation.
Cool centenarian cars.
One cool old guy had a big sign (with pics and build pics) stating that the car is driven 5,000 km per year. I think that is really cool.
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While I understand that some show cars are more ‘art’ than ‘car’ it’s just plain cool to think a 101 year-old Ford is driving around Toronto somewhere.
That maroon one with the red pinstripes is just gorgeous. I love the elegant simplicity.
Yeah, that Ford Victoria was not very customized except for the tires (modern radials)/ but the interior was wild. The dashboard looked like a grandfather clock, or a piece of carved wood furniture.
Wow
Amazing, eh? Ford cars built 100 years ago are still driving around, yet my 2015 Ford Focus already has a slipping transmission.