Lowrider Arte

When people think of Lowriders the first thing that most people with think of is the ground-scraping stance and the bouncing of Hydraulic competitions. However there is much more to the Lowrider scene than dropping the suspension and one major area is that of Lowrider Arte.

The creation of the Lowrider scene can be traced back to the late 60s and was due to the mixing of several cultures which were the California car culture and the Mexican culture.

Lowrider Arte is not confined to using a Lowrider as the canvas and extends to Tattoos, paintings and most other art forms. The Lowrider Arte magazine is solely dedicated to providing an outlet for Lowrider artists and features articles and tattoos, car drawing and much more.

Serious Lowrider car enthusiasts spend a great deal of time on all aspects of their creation with attention to detail being paramount to their success in Lowrider competitions. During the build the car will be completely stripped and many of the major components of the car will be as detailed including chrome plating and air-brushing. Often the bodywork, door shuts, boot, engine compartment will feature murals and fantastic works of art.

'32 Ford Deuce

This is a big heavy book that will have your both a little more muscular and more knowledgeable after reading it! It is actually an extended version of a book originally about the Deuce. The book now has 75 of the best Deuces that have shaped history to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Deuce.

The beginning of the book is devoted to the history of Ford with an interesting insight into how Ford operated as a company. It is packed with photos of early prototypes, production lines and designs and tells of how the Ford V8 was a move to go 2 cylinders better than the competition which were mainly using 6 cylinders. Henry Ford also tried to avoid using a water pump in the design to cut down on production costs which were always his key objective in any new project.

The 75 Deuce Hot Rods at the end of the book include cars from Bruce Meyer, Boyd Coddington and Dan Fink. The pictures are large and very hi-resolution and each section has a small piece of interesting text about the car and its creator.

You can see the entire review plus some 32 Ford Deuce pictures here.

Where in the world are the Rolling Bones?

Rolling Bones, one of the nations best-known hot rod shops, is teaming up with Motorbooks and rodders across the country on an adventure to SEMA! Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell (aka Rolling Bones) will drive their 1932 Ford Three Window Coupe from their shop in Ballston Spa , New York to Las Vegas . Their final destination would be the Motorbooks booth (#22393) at SEMA! Rolling Bones were featured in Peter Harholdt and Ken Gross’ book Art of the Hot Rod(which recently won a GOLD medal at the International Automotive Media Awards and author Ken Gross won the Lifetime Achievement Award) and Peter Vincent’s Hot Rod Garages. They will be meeting with hot rod enthusiasts and builders all the way across the country… and selling books to pay for their gas!

Dates

• Monday, October 26th - Erie County Flathead Club hosts at the Quaker Steak & Lube ( 7851 Peach Street , Erie , PA ), 7pm

• Tuesday, October 27th - Road Rockets Custom Car Club in Indianapolis hosts at Culbertson’s Rod & Custom Shop ( 1815 South Lynhurst Drive , Indianapolis , IN ), 7pm

• Wednesday, October 28th - Regional Streeters in Crown Point , Indiana hosts at Schoops Hamburgers ( 1124 N. Main Street , Crown Point , IN ), 5pm

• Thursday, October 29th - Morfab Customs in Union , Missouri hosts ( 79 Hi-Line Drive , Union , MO ) hosts, 6pm

• Friday, October 30th - Darryl Starbird Custom and Hot Rod Hall of Fame hosts (55251 E. Hwy 85A, Afton, OK) 1pm

• Saturday, October 31st - Bozo’s Garage in Santa Rosa hosts ( 2601 Will Rogers Drive , Santa Rosa , NM ), 2pm

• Sunday, November 1st - Heading to Vegas!

You can see the route that the guys from Rolling Bones will take across the states in the map below;

The Rolling Bones Route

The guys below will be performing the adventure in the hot-rod (also shown below) if you're in the vicinity and see them don't forget to give them a wave!

Rolling Bones Coupe Hot-Rod

The Intrepid Explorers

If you’re interested in following their progress as they drive cross country, become a friend of Motorbooks on FACEBOOK or check out this blog.

New Biography/About Me

We have now modified the members section to allow them to upload a picture of themselves together with some information. A good example can be seen for Kate in the lowrider models gallery.

Hot Rod History

The Hot Rodding culture dates back to the late 1940's and the end of World War II mainly in southern California. It was fuelled by a period of peace and growing prosperity as well as the enthusiasm of young men returning from war with newly acquired mechanical skills.

