November 2010 Readers' Rods

Purchased at the Buffalo Ranch swap meet in April 1959 (which for those in Southern California is now the location of the high-end shopping mall South Coast Plaza), Bill drove the roadster to Santa Monica High School during the early '60s. The fuzzy picture hereabouts of it painted red with skinny wires is when Bill found it. It didn't stay stock for long, however, and with Bill's dad helping hot-rod it, it provided transportation to numerous car shows, as well as El Mirage, Bonneville, and even the NSRA Street Rod Nationals in Memphis in 1971. Continually updated, it still runs the same Chevy drivetrain it has for most of Bill's ownership, though the most recent addition was an independent front suspension.

In addition to the roadster, Bill and his brother, Bob, campaigned a belly tank Lakester, Bill taking the season's Fastest Driver award in 1966, presented by Hot Rod magazine, as well as the Grant Piston Ring award for the season's fastest entry (Beattie brothers), for his 199.11-mph blast. How's that for getting so close to the 200 MPH Club? With Bob driving, the Lakester eventually went 220 mph at Bonneville. The brothers also ran a '32 roadster at El Mirage, running a best of 196 mph against a 202 record, coasting through the lights with a busted driveshaft! By the way, that's Bob's '32 five-window sneaking into the background in a couple of the shots, a car he also still owns.

Looks like the Beattie brothers have done more than their fair share of hot rodding, with no plans to let it out of their system just yet! Indeed, Bill's regular passenger on his Saturday morning doughnut jaunts is his father, still enjoying a weekly early morning roadster blast! It was a pleasure to meet them both.

After seeing the movie The Choppers, featuring Tommy Ivo's Buick-powered T, Lee Martin Jr. needed a hot rod with a Nailhead. His dad had been dreaming of building a Nailhead-powered Ford coupe since seeing one as a teenager in the '50s. They eventually got a '62 401 from a friend, and an N&N 'glass '33 body from HB Classics and built this. The body has a 3 1/2-inch chop and 2-inch channel, and rolls on a chrome-accessorized Pete & Jakes chassis. The 401 was bored 0.060 over with compression bumped to 12:1, breathing through dual Edelbrocks on an Offy high-rise. There are no baffles or mufflers in those straight pipes, "so it's loud". The trans is a B-W Super T-10. The coupe was built and painted in Lee Jr.'s late-grandfather's garage. "The last thing to go on was an original Buick tachometer my dad found in my grandfather's storage room. He remembered it because he'd snagged it from a '63 Wildcat my grandparents were trading in. He figured he may need it someday. Forty years later he did."

We cannot return submitted material. Please include your phone number. Mail vintage photos of you and your hot rod, along with detailed info to: Rod & Custom Magazine, Attn: Kev Elliott/Yesterday's Young Guns, 1733 Alton Pkwy., Ste. 100, Irvine, CA 92606