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AHR CHRISTMAS GIFT PACK SPECIALS

Wednesday, November, 2016

AHR Christmas Special Gift Packs

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift for that special hot rodder in your life?

Australian Hot Rodder’s special gift packs could be just what you’re looking for.

There are three packs to choose from, the Starter Pack, the Builder Pack, and the Big Daddy Pack.

The AHR Starter pack gets you copies of AHR issues #1, #2 and #3, the AHR Builder pack gets you copies of AHR issues #4, #5 and #6, and the Big Daddy pack gets you copies of all six issues of AHR published to date.

Price of these special offers is just $60 for the Starter and Builder packs, and only $120 for the Big Daddy pack.

Best of all we send them to you post-free.

Order now to ensure you receive yours in time for Christmas.

AHR #2 – THE STORY CONTINUES …

Monday, September, 2012

Issue #2 of Australian Hot Rodder picks up the story of Australian Hot Rodding where AHR #1 left off, with 152 glossy, full-colour pages jam-packed with great in-depth stories and stunning photography of some of the best hot rods built in this country.

CLASSIC BEAUTY

It starts with Melbourne hot rod builder Colin Bate’s beautiful ’36 Ford coupe, which features on the cover. The coupe caught Colin’s eye when he first saw it in the late 1960s and when it came up for sale in 1975 he jumped at the chance to own it.

In the years he’s owned it, Colin has twice rebuilt it, he’s also shown it, drag raced it, and used it as a daily driver. We chronicle the absorbing story of this true classic of Australian hot rodding.

80 YEARS YOUNG

With the ’32 Ford turning 80 this year, we reckoned it was timely to look at the icon of hot rodding in Australia; it’s history, its appeal to hot rodders, together with a selection of some of great Deuce roadsters.

LIL’ BROWN DEUCE

AHR publisher’s own ’50s-styled highboy Deuce roadster with all the traditional touches, like the Offy-equipped blown flathead, quick-change Halibrand diff, classic Guide headlamps, 15-inch Mercury steelies and big and little whitewalls.

DALEY’S LITTLE BEAUTY

Sydney hot rodder Kevin Daley vowed never to sell the channelled ’32 roadster he built way back in the 1960s, and he was as good as his word. Kevin’s daughter Leanne now owns and treasures the car, and why not, her first ever ride in a car was when she was driven home from hospital in the roadster after her birth.

A SPECIAL ROADSTER

Ray Sprague built his first hot rod, a ’34 Ford coupe body channelled over a ’32 chassis, in the 1950s, which was followed by a full-fendered, Dodge-powered ’32 roadster in the early 1960s. Today, he’s better known for terrorising the classic road-racing brigade in his home-built flathead-powered highboy ’32 roadster. Ray built the roadster’s alloy body himself using a home-built wheeling machine to create the curves.

OLD FAITHFUL – THEN AND NOW

Visitors to hot rod shows in the 1960s couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw the flathead-powered ’32 Ford roadster built by Manny Azzopardi and Charlie Buhagiar. They started with a ’32 Ford Sport Coupe and cut it down into a roadster, then channelled it and polished and plated everything in sight to create the stunning car that swept the show scene from its mid-1960s debut to its final outing in the early 1970s. After trading the car in on a new Falcon GT Azzopardi and Buhagiar lost track of their iconic hot rod, but AHR has traced its full history, ending with its current owners in South Australia.

RED HOT CHILI COUPE

Neil ‘Ned’ Kelly went against his father’s wishes that he buy a new Holden and instead bought an old ’35 Ford Coupe and began transforming it into a classic hot rod. Kelly successfully showed the coupe, drag raced it, and drove it every day through the 1960s. The neat coupe still resides in Kelly’s garage in suburban Melbourne.

SPEED MERCHANT

Drag racing is now a high tech, big dollar sport, but back in the 1960s when it was just getting started here it was possible to race your everyday driver.

Back then, Eddie Thomas was the king of the drag strip in his big, blown Chrysler rail. Thomas dominated local drag racing, setting record after record and beating all comers, and took the fight up to the visiting American team of drag racers when they came here for the Dragfest in 1966. Old ‘ET’ is still powering on, as we discovered.

THE WAY THEY WERE

Twelve years ago when Leno Pirotta decided to build a new hot rod he wanted to build it just the way he would have done had he built it in the 1960s when he was a young kid chasing girls around Melbourne. Pirotta is best known for building the sharp ’39 Ford Sloper back then, but has stepped back into hot rodding after an absence of several years and has just completed the neat ’34 Ford highboy coupe.

