CHRR Day One: Tom West Details the
Magicar
By Phil Elliott
Tom West presents Bill Pitts with an autographed drawing of his restored Magicar.
Photo by Phil Elliott
Each successive year of the California Hot Rod
Reunion, cutaway artist Tom West chooses a likely subject and applies
his genius to it, then sells copies during the event as a fundraiser.
This year, he chose "Magicar," a Kent Fuller design made
famous for its needle nose and rear suspension back in 1965 and again
after it was lovingly restored some years ago by Bill Pitts. This
restoration went a step beyond a museum piece because it is operational
-- it has always been started to show what a nitro Chrysler sounded
like. Pitts' did the whole project to share period correctness with the
masses.
Bill Pitts gives a heartfelt thank you speech to Tom and the CHRR crowd.
Photo by Phil Elliott
During events where he has displayed, Bill
Pitts has fired the Magicar innumerable times, often with a guest in the
historic seat. It has been him and his passion that can be thanked and/or
blamed for the current crop of "Cacklefest" cars.
West's rendition has taken slight license by adding Bill Pitts name to the
original Winkle & Trapp teammates. His presentation speech gave the
assembled crowd during the annual Standard 1320, Thursday night dinner,
much to contemplate. Pitts' acceptance was full of gratitude and
emotion.
Phil Elliott
flyinphil32@earthlink.net
Tom
West responds:
Thanks for putting that stuff up there on your site. I intended for Pitts to get something a little more memorable for this year's event, as I feel that he is one of the real spirit-makers for the whole thing. He created the static Fireup deal, incorporating fans and old racers into the deal, which was not done previously.
By the way, the drawing raised something like $1355 for the Rance McDaniel Special Needs Fund over the weekend. If you could express my gratitude to all those guys who popped for the copies, then had to carry them around all day, I would appreciate it.
Again, thanks for getting Phil's article in there.
Tom West
twestxray@aol.com
