Rodders going on with club’s show

Andrew Mathieson
MOST street rodders, as they like to be called in Geelong, are really just little boys trapped inside men’s bodies.
The only difference is they have deeper pockets and, thanks to their love affairs with hot rods, not much loose change.
Ian Harris, a 58-year-old hot-rod enthusiast, has four charged-up cars that he drives only on Sundays.
His passion for the modified machines slowly turned into an obsession over the past 40 years.
“I couldn’t tell you how many I’ve owned,” Ian chuckles.
“It would be well over 50, probably 60 cars, perhaps.
“I’ve bought and sold a lot just to keep the hobby going and to get a bit of money on the side to do things to the cars.
“I’m still doing it now and over the past few years I’ve imported a dozen or more cars.
“Some I keep but some I fix up and sell because it does cost money.”
Reconditioned hot-rods cost $20,000 from scratch but it’s not uncommon for enthusiasts to spend six-figure sums.
The asking price for a ’57 chevy two-door even fetched $800,000 recently at Deniliquin.
The rods are big boys’ toys, resembling the Hot Wheels model cars most of them grew up with.
Classic ’46 and ‘49 Fords were first to whet Ian’s appetite when they passed the enamoured youngster on the street every day on his way to school.
“I didn’t even know there was a modified movement out there until I saw a hot-rod magazine down at the old Purdies (newsagents) in Moorabool Street,” he remembers.
“When I opened the magazine it also opened up a new world to me.
“It was that early-shape car that I liked, which was a bit more powerful and more modernised and also had nice wheels.
“Then when I was 18 I bought an old Ford Pilot from Separation Street for about $70.”
It wasn’t until 1973 that local street rodders gained a voice.
Geelong Rod and Custom Club formed just weeks after more than 30 soon-to-be members featured among 273 competitors at the sport’s first nationals, Ian recalls.
The inaugural meeting was at Custom City Panels, a Norlane panel beating shop owned by the club’s inaugural president, Dave Griffin.
“We started the club as the Geelong Rod and Custom Club because initially there were customs like early Holdens, Zephyrs and cars like that,” says Ian, a founding member and secretary of the club.
“But as we grew we decided to change the name.
“At one stage we went to a pre-1940s hot-rod club only. Since then we have drifted back to Geelong Street Rodders, which incorporates all the custom classics.”
Numbers in the club are now an all-time high of almost 100 but there was a time when ranks sunk to just a dozen members. That was in the 1980s when governments cracked down on rebel hoon racers and placed strict restrictions on cars.
“We had a few incidents and the powers that be decided they wanted to almost ban hot rods,” Ian explains.
“You weren’t allowed to do roof chops or a lot of things like that.”
Pity Ian had just cut the roof of his coupe prior to the laws.
Geelong Street Rodders will host its 35th anniversary hot rod show this weekend at Geelong Showgrounds.
Club organiser Ray Bedson says it promises to be the biggest range of souped-up roadsters since they were exhibited in the basement of Little Malop Street’s State Government offices before he was even a member in 1988.
Ray says the club also hosted biennial nationals in 1999 and 2003 and plans to bid for the 2011 event.
“Our show is trying to get back into the traditional vehicles,” he reminisces, “more like the fanciful or fantasy cars of the ‘70s with the T-bucket and the big engines that had the comic look about them.”