Customs and Hot Rods, The Disfunctional Children

by Don Pennington

The dry lakes near Los Angeles are big, empty and dirty, they are also historic and hold a very special place in the souls of anyone who appreciates the origins of hot rodding. Stepping onto the parched hardness of the lake bed surface you are feeling the same heat and walking through  the same dusty silt that was experienced by the earliest travelers eons ago. The forbidding and remote emptiness of the area has long held development at bay, the scars normally left by man's advancement are nowhere to be seen even in the far distance. It is obvious that for thousands of years Mother Nature's efforts regarding the grand scheme of things has successfully kept man away.

The American performance car goes back to the earliest days of the auto when the youth of the day thought that something better could be done with those dodgy contraptions running around the brick streets of Los Angeles, something faster, something better. The prime candidates for souping up those cars was usually the Model T Ford because they were plentiful and inexpensive, but just about any roadster would do. Fenders and windshields were thrown aside to lighten and streamline the cars to more resemble the circle track racers of the day. When modifications to the cars were complete, they must be tested and in the eyes of the car owners the city streets were the logical place. As street racing became more wide spread, the pressure from local police also grew, gradually the racing moved to the dry lakes, this expansive table top of hard dirt was the perfect place to drive fast. Almost as soon as the first two cars arrived the competitive instinct surfaced and dry lakes racing had begun in earnest, hot rods were born.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles some of the most elegant cars of the era were in vogue. Custom coach builders were hand crafting cars for wealthy clients on bare chassis' supplied by Dusenberg, Packard and others. By 1935 other manufacturers' styling had become much more streamlined, these custom and factory designs most certainly influenced the racing on the dry lakes as the smooth flowing lines were now on race cars and street cars alike. The race car owners saw this styling as  streamlining to help their hot rods go faster, while many others were adapting this look to their daily drivers because it looked good, soon to be known as "customs". The customs were often closed bodied cars, coupes and sedans, which early racing rules did not allow to compete on the lake beds, only roadsters and hand built streamliners were allowed. Although most liked both hot rods and customs, and many people owned both, a separation developed that persists today. By 1937 the evolution of racing came to a point where the Southern California Timing Association was formed, replacing the racing sanctioned by individual clubs, and their rules expressly sequestered closed cars from racing. During the days of World War II racing subsided on the lakes, then the veterans returned home and the pent up desires of this large group of discharged military personnel was being exercised through cars. It was 1945 Los Angeles, and there was a ready supply of old cars that managed to survive the scrap drives during the war. The returning war veterans quickly modified the old cars and returned to the dry lakes.

Bruce Geisler, a long time dry lakes and Bonneville racer and multi time President of the Southern California Timing Association remembers a rival organization, the Rusetta Timing Association, which was formed to include the banned coupes and sedans. His club the Rod Riders was a member of Rusetta and had about 35 cars running at the lakes on a regular basis, this during a time when 100 entries were the norm . Rusetta was starting to dwindle, soon the Rod Riders began talking about moving to the S.C.T.A.. At that time Rusetta events were timed on a 1.5 mile dry lakes course and allowed the use of nitromethane fuel while S.C.T.A. ran a 1.1 mile course and would not allow any fuels more exotic than alcohol. In an effort to entice the Rod Riders to join the S.C.T.A. their course was lengthened to 1.3 miles (the same distance they run today), and nitro would now be allowed. Shortly after the Rod Riders moved to the S.C.T.A., Rusetta ceased operation, officially the distinction was gone, but the hot rods and customs remained separate, but together. This distinction was highlighted by the title given a 1950s car magazine, Rod and Custom.

When the earliest of customs began to appear, the definition of a custom was pretty clear, they were cruisers, cars that were more interested in how they looked, than how they performed. There were of course customs with performance engines, but these were in the minority.  Defining a hot rod on the other hand, appears to have been a simpler task, if a car is cut-down (windshield, fenders and headlights removed), and goes fast, it's a hot rod. "Cut-downs" or "supe jobs" were always roadsters.  As these cars gradually changed with time, a bone of contention began to develop as to who had a hot rod and who didn't.  Over the years the hard core hot rodders believed that "hot rods don't have fenders". Hot rods were and are performance machines, in the last couple of decades the owners of cars with hot engines have been calling themselves hot rodders and their cars hot rods, which could be a throw back to the cut-down era or a later model four door sedan they call hot rods. A coupe with fenders, can be included or excluded from the hot rod fraternity simply by it's tailpipe note, the line drawn in the sand defining hot rods has blurred considerably.

