METEOR

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I first saw the Meteor parked behind the bleachers several years ago at Famoso Raceway. Unbeknownst to me, the car’s appearance was the first time it had been out in public in more than fifty years. The CHRR was in full swing and I was newly deputized to the former CKD staff. I was armed with my trusty Canon EOS and in search of cars to shoot for event coverage. Through a crowd of people I caught the side of a Firestone dirt rib and the glimmer of a chrome trim ring. The pedestrian crowd thinned as I made my way forward and the Meteor came into full view before me like nothing I had ever seen before. The mass of Saturday spectators milled right past it without so much as a second glance. I guess to Joe Public it was just some weird old car. It wasn’t a shiny street rod, a flat black rat rod, or a supercharged gasser, and I suspect that their minds glazed shut without any recognizable clues to jog their interest.

I, however, was pulled in like high-test through a Stromberg. The patchwork of riveted aluminum appeared crude until I studied the gentle curves and precision fit of each piece. The lumpy hunk of iron poking through the hood area was a maze of oddities until I recalled what an old flathead Cadillac motor looks like, and the puffy rear tires were curiously marked on their sidewalls with “Airplane.”

Read the rest of this article in ISSUE 10: FAMOSO SPEED SHOP GASSER