Two of my main goals when I took over the editor's desk was that this magazine needed to be fun and that the readers should have a good idea of who is writing what they're reading every month. We're no different than most of you, we even do many of the same things you do even when we're not being paid to do so. The only difference is when we attend a cruise night just for fun, we're still looking for cool cars to feature.
Now as you already know, when you get more than one gearhead standing around, the conversation will turn to cars. It's no different when we go to lunch or have a staff meeting. It was at one of these lunches that I posed a question to Tim and Jim. If you could only have one car that had to serve as your daily driver and as your weekend cruiser what would it be? You don't have an econo-box to battle the freeways with or drive when the weather is not ideal for drop top cruising, so the choice should be practical.
Suddenly the 10-car dream garage is no longer needed and that blown, injected 1,200hp big-block doesn't sound as appealing. The car has to be cool enough that you won't mind pulling into any cruise or car show, but it also has to serve grocery-getting duties and trips to the hardware store.
During one of my conversations with noted artist Thom Taylor, I posed the same question to him. He immediately started asking about parameters in which I told him to let his imagination run wild. After a few minutes of some incoherent ramblings, he expressed interest in drawing them with one condition: he got to pick one as well. I agreed, throwing in a condition of my own: he would have to draw one for one of our readers that we would run in the magazine, and then give to the lucky reader. He agreed.
So by now, you should be asking yourself how you get Thom Taylor to draw your dream car for free. Well for one of you, it'll be easy but it'll require a little work on your part. Send in your best description of what your dream car is, listing the body mods, drivetrain, suspension, wheels, and interior, and the staff will decide which one we like the best. We'll be considering which one is the most creative, yet practical, to build and live with on a daily basis. It can be a one-off body style or something that was produced in the thousands between 1920 and 1965. You can mail your submission to: Rod & Custom "Dream Car," 774 S. Placentia Ave., Placentia, CA 92870, or send an email directly to me at kevin.lee@sorc.com.
Kevin's '60 Starliner Wagon
I can hardly look at a '60 Ford without seeing a four-door with a cherry on top patrolling down Mayberry's Main Street, but nonetheless I've had a soft spot for them for years, especially the Starliner. Produced for just two years, the thin lines of the roof gave it a very light look. The '60 has a look all its own that was lost with the redesigned '61 models. The slab-sides of the '60 placed it firmly between the rotund curves of the fifties and the streamlined flow of the new-aged sixties.
About five years ago, I bought my first station wagon, a '63 Galaxie Country Sedan (you'll see more of it later), and soon found out just how convenient these big wagons really are. With the rear seats folded down, there's almost 9 feet of flat hauling space and since it has the optional third seat, I can haul nine people as well.
So when I started thinking about just what I would answer this "just one car" question with, I knew it would be a station wagon. At first I narrowed it down to a '57 Oldsmobile Fiesta four-door hardtop wagon because although I would have liked it to be a two-door, I didn't like the B-pillers on most two-door wagons and didn't want a Nomad. The more I thought about hardtop wagons, the more I liked the idea of designing a one-off using a Starliner roof along with the longer doors to make access to the backseat easier.
Beyond the obvious, the exterior was modified slightly with a little trim removal, namely emblems and the gun sights on top of the front fenders. The mid-side trim has been extended into the front fenders and the stock door handles were replaced with '61 T-Bird handles incorporated into the beltline trim. The exhaust exits through cutouts in the rear bumper. The wheels are ET III Five Windows, 17x10 rear and 17x7 front (not available in these sizes but I'm dreaming, remember?), wrapped with 55- and 50-series rubber, respectively.
The chassis would be simple with four-wheel disc brakes and Air Ride Technologies 'bags all around. Continuing the theme of the wheels, under the hood would be a stroked 390 (427s are hard to find and not necessary) fed by an eight stake Hilborn intake converted to EFI. An AOD trans would help daily driving and road trips.
When it came time to pick a color scheme, I decided to go with something clean, simple and relatively timeless. Silver over white will also hide some of the dirt, and the white will touch up nicely because there's no doubt it will get some road chips. A herd of cattle will give up their hides for the complimenting red leather interior covering the front buckets and modified middle and third benches. A custom center console will house the shifter, air ride controls, and navigation/sound system. Now if only I had the money or talent to make it happen. - Kevin Lee
Tim's '53 Chevy 210 Sport Coupe
My belief that rods and customs belong on the road has been hammered home by every Americruise and Asphalt Ego-Rama trip I've made. The inspiration for my Dream Car comes from every single car that has participated in these events. There are, however, a couple specific cars that kept popping into mind as I designed this '53 Chevy. Both are very roadworthy and heavily driven mild customs. One is Curt Cunningham's '56 Ford. The other is Bob Klessig's '52 Chevy.
Since the premise is that this would be my only car and everyday ride (and since I'm not into flashy), I kept things simple and practical. A big car was the way to go for cargo and people capacity--and I like customs. The '53 makes a great-looking custom, and is a little more unusual than say, a '50 Merc or Ford, or a Tri-five Chevy.
I asked Thom to get rid of most of the body trim, bumper guards, and grille bullets, and to french the headlights and taillights. This turns down some of the visual noise and strips the car to the essence of '53 Chevy. We kept the side trim strip to break up the vast expanse of monochromatic sheetmetal. Door handles stayed because I like door handles. The top is stock height, with one-piece side windows to emphasize the hardtop look. A custom's got to have a little attitude, so I dropped the body a little and added a slight rake.