Although hot rods and customs are visually different, their owners are often the same people, and despite this, the rods and customs remained subtly apart. Bruce Geisler has the unique position of having been around over the last fifty years, and enjoys and owns both hot rods and customs. His passion has been cars since his high school years in Montebello, California during the early 50s while driving a new 1953 Ford convertible with Oldsmobile power, and forming one of LA's earliest clubs, the Chipmunks Car Club. His interest in cars extended into the daily activities of his father's business, Geisler Construction that built the Fontana Drag Strip in Southern California, as well as being the sponsor of the early Geisler race cars.

Bonneville 1959 saw the Chipmunks'  ‘29 Ford roadster with Bruce at the wheel on the salt of Bonneville for the first time, by year's end the roadster was due for a rebuild to make it a little more show worthy and maybe faster, the show and the go, the hot rodder and the custom guy were alive and well.  He disassembled the car, but as the next racing season approached he knew the roadster would not be ready in time so the search began for a temporary replacement, the famous #219 Studebaker came into the picture. The injected Chevrolet small block and trans from the roadster went into the Stude for it's first race at El Mirage in early 1960. The roadster was never completed, after doing a lot of chrome work it was sold and eventually parted out. Considering Bruce's penchant for saving things you might think that some parts of the roadster are nearby. He did know of the body's whereabouts for a while, but soon lost track of it too. A few months following the acquisition of the Stude a Corvette was picked up as a daily driver which soon was also being raced eventually setting numerous records and stayed with Bruce until 1983.

During it's life the Stude has seen over 40 years at Bonneville, set 50 records, and has had numerous partnerships, including the likes of Gary Vail, Gale Banks, Mike Cook, Bob Kehoe and Don Stringfellow. The relationships that have developed over those years include the who's who of the speed industry. When Doug Thorley had a muffler shop in East Los Angeles and needed a pit dug, it was Bruce that loaned him the equipment to do the job. The Doug's Headers logo is still on the side of the race car today and at a NHRA Hall of Fame induction Doug stood up for Bruce, they are long standing friends.

In addition to Doug there is Gale Banks. In the early sixties Gale and Bruce were both running Studebakers and soon Gale and Bruce had decided to share shop space from which they ran the two Studes. To appreciate this next event you must understand that Bruce is not an unkempt person, but his attention to detail is noticeably more "casual" than Banks', Gale likes things in their place and extra tidy. Apparently their shop had been a redwood furniture factory, so every time you closed the door a new cloud of redwood dust would drift down from the rafters. Although Bruce is not afraid of a broom, he clearly has "the first blank space" syndrome, meaning that when you have something in your hand, the first empty space you see is where it belongs. We are not sure if it was this or the redwood dust but soon the Bruce and Gale Show made different turns at the corner. They remain lasting friends, but under separate roofs.

Decades later Gale's operations would spearhead the S-15 Bonneville pick-up for GMC and a Firebird for Pontiac which would include Bruce. Today when Bruce visits the impossibly busy Mr. Turbo Banks at his complex in Azusa, California, "special considerations" are in order. During a recent visit with several friends in tow, it was clear that Gale had a full plate that day as he was locked in his office. Shortly after Bruce began beating on his door, Mr. Banks personally gave a grand tour of his facility to the group. Friendships such as these seem to be routine in Bruce's garage.

Through the years the Stude has used numerous Chevrolet engines from 258 to 383 cubic inches. One of the most powerful of those was a small block Chevrolet from Banks' shop, 304 cubic inches with twin turbos pushing the car to a 209 m.p.h. record in 1980. This engine also made a one way pass of 242 in 1978, only to blow a tire on a subsequent record, run nearly destroying the car. In 1981 and again in 1984 the car would make several mid 220 mph passes. Bruce's interest in customs surfaced on the Stude by attempted to run fender skirts at Bonnville claiming they were factory options for the car. It didn't work. These experiences, friends and many awards clearly establish Bruce Geisler as a cornerstone hot rodder and custom enthusiast.  

Anytime over the past fifty years or so if you were to actively search out groups that were interested only in hot rods or customs, you would have certainly found them. In either group there would be strong feeling about their particular interests and the negative thoughts about the other. At the same time you would find people like Bruce Geisler who are recognized as stalwart hot rodders or custom guys but who also enjoy and appreciate the other. This separation has never been officially established or promoted by any sanctioning body since those early years, it just happened, hot rodders ran with hot rodders, and the customs were cruising together. Today the separation seems stronger than ever. Traditional hot rodding and the perpetuation of dry lakes and Bonneville racing has refocused the original hot rod spirit. The insurgence of import cars that enjoy performance and customizing at the same time and has likewise revitalized the custom look cars.

Taking a broad view of auto enthusiast's world it may appear much different than it did in the early days, but a closer look past the cars themselves reveals that the motivation of the owners be they hot rods or customs is unchanged, the love of cars, hot rod or custom, is shared by all.