The title of this piece is "Street Trends." I guess the best-case scenario would be that what we are going to talk about and look at will become a trend, even though it’s always been a mark to shoot for with regard to anyone who’s ever built a hot rod or custom since day one: to make it the coolest, slickest, most righteous piece of iron to roll down the road. This, however, isn’t about building a car to compete for the Riddler Award or the Grand National Roadster Show--it is about making the right decisions while your project is in the works: sticking with a theme, paying attention to detail without paying through the nose, and building a car you can drive, enjoy, and be tremendously proud of.
We looked through the R&C files and our 100 Best to find six cars that represent what we’re talking about. We then contacted a number of top builders around the country to get their thoughts on these cars. The builders ranged from meticulous award-winners to ones known more for radical custom hot rods. Our cars ranged from traditional and nostalgic to high-tech and bad-ass. We chose a nostalgic bright yellow Model A sedan, a high-tech 1937 Ford cabriolet, a high-tech 1955 Chevy hardtop, a 1941 Willys Gasser, a "late-1960s/early 1970s"-style 1932 Ford Vicky, and a traditional black 1932 Ford roadster. We purposely did not choose high-dollar (roll ’em around) cars to make our point. We picked cars that you don’t have to put your mortgage or your marriage in jeopardy to build. So the challenge was made to Don Pilkington, Bobby Alloway, and Barry Lobeck, when we asked: "Do these cars have the right stuff?"