These seven cars have one thing in common: their large and lasting impact on the sport of hot rodding. 

 

No claim is made that these seven hot rods are the best, the most beautiful, the most important, or the most anything. These are simply seven cars that made an impression on the world of hot rodding that can still be seen today. In random order, here are seven hot rods that made a difference.

 

Exquisitely constructed using simple hand tools, Bill Niekamp’s ’29 Ford Model A roadster was the first winner of the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) award at the inaugural Oakland Roadster Show in 1950. Niekamp, a pro bodyman, fabricated the chassis from 1927 Essex frame rails using only threaded fasteners, believing that welded joins would “lock in the stresses,” a common theory then.

Rescued and restored by Jake Jacobs of Pete & Jake’s fame, Niekamp’s roadster is now part of the collection of the Petersen Automotive Museum. With its Whitey Clayton-fashioned race car nose and stock doors shortened two inches, the Niekamp is the perfectly proportioned Model A track roadster.

 

Tex Smith’s Hot Rod Magazine XR6 is a very early example (along with Spence Murray’s Rod & Custom Dream Truck) of a magazine project car—built to showcase the latest hot rodding trends, and more importantly, the products advertised in the pages of the magazine.

The XR6 sported a number of fresh features, including Exner-esque asymmetric styling, hideaway headlights, and Chrysler Slant Six power.  Hot Rod staffer Smith was rewarded for his original, well-executed project with the 1963 AMBR award. You can find the Mac’s Motor City Garage feature on the XR6 here.

 

With its cut-down Bantam coupe body and hemi-powered digger chassis, Al Berger’s AA/Competition dragster stood with its wheels in two drag racing eras. More Aggravation, he called it, the hybrid won the first-ever Ridler Award at the 1963 Detroit Autorama.

When the funny car phenomenon was born only a few years later, Detroit native Bergler became one of its premier craftsmen, performing the sheetmetal work for countless leading funny cars. And he was also one of the category’s leading drivers with his string of Motown Shaker funny cars.

 

By the mid-to-late ’60s, hot rodding had grown fat and flabby, evolving into something called street rodding, performed with air-conditioned sedans sporting automatic transmissions. Rod & Custom writer Bud Bryan pulled the sport back to its flathead roadster roots with his ’29 Ford Highboy project.

Through a series of detailed magazine articles, Bryan demonstrated how to build a for-real Ford Model A/V8 hot rod, showing the ropes to a new generation of hot rodders. Bryan’s roadster might be the first example of what eventually became the retro rod movement.

 

Detroit hot rod or West Coast hot rod? Chili Catallo’s Silver Sapphire was a little of both. The Motor City’s Alexander Brothers started work on the ’32 Ford coupe. Then when Catallo moved to Los Angeles in mid-build, George Barris took a hand in the increasingly re-imagined Deuce.

The wildly styled rod was first featured on the cover of the July 1961 issue of Hot Rod Magazine, but found permanent fame as the sleeve art for the Beach Boys’ album, Little Deuce Coupe. 

 

Larry Ernst was a Catholic priest in Toledo, Ohio with a wealthy family (Fisher Body) and a passion for custom cars. Purchasing a new 1951 Chevy Bel Air, he drove it to Los Angeles and gave customizers Sam and George Barris a blank check and a free hand to work their magic. The hardtop then went back to Toledo to spread the West Coast kustom gospel.

There are two versions of the Bel Air Royal, as Father Ernst called it, in existence today. The original was restored by Burns Berryman to its initial 1951 Barris configuration in violet and lavender lacquer. Keith Ashley created the magnificent clone shown here, which is built to reflect the Bel Air’s 1953 makeover in gold, green, and tangerine, also by Barris. That’s Barris himself giving a walkaround talk of the Bel Air at the Glenmoor Gathering in Canton, Ohio.

 

The So-Cal Coupe of Alex Xydias is the quintessential dry lakes racer. A radically chopped ’34 Ford three-window coupe originally constructed by Russell Lanthorne and Jim Gray, the So-Cal was set up for dual-purpose use—drags and lakes racing. However, a clutch explosion and fire at Pomona in 1954 claimed the life of the driver, Dave DeLangton.

Raced for decades on the strip and salt with multiple drivetrains by a series of owners, the coupe was purchased in 1996 by Don Orosco and given a total restoration. Now returned to supercharged Ardun V8 power, the coupe won the hot rod category at the Pebble Beach Concours in 2001.