Monday, January 05, 2009
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| NOSTALGIA FEATURE | |||
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| It’s such a simple idea—almost elementary in its concept—take a kid to a car show. | |||
It’s a program initiated by SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketers Association) several years ago to preserve the chain of enthusiasm for custom and performance cars, trucks and motorcycles. In a culture where Nintendo is rapidly replacing GTO, the idea is to pass the passion for cars from one generation to the next. Motive Club is dedicated to helping our members become ambassadors for the hobby to their kids and their community. On a prototypical Southern California afternoon, Motive Club founder Ron Flint arranged for Mac McKelvy, a freshman at Newport Harbor High School, to join him at the NHRA museum as a special guest. It was Cruise Night and by 2:00 pm the parking lot was jammed with candy colors, flames and outrageous blowers that extended beyond roof height. Like most high school kids from Southern California, Mac’s automotive dreams were exotics and imports like Audis or Hondas. He wasn’t versed in Pro-Street, Boss 429 Mustangs, or AAR Cudas. In fact, he had never heard of them. They first conversation went something like this: MC: What’s you favorite car? Mac: I like the usual – Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Skylines. MC: Not much (if any) of those here. Mac: Looks to me like a bunch of old cars. MC: Maybe we can find something you’ll like. |
High buck rods can be hard to understand for many kids – after all, this flamed Ford likely cost more than a Ferrari. A bit of education, however, goes a long way to bring to life the unique personality of such a car. |
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We needed a jumpstart and Ron knew just the guy; he had arranged for Hot Wheels legend Carson Lev and his wicked ’59 Redphin Chevy, to walk Mac around and talk street rod. As he walked the rows of cars, with everything from restored Thunderbirds to mega-buck street rods, Mac showed signs of car-guy in the making. Questions about shiny metal boxes turned into discussions on tunnel ram intakes and the attributes of blowers and wheelie bars. The cars kept coming; the next discovery for Mac was a row of Shelby Cobras - real Cobras. Next up was Tony Thacker, Director for the NHRA Museum and well known author; Tony would give Mac a personal tour of what is perhaps the coolest garage in the world. You could see the wheels turning inside the 14-year old’s head, this was very cool stuff. Mac was offered the chance that most any drag racing fan would kill for, to climb behind the wheel of drag racing legend Tommy Ivo’s twin-engine dragster. From there it was a brief introduction to the history of Funny Cars and a long look at Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen’s recently restored Hot Wheels Duster. By the time Mac returned to the parking lot, this was no longer “a bunch of old cars.” We had one more treat in store, to give Mac a seat-of-the-pants taste of drag racing. Ron had arranged for us to visit the nearby SpeedZone Entertainment Complex. We showed up and strapped Mac in a V8 propane powered dragster for a thrill that you won’t find in any simulator. Check these Top Eliminator rails out at speedzone.com…you won’t believe that a ride like this exists! You can race five of your buddies at once and even get a reaction time read-out after your run. I promise it will get your blood pumping. Needless to say, it wasn’t a bad day’s work…we got one more convert. |
Left: Carson Lev (far left) and Motive Club founder Ron Flint explain the workings of transplanted TPI engine in Lev’s Red Phin ’59 Chevy. Center: Mac is about to get a lesson in how a Christmas Tree works. These SpeedZone Top Eliminator rails give you a good taste of good old V8 thunder!. Right: What was once to a 14-year old a bunch of shiny metal on an old car is now a blown Rat motor in a cherry ’67 Nova SS. |
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