The cool hot rod

[Applause] [Music] la [Music] [Applause] see the guy behind the wheel of that Boulder Street lightning that's me Bullet Bill Boward my folks and I just moved to this new city and it sure seemed to me like we'd picked out a town full of [Music] Sleepwalkers that included the fellas and girls my own age too I never saw such a collection of sleepy Joe's and they drove like Rich old ladies in oldtime electric heaps it looked like I was going to have to educate the high school on the subject of hot rod how to take a gilapy and really make it move why in the Berg I came R I had the juiciest bug of any rer in the goose greasers that was our street racing club and I had the biggest collection of traffic citations too all of greasers drove the cops crazy and I could have started a private metal sanitarium for those I'd worked over [Music] I hadn't met Walt Perry and his sister Janet yet Walt was president of the knights the City Auto Sport Club his sister was secretary I guess my Roadster impressed him yeah I really had a job putting some life into this town why these Jokers even walk slow I went into my act at lunchtime trying to bring the word to a bunch of prime squares but believe me that was the cold audience anybody ever played to I got nothing just nothing I didn't get it at all were these guys abnormal or something or I joined up with a bunch of zombies it was going to be tough but I'd have to bury [Music] it I was stuck with him this city was a slow bird [Music] it was kind of Lonesome that first day and after school but I knew a way to get him to notice me it had always worked before where I came [Music] from yeah they knew I was around now all right you should have seen him scatter I got a lot of attention some of it not quite what I had in mind Officer Jim Daniels came to school to give his regular safety talk he took off after [Music] me first he told me I was driving like a wild man I took that as a compliment and then he asked if I was a member of the knights so I said no I was a goose creaser and wanted to show him my card but all he wanted to see was my driver's license did didn't impress me much like I say I held a goose Greaser record but this was a different kind of to go to court all right but that wasn't new but this court was held right in the school and the judge and jury and the whole Court were girls and fellas like myself how about that I didn't dig it at all officer Daniels was there he was the police department adviser the judge really sucked it to me I didn't have to go to jail or pay another fine I was sentenced to a special traffic school for unsafe and reckless drivers I'd heard about these School courts all over the country how they'd helped cut down teenage accidents but I'd never dreamed I'd end up in one I had to find out from somebody just what was the matter with this town why were they so far behind the [Music] [Applause] [Music] times I guess officer Daniels had figured out what I was thinking he suggested that Walt and Janet Perry explain a few things about their city and hot riding the night's way they gave it to me both barrels they weren behind the times I was how about that me behind the times so I began learning about real hot roding the kind that developed after World War II that's when thousands of high school and college kids and servicemen were bitten by the speed bug they began cutting down and souping up stock cars and racing them in the public streets it didn't take long to give drivers under 25 a bad name why maybe because team teenage accidents were killing or maming somebody once every 2 minutes causing more damage than all fires and twice as many casualties as we had in the whole Korean War the police cracked down too and collected driver's licenses wholesale this scene was played up in a national picture magazine but like Walt explained figures don't mean much just reading them you're a lot more impressed by what happens to you [Music] personally Tom Hanks was Walt's best friend and his hero actually Tom had be Air Force a fighter pilot now he was going to college Tom had build up just about the slickest cut down custom conversion in existence you see Tom had a big Advantage his father George Hanks had a big Auto Repair business and besides that he manufactured and sold speed Parts Mr Hanks had to admit that his son had the hottest motor in town but Tom shouldn't have spent all his time on the motor there are other parts to a car [Music] too like those little gimmicks in the wheels the brakes Tom was breezing down the road and he was catching up to the 11:05 a pretty fast Freight then he thought of a good test for his engine if he could beat the fast Freight to the crossing he'd know his engine was [Music] perfect then the engine sputtered missed slowed down just a little Tom wouldn't beat the train he'd have to use his brakes but he didn't have any and it was too late to turn off would have been easy to find that LE in the brake line but Tom had spent all his time on the motor a whole lot more impressive than figures after the accident Mr Hanks told Officer Jim Daniels he wanted to do something anything to keep other boys from getting killed the way his son was well officer Daniels was ready he'd been reading about a new kind of hot rod club with stiff safe driving tests and which only admitted members who hadn't had a ticket for 6 months they their cars but only on special safe drag strips after complete safety inspections so that was how the night's hot rod Club was organized Mr Hanks was its sponsor and Jim Daniels agreed to be Police Department adviser Mr Hanks turned over a garage to the club and gave them enough tools and equipment for a start every hot rer in town wanted to join but the safe driving test and no ticket requirement kept out quite a few at the [Music] start then while they were waiting for a drags