TIME MACHINE

Bob Keith came to Australia with the American team that visited our shores in 1966 for the Dragfest series and raced a stunning big-block Chevy rail. Years later, a chance meeting between Keith and Brisbane-based drag racing writer, Lex Swayn, led to the idea of re-creating Keith’s old car. We went to Willowbank in Queensland to photograph the stunning result.

IN FOR THE LONG HAUL

Veteran Melbourne hot rodder Leo Spessott has driven his flamed yellow ’40 Ford convertible to every ASRF Nationals staged to date. Spessott bought the car in the 1960s and built it into a hot rod capable of transporting his family to rod runs.

Today, it’s a familiar sight at events all around Victoria, and the Nationals whenever and wherever they’re staged.

Click here to order AHR #2

HOT RODDERS RETURN TO PIROTTA’S FOR THE LAUNCH ON AHR #2

Sunday, September, 2012

Issue #2 of Australian Hot Rodder was launched in style in early September when hundreds of hot rodders descended on Pirotta Motorsport, the scene of the launch of Australian Hot Rodder last year.

 

 

Those who missed out on seeing the show-stopping Nailhead Buick-powered Model A Ford bucket built by Joe Pirotta and Charlie Caruana in the 1960s run at the launch of AHR Issue #1 were treated to a repeat running of the iconic hot rod.

To the delight of everyone Joe Pirotta did the honours this time when he started the ‘Crimson Pirate’ to demonstrate that the rumours that the car wasn’t a runner were unfounded. Just to underline that it was also capable of being driven the crimson and gold pickup was driven out of the workshop and down the road outside Pirotta’s factory.

They also saw and heard the awesome ‘Satisfaction’, the blown 427 cubic inch SOHC Ford V8-powered Cortina drag car, fired up, as well as a dyno demonstration.

The ‘Satisfaction’ name dates back to the 1960s when Joe and Charlie painted on the side of the 289 cubic inch Windsor-powered FX Holden they built back then.

Several of the cars that feature in AHR Issue #2 were also on hand. Colin Bates brought along his beautiful ’36 Ford coupe, which took centre stage on the workshop floor as the AHR #2 cover car. Ray Sprague was also there with his road-racing ’32 Ford roadster, so too was ‘Ned’ Kelly, who came in his stunning red ’35 Ford coupe, and veteran hot rodder Leo Spessott who dusted off his flamed ’40 Ford convertible for the day.

Also there to help launch AHR #2 were drag racing legends Eddie Thomas, who is featured in #2, John English, Jack ‘Fizzball’ Collins, and Jim Walton.

 

The highlight of a great day came when Eddie Thomas and Colin Bates were invited to cut the cake to mark the occasion.

 

Click here to order AHR #2

AHR #2 is in print

Wednesday, June, 2012

We signed off on the colour proofs of AHR #2 last week and it’s now full speed ahead at the printer’s, so we reckon it’s time to give you a preview of what’s coming in the next issue.

With the ’32 celebrating its 80th birthday this year we figured we just had to make a feature of the hot rod icon. The ’32 was launched in Detroit in late March 1932, but it wasn’t until August that year that Australians were able to sample the Deuce and its hot new V8 engine.

Less than 2000 Deuce passenger cars were produced by Ford Australia, almost two-thirds of them were V8s.

When our budding young hot rodders picked up their copies of HOT ROD magazine in the mid-1950s the car they saw featured more than any other was the ’32 and that was the one they wanted. Overnight the ’32 Ford was the most sought after old Ford of all, and it still is today.

In the late-1950s Manny Azzopardi and Charlie Buhagiar were recent arrivals from Malta living in Sydney when they bought their first issue of HOT ROD and like so many others they instantly wanted a Deuce roadster.

The car they went on to build was one of the top show cars of the 1960s, winning a swag of trophies at shows between 1966 and 1972 when they sold it, never to see it again.

We managed to track Old Faithful down in its new home in South Australia, and shot it for our story on the great old car.

The famous Buhagiar/Azzopardi roadster is one of four Deuce roadsters featured in AHR #2, we also have stories on Kevin Daley’s beautiful channelled roadster, Ray Sprague’s hot racer, and the editor’s own highboy, but AHR #2 is not just about the ’32, there are also plenty of other great stories on hot rods and hot rodders.

Colin Bates has been building hot rods for a living since the early 1970s and is regarded as one of the best in the business.

One look at his stunning ’36 Coupe that graces the cover of AHR #2 is enough to convince you of his ability to produce great hot rods.

Colin believes that hot rods should be driven and there’s no better example of his commitment to building great driving cars than his ’36, which has won trophies at shows, performed on the drag strip, and done 150,000 km on the street.

Drag racing has always been a part of hot rodding, but never more so than in the 1960s when it was possible to race your everyday driver on the strip.

