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Bob’s bootleggin’ Speedster

Bob’s bootleggin’ Speedster

  • Bob’s bootleggin’ Speedster

Last Tuesday we showed you a duo of 1930 Ford Model A’s that had been submitted to some serious hot-rodding. Fallen prey to, we can hear some of you say, as reactions to these kind of modifications were as mixed as they’ll ever be.

But let’s not wipe out the historical significance of the hot-rodding community. Wikipedia says: “The predecessors to the hot rod were the modified cars used in the Prohibition era by bootleggers to evade revenue agents and other law enforcement. Hot rods first appeared in the late 1930s in southern California, where people raced modified cars on dry lake beds northeast of Los Angeles.”

The picture seen here is dated May 1926. Could what we see perhaps also be called a hot rod? There is a caption that simply reads ‘Bob’s Ford custom body speedster’, which makes it reasonable to think that this version of the Model T was made by Bob himself, with low cut-out doors and chopped-off windscreen. It’s a pity we can’t see the back as it might have revealed more of Bob’s skills. A bootlegger? Who can tell? The lady certainly seems to appreciate his craftsmanship.

Have a good weekend folks.

 

Words by Jeroen Booij. Picture from the archive.

 

Publiziert:
Freitag September 17th, 2021

Kommentare

RONALD D SIEBER
20 September 2021, 05:32
There's a fair amount of debate about how all of the elements of the various speed movements in the United States all started and when. However, when one looks at the historical accounts in journals of the era, it becomes quite clear.

The roots of the hotrod movement (and other speed car happenings) were the cutdown speedsters from 1910-onward, a grassroots phenomenon that began with teens of that era who became part of the FastFord movement. They were imitating the cars that they saw at their local county fair horse tracks, vehicles that were either homebuilt or dedicated track racers by up-and-coming manufacturers who had the wherewithal to sponsor a racing team. It was a fast-evolving phenomenon that eventually branched out into landspeed vehicles, track racers, street speedsters and coashbuilt kit bodies, speed parts companies, and so on. Hotrodding really took off post-WWII, and so many people assumed that this was where it all began.

But it really goes back to the early days of the Model T. I cover this topic in my blog, Classic Speedsters.com, and I am releasing a comprehensive book on the subject and history of speedsters soon; the target date, barring COVID-related slowdowns, is in November. Fascinating history...

Wikipedia is a work in progress, so to speak, and in this instance, they are falling a bit short.

=rds
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