STP the knights began getting their cars in shape to qualify and to many proud owner surprise a lot of the cars failed the safety inspection those that failed were disqualified for racing so the owners worked them over night and day until they did [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] pass the inspection teams were getting good so officer Daniels decided to play a joke on him see just how good they were he brought over a prow car that was ready for overhaul the mechanic had found five things wrong now Jim wondered whether the knights could find [Music] them all the inspection teams joined in teaming up on Jim's Car [Music] and they found the faults all [Music] right and then more [Music] faults and more faults and more faults a dozen more than the contract mechanic had located when got that report he realized he'd been driving a death trap he was lucky to have gotten to the garage alive yeah the knights had made a beli her out of [Music] gym meantime Mr Hanks was collaring all his business friends and getting them to help sponsor a drag strip and safety program he was a real salesman almost before they knew it they were signed up nights sponsors Mr Hanks and Jim Daniel went looking for a site to develop a good safe drag strip they found an old Airfield that looked like it would fill the [Music] bill it didn't take long to get the strip ready and when the Knight staged their grand opening and their first time trials and drag races they were really on their way the club began to impress people the whole city in fact the knights were proud of their club and were out to build a new reputation for hot roders for courtesy and safe driving more and more motorists in distress received Club courtesy cards they led a successful campaign for driver education and auto shop training in high school and right away this began paying off just as it has everywhere in a survey in one state 800 untrained drivers had five times as many accidents as 800 who had received training in school at the same time the untrained drivers got seven times as many traffic [Music] tickets believe it or not teenage drivers who are trained in school courses have a lot fewer accidents and get a whole lot less tickets than adult drivers the driving teachers say that the students really go for it driving class is one they never [Music] miss and why would they every now and then there are guest speakers like the famous Ralph dama who's considered the greatest racing driver in the past 50 years he always tells the girls and fellas that nobody appreciates and respects careful driving more than a profession professional racer well sure all that safety stuff was fine I told him sounded good but speed was my meat a good fast Mill and a tire burning takeoff the night's go for Speed too Walt said and then he asked if I'd like to bring my job out to the drag strip Sunday and try it out against some of their wagons this was what I'd been waiting for Walt had himself a deal but I never got near the strip they wouldn't let me they checked my car over and said it wasn't safe it took me a month working after school and on weekends just to get ready to pass the safety test so I was finally going to get my chance while we were waiting for them to qualify my car Walt showed me around explaining how a properly run drag strip operates there are classifications for all kinds of hot rods but the main one is the ratio of weight to piston displacement this determines the basic engine [Music] class after a car is weighed and classified it gets a complete safety inspection I knew from experience how tough this is those inspectors don't miss a thing that's why drag strips have run for years without a serious accident [Music] when it's been classified and inspected for safety a car is ready to run it gets an official number but drivers have to be in good standing too if they're not of age their parents have to okay them some of them show up a little too early while the other cars are getting oil changes he just gets changes period [Music] one of the cars named The Bean Bandit held a strip record from a standing start to 142 mph in a quarter of a mile you'd be surprised at the number of girls who we these drags not just driving either they know what's under the hood because they put it there themselves yeah the drag strip was like a circus or a miniature Indianapolis hundreds of people were there from town to watch a real big professional deal [Music] [Applause] believe it or not from a standing start some of these draggers would beat a Jet Plane down that quarter mile [Music] stretch there were just about as many ideas in rebuild bodies and Chassis as there were in high efficiency Motors [Music] it may be a man's world but you'd never know it on that drag strip the girls didn't ask any special deal either they went right out and ran against the men did fine too they won their share of [Music] places George Hanks and Jim Daniels had a right to be proud and they were the Knights in their drag strip were things the whole city could take pride in no wonder they came out by the hundreds or even thousands to watch every [Music] Dragon then Walt pointed out a man at the refreshment counter his name was Phillips a top designing engineer from Detroit did you know that a whole lot in ideas and new cars were first tested and proved on drag strips and dry legs things like dual exhaust dual carburetors and compression heads Phillips was there to watch for applications his company could [Music] use you know by the time they called my number I'd become so interested I almost forgot what I was there for if this was my chance to show him I didn't have any doubt about breaking the record the only question I had was by how [Music] [Applause] much but either that that clock was broken or somebody was being funny I thought they had me clocked at a little over 