After the war there was a plentiful supply of mainly early fords such as Model T's and Model A's that became an excellent choice for tuning and improving the performance. At this time in history performance parts weren't available and these came later with the car tuning pioneers such as Edlebrook, Offenhauser, Weber and many more. At this point for those who didn't have access to machinery or the know how to improve the engines performance the main option was to improve the power to weight ratio of the vehicle. This was easily achieved by removing some parts such as the wings, running boards etc. To those with the facilities other enhancements were made such as channeling the body over the chasis rails to improve the stability and performing a roof chop to reduce the drag.

Over a relatively short period of time the aftermarket tuning parts industry became big business, with the illegal street racing eventually evolving into the new sports such as NASCAR and drag racing that we see today.

The original drag racing strips were much wider and longer than they are today and were mainly formed from disused landing strips that had been created for war-time purposes. As drag racing became increasingly more popular it became evident that a central body was required to ensure that certain levels of quality and safety were met which led to the formation of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). The NHRA was formed by Wally Parks in 1951 in Southern California and today is one of the largest motor sports bodies in the world.

Hot Rod Evolution

In the 1970's there was a drive to improve the efficiency of cars which led to an overall loss in power for most manufacturer's cars. Due to the high fatality rates caused by accidents around the 1970's there was also a drive to improve the safety of all vehicles which mainly required the removal of hard objects from directly in front of the driver etc. All these changes in the main stream motor industry forced hot-rodding to evolve as well with cars hot-rods being safer and more fuel efficient. This new stream of hot-rods are now referred to as Street-Rods and are built to be driven and more family friendly. To oversee these changes a new governing body was formed in a similar vein to the NHRA which was called the National Street Rod Association (NSRA). Where the NHRA's primary focus is on safety on the drag strip the NSRA's focus at events with an inspection team that checks everything before the event starts.

The definition of a street-rod is a car that was manufactured in 1948 or earlier that has been modified to meet the owners requirments. The usual upgrades that take place are things like the drive train, interior, audio equipment etc.

To see then entire artciles including hot rod and street rod pictures click here.

The Cal Look

A stock Volkswagen Beetle is comparatively underpowered by modern standards and even as early as the 1950's companies were developing aftermarket performance product for Volkswagen owners that wanted a little more power. After a short period of time Beetles began entering drag racing competitions and holding their own on the strip.

In the 1960's enthusiasts (particularly in California) started to emulate these drag racing cars by stripping of all the chrome, upgrading the wheels and tyres and modifying the front suspension to give a nose down appearance. This style became the foundation of the Cal Look that we see today although it has evolved over time.

Today the Cal Look has become incredibly popular mainly due to the relative inexpensive of the Volkswagen Beetles and the cost involved in creating an eye-catching Cal Look example. There is a myriad performance parts available compared to those available in the 1960's and unleashing large amounts of power from the flat-four engine is fairly achievable on a modest budget.

One of the main features that identifies the Cal Look is the smooth body where most or all the exterior trim etc has been removed. This can be traced back to its drag-racing roots where reducing the curb-weight of a car is a key ingredient in achieving a good time on the drag strip. The steel wheels are also usually replaced with lighter alloy wheels with popular choices being Porsche Empi 5 or 8 spoke wheels. The choice of 5 or 8 spoke is mainly determined by the age of the car they are being installed on because older Volkswagen's had 5 studs whereas the later one only have 4 studs.

A common popular half-way variant on an all-out Cal Look is the Resto Cal Look. These Volkswagens are essentially stock with the exception of a lowered stance and tuned engine. They are often fitted with aftermarket period accessories such as roof-racks, fender-skirts and air conditioning units.

The Cal Look is no longer only popular on Volkswagen Beetle and is now also very popular with Campers, Ghia's and Type 4's.

In Stephan Szantai Demon Bugs book he gives many examples of Cal and Resto Cal Volkswagen's. To see the entire article together with some Cal Look pictures then click here.

Volks Rods

The Volksrod is really a hot-rod that is based on a Volkswagen Beetle but in the style that you may expect from Hot Rods build from Model T Fords or Model A Fords. Some believe that the scarseness of old cars to modify and customise has led to the increased popularity of volksrods while others suggest it could be due to the customising community looking for something a little bit different.

A Volksrod is easily identified as it will usually be in the style of a Rat-Rod and most commonly painted matt black. The wings are usually removed and replaced with wheel hugging mud-guards, to prevent stones from damaging fellow drivers cars.

The front suspension is either moved forward to make the wheel-base look longer with some reworking of the stock suspension and steering components. Another popular modification is remove the stock suspension and steering components and fit the suspension from an early Ford. This popularity of this modification has lead to the creation of several kits that have been made available.

To see the entire article together with some volks rod pictures click here.