We just finished up our first two installments of Hiwaze with the 1940’s and the 1950’s. Today we get into my time; the 1960’s. Although, I think I was born a couple of decades too late, I wouldn’t change it a bit. In this point, I like to think of my earliest car memories. One memory I just wrote about in a Burns Stainless blog about the recent death of Craig Breedlove. I remember seeing his Spirit of America car at a local Goodyear tire shop in the mid-60’s. Or the time in 1969, when my uncle Doug painted a ’64 GTO competition orange with black lace stripes in our garage. Or hanging with my older brothers Mike and Nick reading Hot Rod, Motor Trend, Car Craft and Auto Trader together.
In those last two installments of the 40’s and 50’s we spoke mostly about hot rods. Well, in the 60’s it was all about custom cars. The automotive aftermarket was booming with performance products, but like the tumultuous time that it was, people wanted something wild and fun and crazy and wild. Or did I already say that? These custom cars were the rave in movies, television and of course magazines. With that I would like to share this clip from my friend Dennis Gage’s show My Classic Car where he visits the Darryl Starbird Museum.
The Predicta which started it all for the “Bubbletop King”. Built in 1959 and won Car of the Future in the 1960 National Roadster Show in Oakland, California. Built in only 11 weeks at Star Kustom Shop. Thought to have been built by aliens the car started life as a ’56 Thunderbird. It went on to be featured in Car Craft in November of ’62 and in the March 2009 issue of Car Kulture Deluxe.
There were many kustomizers in the 1960’s Dean Jeffries, George Barris, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Gene Winfield, and the list goes on. Be sure to find more about them kats in future articles.
The 1960’s also gave us probably the number one toy that car guys today say started it all for them. Yep, those little 1:64 scale candy “Spectraflame” painted cars were hot. So hot that Mattel called them Hot Wheels. You might remember them… When Elliot Handler saw his son Kenneth playing with Matchbox, he finally found the toy that might outsell his wife Ruth’s “Barbie”. Handler want his cars to be more like hot rods and customs compared to Matchbox’s production car models. But it was the track sets and accessories that really skyrocketed the toy to success. Like Barbie’s playhouse, clothes and accessories this was a proven design to really stretch the concept. You will see in the video above that the Lil’ Coffin was the inspiration for the Hot Wheels “The Demon”.
I mean, come on. The 1960’s got so much going on in the hey day of the auto industry. Funny Cars, Muscle Cars, Cruisin, Car Clubs, so much going on. What would you like to see next? Email me your requests at TonyC@BlacktopMagazine.com I look forward to hearing from you.