70 just half the speed of the top car I complained to Walt just who the comic was Walt said nobody the time was right but if I wanted to try a drag race I sure did now I could really show him right on the drag strip with no phony CLS out of my way starter yeah I showed him all right I had the coldest hot rod on the strip I was left so far back I could have been driving Jack Benny's Maxwell obviously I had a lot to learn from these squares well there was still the reliability run you'd think by now I'd have had better sense than to go through with it but I didn't and I learned another lesson I couldn't even finish my radiator boiled over and I ran out of gas and I was going to teach them about hot [Music] rods when that 1925 star went by me that did it right then I made up my mind if it was the last thing I ever did I had to be one of the knights so I got the list of membership requirements from Walton's sister she was the club secretary and guess the first thing I had to do I had to learn to drive imagine that after all the miles I'd driven but after a couple of sessions in the Dual control car I found out there was a whole lot more to good safe driving than knowing how to turn the wheel or which pedal is the gas actually there was more I didn't know about driving than I did know but that was just the first requirement [Music] next thing on the list was to go 6 months without a citation or even a warning that was really tough at first but I made it believe me I was never so glad of anything in my life as I was to get hold of that little Knight's membership card but I knew one thing I was a whole lot better and a safer driver than I was before I started working for it Janet asked me to come outside she said the knights were holding a clinic and wanted me to join him and that's when I found out how little I actually did know about souping up an engine the knights were holding a clinic all right on my car [Music] I thought I'd reved up my motor pretty well but now I learned about porting and relieving the blocks cylinder boore racing flywheels custom cam shafts exhaust headers dual exhaust tolerances new ignition high compression heads hemispherical combustion Chambers dual carbs dual point Distributors dual intake well I needed a mechanic's dictionary to even follow what they were talking about all those parts and the tools were going to cost money so I got a job after school in Saturdays to pay for him you know some guy spend thousands of dollars on a good hot [Music] rod while I was getting the money together I read every book on mechanics I could get I got a few ideas too about carburetors mostly I decided to rebuild my car for the reliability run instead of the drag race this would give me a better chance to try my carburetor ideas and you know something my ideas paid off too it took me a few months but I finally won a third place for reliability but I got a real surprise when they started giving out the trophies how well the city Merchants had awarded a trip to the Memorial Day race at Indianapolis to the boy the club voted most deserving and guess guess who the knights elected me Bill Bowers the ex ticket champ how about that then Mr Phillips you know the Detroit engineer came over and wanted to look at my [Music] carburetor he asked if I'd be interested in a scholarship for their Factory school to study mechanical engineering they've given a lot of scholarships to fellas in hot rod clubs and a lot of them became top mechanics and designers of course I said yes so oh I got the biggest kick of my life seeing the 500m race they'd arranged for Ralph dep Palama to show me around too he introduced me to racing stars like Manny aula and ab Jenkins and Mr dep and Harry Harts talked over old times we looked over all the cars too Bob esus and Driver Don Freeland were Wheeling their special out for a warm-up run this is the toughest race of all for cars and drivers a speed trial and reliability run all at [Music] once what a kick meeting famous guys like Duke nen and Roger Ward and they told me they all considered Ralph dama the greatest driver in Indianapolis history and wil B Shaw the president of the Indianapolis Speedway agreed with him he won the race three times himself you think the races are fast you should watch the pit Crews work why they can change a tire faster than a blowout can go flat a driver just couldn't win the race without a good pit crew to work his car over during the pit [Music] stops then on the morning of Memorial Day The Big Race started I think there were about 200,000 people watching the biggest crowd for any sports event in the country and to get this out of the 33 cars nine of them were driven by X Hot roders members of clubs like the knights the winter drove the 500 miles in less than 4 hours that means an average of better than 125 yeah like I said it was the biggest kick I ever had hard to realize I was actually sitting there watching the biggest race in the world yeah it's tough to believe now that that jerk in the slop of was me just a few months back before I became a [Music] knight you see The Reckless kid and an old clunker like that one is not a hot Roder at all he's a square and a shot Rod real hot roders and organized clubs and timing associations all over the country have taken what used to be a hazard and turned it into a real Hobby and a genuine benefit to their communities not just through safe driving and driver education either they've raised thousands of dollars for charity conducted blood drives for the Red Cross and developed top mechanic and designers for automobile manufacturers as well as testing and proving ideas that have produced better safer cars for everybody so that's the real story of the cool Hot Rod the one time Hazard that has become a brand new safe Progressive American Hobby [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]