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3/5/13 A city that speed calls home - latimes.com
www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-hot-rod-city-20130304,0,7748198.story 1/5
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Pomona is a center of Southern California's hot rod culture, with auto shops and the largesthigh-profile hot rod races and shows in the world.
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Jim m y Sh in e, m a n a g er a t So-Ca l Speed Sh op in Pom on a , w or ks on a 1 9 3 2 For d ow n ed by Bill Lin dig of
Hou ston , w h ich Sh in e w a s pr epa r in g for displa y a t th e Gr a n d Na tion a l Roa dster Sh ow a t th e Fa ir plex .
(A llen J. Sch a ben , Los A n g eles Tim es / Ja n u a r y 8 , 2 01 3 )
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3/5/13 A city that speed calls home - latimes.com
www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-hot-rod-city-20130304,0,7748198.story 2/5
By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
March 4, 2013 , 5:00 a.m.
83% 17%
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Hot rodder Jimmy Shine's tattoo-covered arms are elbows-
deep under the hood of a 1932 Ford as he adjusts the
electrical wiring on a $100,000 racing engine that hasn't
started in years.
Before a co-worker turns the ignition, Shine glances uneasily
at the small red fire extinguisher standing near his feet.
Suddenly, the V-8 sputters and wheezes, the noise echoing
off the garage's cinder block walls. Then it stops cold.
"It's being a little difficult today," he says, smiling. "But we'll
get it figured out."
PHOTOS: Hot rod city
The pressure is mounting for Shine and the rest of the crew at
So-Cal Speed Shop in Pomona to put the final touches on the
immense hot rod show car that's been five years in the
making. The car's owner has poured hundreds of thousands
of dollars into building a masterpiece: a one-of-a-kind motor,
hand-stitched leather interior and flawless body work. The
delivery date is just days away.
"It's got to be perfect," Shine said. "That's what we're all
about. You want a hot rod, you come to Pomona."
Pomona — population 150,119 — is home of the L.A. County
Fair, Cal Poly Pomona and a reinvigorated downtown. But
the city is just as known as a center for Southern California's
hot rod culture, especially since other cities paved over their
drag strips and racetracks and sold the land to developers.
The Fairplex has the largest high-profile hot rod races and
shows in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people come
each year — filling hotels, restaurants and shops — to visit
the hot rod museum and attend events such as the Grand
National Roadster Show, Swap Meet and Car Show, and the
L.A. Roadster Show.
Center stage is the quarter-mile drag strip officially named
the Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. Since the 1950s,
dragsters have locked in duels here, roaring down the 1,320-
foot band of asphalt to ever-increasing speeds.
It's a place where legendary drag racers like such as "Big
Daddy" Don Garlits, Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney, as well as
arch-rivals Don "the Snake" Prudhomme and Tom "the
Mongoose" McEwen, made a name for themselves, hitting
speeds in excess of 300 mph.
Daytona Beach has NASCAR. Indianapolis has the IndyCar.
Pomona has the hot rod.
The National Hot Rod Assn. begins and ends every season at the famed drag strip. But that has
created tension with neighbors, as engines with 7,000 horsepower scream at 145 decibels — louder
than a jet engine.
Pomona has an easier relationship with hot rod shops, which build show cars for wealthy auto buffs
and manufacture speed parts for the racing set.
The after-market auto business is responsible for about 3,600 jobs in and around Pomona. There
are 120 of these companies with combined annual sales of $250 million, according to an industry
marketing association.
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3/5/13 A city that speed calls home - latimes.com
www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-hot-rod-city-20130304,0,7748198.story 3/5
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FROM AROUND THE WEB
Less than five miles from the Fairplex drag strip, So-Cal Speed Shop's main garage is bustling with
stubble-faced mechanics modifying cars that had rolled off assembly lines decades earlier. Engines,
wheels and half-built hot rods are spread throughout the room.
A silver 1927 Roadster and a black 1958 Ford Thunderbird are parked along the right wall. In the
center is the silver 1932 Ford Coupe that Shine couldn't start. After his team replaced a carburetor
part, the engine fired up and kept running.
::
Eight exhibit halls at Pomona Fairplex were packed in late January with rows of vintage cars painted
in electric yellow, flaming orange and cherry red and other colors. It was the Grand National
Roadster Show, and clusters of baby boomers gathered around a maroon roadster and reminisced
about similar cars, using terms such as "trick," and "bitchin" and phrases such as "go like hell."
These are the fantasy cars of their youth: built in Detroit and modified in Southern California, during
a time when ducktail hairdos, pork chop sideburns and white T-shirts were as much a part of the
subculture as the cars themselves.
The start of the hot rod scene can be traced to the 1940s as soldiers returned from World War II.
Hot rods became a hobby for the veterans, an outlet for skills honed while working on P-51 fighter
planes or tuning up Jeeps in the motor pool.
Copy r ig h t © 2 01 3 , Los A n g eles Tim es
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3/5/13 A city that speed calls home - latimes.com
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condondeb at 4:44 PM March 04, 2013
God Bless Pomona !!!! Sure you'll find a few rice rockets burning Nitros. But they're notHot Rods. It's an art, guys building rods are craftsmen, who seldom let their hands toughmolded plastic, (exept Vettes) Stove bolt V-8s, small block chevy's with GM-670 blowersproducing a busy whrrrr! and a set of 20 inch wide rears burning hot rubber into the asphalt. It's a testament to the internal combustion engine and better rodding through nitromethane/ petroleum engineering. Got to love it, the NHRA has kept all the right elements in line tomake it an American religion, where we see skilled men bending iron, on their knees prayingit will run hot, straight and fast. Some dude cruising the strip with a set of velocity stackscrowning a classic Offenhauser Intake manifold. It cuses me to tear up, knowing somemachininst in the 1960s carefully placed the rough manifold casting on his milling machineand carefully formed a work of art, without a CNC program to help him. If I ever get runover by a car, it's got to have an all aluminum deep Oil pan, I want to see that puppy before Isay my last prayer.
JerryBrown at 1:47 PM March 04, 2013
The article failed to mention that Pomona is also host to one of the largest Auto Swap meetsin the U.S.
dfordla at 12:37 PM March 04, 2013
If it was up to "Boasting Public Employees" nobody would have a job or enough money to"Boast Public Employees"
Top 3 considered cars last week on@edmunds were @Honda Accord,@Jeep Grand Cherokee, @ToyotaRAV4
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