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The subscriber cover this issue features one of the most famous '34 Ford hot rod coupes of all time, “The California Kid.” Pete Chapouris built this car back in 1973 and it appeared on the cover of Rod & Custom magazine in November of the same year with Jim Jacobs' yellow '34 highboy coupe. Pete and Jake had just formed Pete and Jake's Hot Rod Parts and would go on to take the coupes on tour, driving them across country and back many times. This issue we decided to celebrate the company's 35th anniversary and take a look back over the years.

While we were celebrating Pete and Jake's 35th anniversary, we decided to include the late Jim Ewing's Super Bell coupe in the mix. Jim's company, Super Bell Axle Co. was founded the year after Pete and Jake's and became a close friend and road trip companion.

We had initially planned on shooting Kurt McCormick's Westergard '41 Cadillac upon our return from the Street Rod Nationals last year, but a chaotic schedule hindered the possibilities. Original Hop Up magazine editor Spence Murray has been one of our Senior Contributors for some time now, so when he came up with the idea of having himself and original Hop Up staff photographer, Ralph Poole, travel to Missouri to handle the photography, just like they did back 50 years ago, and we loved the idea. The Cadillac is one of the few remaining Westergard customs left.

It has been quite some time now that we have wanted to shoot Ross Bava's Model A roadster. We first spied the beginnings of it when the completed chassis was displayed at the San Francisco Rod & Custom show a few years back. The roadster was built to a traditional late '50s early '60s theme and reminded us of the cars clubs like the Early Times, LA Roadsters and the Bay Area Roadsters were building back in that era. We felt it fitting to shoot the car at Pismo Beach, approximately half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco where these clubs would meet once a year, while doing some driving shots along the way.

The name Earl Evans has been synonymous with hot rodding since it's inception. This issue Jay Fitzhugh delves into the story of Earl, his speed equipment company and their racing exploits.

The second installment of our look at Richard McKinstry's drag racing exploits from the early sixties appears this issue also. This time we concentrated on the '55 Chevy, the “Wapid Wabbit” that Richard and his friends campaigned along with the street cars he had during this time.

Back in TRJ #26 we showed a pictorial on the late Strother MacMinn's photography of early dry lakes hot rodding and customs on the streets of LA. Recently Bob Ames published a book containing over 100 of Strother MacMinn's images and TRJ is proud to be it's sole distributor. We felt it only appropriate to show an excerpt of the book, along with a few outtakes for good measure.