Back then Eddie Thomas was the ‘Big Daddy’ of drag racing with his home-built Chrysler-powered AA/D rail. No one did more than Eddie to promote drag racing and hot rodding in general until he retired from racing in 1968.

We tracked Eddie down for our story on this genuine Australian hot rodding legend.

With 152 glossy, full colour pages, AHR #2 also features stories on Neil ‘Ned’ Kelly’s timeless ’35 coupe, Leno Pirotta’s old style ’34 coupe, Leo Spessot’s flamed ’40 convertible, and the re-created blown big-block AA/D rail driven by Bob Keith, the captain of the visiting American team in the 1966 Dragfest.

Click here to order AHR #2

AHR #2 - THE STORY CONTINUES

Sunday, June, 2012

Issue #2 of Australian Hot Rodder picks up the story of Australian Hot Rodding where #1 left off, with 152 glossy, full-colour pages jam-packed with great in-depth stories and stunning photography of some of the best hot rods built in this country.

It starts with Colin Bate’s beautiful ’36 Ford coupe, which features on the cover. The coupe caught Colin’s eye when he first saw it in the late 1960s and when it came up for sale in the mid-’70s he jumped at the chance to own it.

In the years he’s been able to call it his, Colin has twice rebuilt it, he’s also shown it, drag raced it, and driven it daily. We chronicle the absorbing story of this true classic of Australian hot rodding.

With the ’32 Ford turning 80 this year, we reckoned it was timely to look at the icon of hot rodding in Australia; it’s history, its appeal to hot rodders, along with a selection of some of great Deuce roadsters.

Included are the Buhagiar/Azzopardi ’32 roadster that wowed show-goers in the 1960s, as well as the stunning channelled ’32 roadster built by Kevin Daley, the sizzling hot road racing roadster of Ray Sprague, and the new highboy of AHR’s publisher, Graham Smith.

Drag racing is now a high tech, big dollar sport, but back in the 1960s when it was just getting started here it was possible to race your everyday driver.

Back then Eddie Thomas was the king of the drag strip in his big, blown Chrysler rail. He dominated local drag racing, set record after record and beat all comers, and took the fight up to the visiting American team of drag racers when they came here for the Dragfest in 1966. Old ‘ET’ is still powering on as we discovered.

Bob Keith was the captain of the American team who visited our shores for that Dragfest series and raced a stunning big-block Chevy rail. A chance meeting between Keith and Brisbane-based drag racing writer, Lex Swayn, led to the idea of re-creating Keith’s old car. We went to Willowbank in Queensland to photograph the result.

In a feature-packed issue we also look at the new ’34 Ford coupe Leno Pirotta built the old way, we also chart the history of Neil ‘Ned’ Kelly’s well known ’35 Ford coupe, and look at the flamed ’40 Ford convertible Leo Spessot has driven to every Street Rod Nationals staged to date.

Read the full Issue here.

COLIN BATES' CLASSIC BEAUTY

Wednesday, April, 2012

AHR Issue #2 is nearing completion with much of the production now completed.

We recently photographed Colin Bates’ beautiful ’36 Ford coupe, the car that will feature on the cover of AHR #2 and it looks spectacular. Shot against a threatening sky with dark storm clouds gathering in the distance the stunning white coupe shines.

Colin Bates' beautiful '36 Ford coupe 

Colin has been building hot rods in Melbourne for 40 years and his reputation for engineering excellence and build quality is renowned within the hot rodding community. A hot rodder at heart, Colin not only builds great hot rods, he is also regularly seen driving them at rod runs.

He first eyed the ’36 coupe back in the 1960s when a fellow member of the Sultans Hot Rod Club owned it. He bought it in 1975 when the owner’s life took a different direction and he’s owned it ever since.

In that time it has been rebuilt twice, winning top coupe at the Victorian Hot Rod Show in 1977 at the completion of the first rebuild. It has also been driven for much of that time, clocking up 150,000 miles in daily use, as well as being drag raced and displayed at rod shows.

Colin is a big fan of the ’36 and has honoured Ford’s original design by sticking to the stock appearance and retaining much of the original chrome and stainless trim, but underneath the Art Deco skin he’s used a 350 cubic inch small block Chev V8, Saginaw four-speed gearbox and nine-inch “Tank” Fairlane diff.

The full story on Colin’s Classic Beauty is featured in AHR Issue #2.

  • Australian Hot Rodder #11

    Australian Hot Rodder #11

    Packed with great features and stunning photography on new and nostalgic rods and customs. 

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  • Australian Hot Rodder #10

    Australian Hot Rodder #10

    Packed with great features and stunning photography on new and nostalgic rods and customs. 

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