The paint had to be distinctive, but something I could still look at five years from now. The blue/gray flattened metallic gives the '53 a suede look, but not as dry as primer. There are no graphics in this version, but I can see some a little pinstriping on the hood, deck, and dash, or some Greek-style striping down the side, or some traditional flames, or...
Bias-ply rubber would be the right choice for looks alone, but for street and highway duty, I compromised with wide white radials rolling on 15-inch steelies. Maybe we paint the rims body color with caps and mini Moons. Maybe we throw on crossbar caps.
For power, imagine a GM inline-6 motor tied to a 200-4R or 700-R4 automatic. The stovebolt works because it's different, cool, and mileage-efficient for long trips. The transmission choice is dictated by L.A.'s miserable freeway traffic, with OD for trips out of town.
I'd be sitting on stock seats covered in two two-tone Naugahyde, black with gray tuck 'n' roll inserts. Picture my hands on the stock wheel, my eyes on whiteface S-W Wings gauges, my muddy feet on black rubber floormats, my ears enjoying the hidden CD sound system, and my mouth in a big, stupid grin. --Tim Bernsau
Jim's '32 Delivery
This is a really tough one, but then again it's not. We all dream over and over what our favorite car would be. It can change weekly or even daily (I myself have had a '56 Chevy and four Model As in the last three years), but to conceive that you only can have one car ever, it better be a good one.
I, like a lot of people, love '32 Fords, so that narrows my choices way down. Of all the '32 Ford rods ever built, the one platform I have never seen built as the "perfect" traditional rod would have to be the Sedan Delivery. The lowest production passenger car produced in '32, I would have to say the majority of rodded Sedan Deliveries have been "resto-rods." For my ultimate version, I would be influenced by cars from Barry Lobeck, the Early Times Club and Gray Baskerville's Roadster.
First off, the body would remain totally stock with an original top insert and full-fendered. The one and only modification would be a filled and peaked radiator shell. The stock body with a 25-louver hood would be coated in the reddest red with just a hint of maroon (a Lobeck touch). Side panels would carry the very early R&C logo, with the yellow box with "Rod" in black block letters, and "Custom" in the familiar white script lettering. Stock bumpers would ride on both ends and a dropped original light bar (by P-Wood) would mount a pair of BLC headlights with chrome rings. A yellow grille insert would pay tribute to Ol' Dad's "hair blower."
Underneath would be a ground-hugging chassis, running a 5-inch dropped I-beam with hair pins (by Chrisman) in the front with a '57 Ford wagon rearend mounted on '36 wishbones in the back. Buick finned drums on Lincoln 12-inch backing plates on all four corners would do the stopping. A healthy Chevy crate engine dressed like an early Corvette mill with finned valve covers, ram's horn exhaust manifolds and an Arizona Speed & Marine '57 FI-style injection unit would supply the power, and right behind it would be a TREMEC TKO five-speed.
Finishing touches would be a wide-pleated black naugahyde interior on original front seats and a custom fold-down rear seat facing a '40 Ford Deluxe Dash, steering wheel, and column. Although we are only allowed one car, I would have to have multiple wheel combos with the main options being a set of original magnesium American Racing five-spokes (15x6 fronts and 15x8.5 rears) wrapped in Dunlop vintage racing tires (because they look a lot like the old Goodyear and Firestone Indy tires), and the other set would be a simple set of 16-inch yellow steelies--'46 Ford rings and caps and a set of big 'n' little bias-ply blackwalls. I could be happy with this one car for the rest of my life, but for now I will have to just keep dreaming. --Jim Aust
Thom's Stingray Wagon
This was too hard because I have all kinds of classifications of "dream cars" and really, I needed more parameters set for me. Since ye ol' editor would not set them, I did it for myself. I'm married with two kids, a dog, cat, etc., so that trite phrase "practical" was paramount. A practical car to me is closed (no roadsters or phaetons), has four doors, and can seat five to seven, with a little wiggle room to spare. And we all like a few ponies under the hood--say 500 or so, a beefed automatic to handle them, and full independent suspension.
Since cost was not an object--something I've never had the luxury of having for even a coffee maker--the only exceptions to the practical were the 20-inch wheels, and the extreme lowness I just can't seem to shake. I guess limiting the suspension travel and a few rubber blocks here and there can make up for it a little bit.
Since my favorite cars come from the '20s through the '50s, I thought that I'd break out (for me) and bastardize one of the icons of the '60s--or any era for that matter--the '63-67 Corvette (with apologies to Larry Shinoda). The surfaces on these masterpieces are complex, which makes them so interesting almost 50 years after they were first conceived in a GM styling studio. I tossed a lot of the vents and holes, and changed around the proportions a bit, but kept the signature hidden headlights. If you like these years of Vettes, you've got to like this whacked wagon with its ties to the Waldorf Nomad showcar, as well as the afore mentioned Stingrays.
Since this would be so extreme from a cost standpoint, I thought that I'd also include my toned-down "practical" list: [Ah, I think that's cheating Thom --Ed.] --Thom Taylor
'46-48 Chrysler T&C Sedan
'51 Fraser Manhattan Conv.
'53-54 Packard Caribbean
'54 Packard Clipper
'53-54 Buick Skylark
'53 Olds Fiesta
'58 Olds Fiesta wagon
'56 Plymouth Sport suburban
'57-61 Chrysler letter car
'60 Polara wagon or H/T
'61 Desoto H/T
'56 Nomad