Elvis Presley loved cars, and this is a well-known fact. Most of all, he liked Cadillacs – according to popular opinion, during his life Elvis bought something like two hundred cars of this brand. The real number is probably closer to fifty, which is still a lot. And that’s just Cadillacs. Few people know how many cars Elvis had in his entire life. All that can be said for sure is that the collection at Graceland that has survived to this day and the photographs of the King that have come down to us will certainly not show us even half of the cars that belonged to Comrade Presley.
That’s because Elvis not only actively bought various vehicles, but also sold them. His first motorcycle was a Harley-Davidson Model 165, and after learning to ride a small-engined motorcycle in about a year, Presley sold the Model 165 and switched to a full-size Harley-Davidson KH. Which was also sold about a year later and replaced with a more recent Harley-Davidson FLH. The used BMW 507 that Elvis bought while serving in Germany was sold when Presley returned to the United States. He sold one of his Cadillacs to actress Pat Priest. And all these are just a few well-known examples. It’s safe to say that the number of cars that Elvis has sold is in the dozens. At the same time, it is worth remembering that some iron horses suffered a sadder fate. For example, Presley’s very first Cadillac, a used 1954 Series 60 Special, burned down just a couple of months after purchase due to a malfunction in the braking system.
Based on all of the above, it is impossible to say for sure whether Elvis ever owned at least one hot rod. He definitely customized some of his cars, talked with George Barris, loved Ed Roth-style trikes, as a result of which certain theories can be built, but not a single photo of Presley driving a hot rod has reached us. Unless, of course, you count the moment in history when Elvis played his first major role in the movie Loving You, in which his character was assigned to own a 1929 Ford – and what a Ford it was!
The car, which looks quite simple and nondescript on the screen, is actually one of the pioneers in many areas. The fact is that its owner, John Athan, is one of the true pioneers of hot rodding, and he started building his Ford back in 1937, at a time when the very words “hot rod” had not yet really taken root in American culture. A lot of things that now seem like a classic old-school solution were revolutionary and cutting-edge at the time, and Jonathan tried them out in his Ford, if not the first, then certainly one of the first. For example, the Model A body on a 1932 frame is a formula that will be followed by hundreds later, but which at that moment was extremely fresh and unrolled.
Several photographs of the title character of this article from the late 30s and early 40s, with and without John Efan, have also come down to our time.
Or a hot-rod V8 engine – it would seem much more banal! But back in 1937, the V-shaped eights were just settling into their role as motors for quarter-mile races. Despite the fact that Ford launched the production of eight-cylinder engines in 1932, many continued to drive inline fours. Firstly, because some kind of database of sports spare parts and manuals aimed at modifying four-cylinder engines has already been formed. And secondly, because V8s were still a fairly new and expensive beast at that time, which not everyone could afford.
By the way, in terms of the engine, this hot rod is equipped with a 3.9-liter flathead V8 with two Stromberg carburettors and an intake manifold slingshot from Edelbrock. Here it is worth noting separately that in this car Stromberg and Edelbrock are not just brands. The slingshot manifold is the most famous of the first parts of Vic Edelbrok Sr., and it was the intake manifold of this type that gave rise to the company that we know as Edelbrock. And Stromberg, which is constantly mentioned in our articles, is often not a brand, but a type of carburetor. The fact is that Strombergs are made by many people (including the Stromberg company), but they are all called Stromberg carburetors, regardless of the manufacturer, in honor of Alfred Stromberg, who launched the production of these carburetors in the early 1910s. Although, to be honest, John Goldberg created these carburetors, and Stromberg simply bought out and renamed the Goldberg company along with the carburetors.
Yes, the eight-cylinder engine is going to get cheaper every year. After World War II, when outdated models fill landfills, and an entire car, on the move and with a working V8, can be purchased for just fifty dead presidents, in fact, no one will build hot rods with inline fours. However, some ten years before that moment, cars with V-shaped engines were still a rare curiosity among American amateur racers: in 1936, the first documented hot rods with eight-cylinder V had just begun to appear. At that time, this approach was still very experimental, and having a V8 in a car did not automatically mean being faster. Nevertheless, installing almost literally twice as much engine in a car was a giant step towards trying to get faster, which more and more people noticed. As Don Montgomery writes in his book Authentic Hot Rods: The Real Good Old Days,
The transition to V8 engines was carried out quickly, and by 1941, more than two thirds of the participants in the races in the dried-up lakes were using V8 engines. And most of the best performance came from V8-powered hot rods.
However, in 1937, barely a third of the racers relied on the V-shaped engine. As already mentioned, not the least obstacle was the price of the eight-cylinder innovation. If we give specific figures, then we know for sure that the body of the car that is the hero of our article – the Model A of 1929 – was purchased at a landfill for $ 7 (complete with the logo of the local telephone company on the doors). The frame of the 32nd year was found in another landfill, for 5 and a half dollars (they asked for 6, but John bargained for 50 cents in his favor). And although the exact price of the engine in this particular case is unknown, for comparison, we can name the price that John Efan’s friend Ed Iskendarian paid for a used V8 in 1938. Drum roll… $65! And it was also a very cool price. Of course, not every speed lover could save up money for a motor that cost at least 5 times more than the frame and body combined.
Actually, it is not known exactly when Jonathan installed the V8. The earliest photo dates back to 1940, and nothing can be more accurately named. It's worth noting that Efan wasn't particularly rich at all and, let alone, he was a very typical fan of racing on dry lakes (that is, a penniless young bastard). The guys were just incredibly lucky to be born in a time and place where used cars were sold for next to nothing. Nevertheless, John sometimes had to, for example, borrow CDs from friends for a couple of months, until he could find $ 12 to buy his own set. Because of this, the cars were built for a long time, so even though the construction of the main character of our article began in 1937, it ended only in the early 40s.
The advanced combination of engine, frame and body is far from all the advanced technical solutions in the car authored by John Efan. Take the understatement of the front suspension, for example – in the 1930s there was no deepening of the body fit, or other more complex techniques. Even cars with simple curved axles could be counted on the fingers. And Efan’s Ford is just one of those cars. In addition, John installed springs in front of the axle, which lowered the front of the car a few more centimeters and gave the hot rod a slight tilt that later became canonical.
The factory position of the springs above the axle on the old Fords looked like this.
John Efan also made what is now called "split wishbone". Despite the fact that this technological solution is now widespread, I have no idea how to translate it correctly, so I'll explain the essence on my fingers. The suspensions of the first Fords had the following design: a triangle of two rods and the beams of the front axle, pivotally attached to the rear either to the transmission housing or to the frame approximately in the middle of the car.
In general, this Ford literally runs out of well-thought-out modifications and simply beautiful solutions. To all of the above, you can add, for example, the steering mechanism from the Dodge 35th year, which runs through the center, so that there are no problems with the exhaust manifolds. Or an interesting curved windshield, which was once the rear window in a Chrysler in the second half of the 30s. This hot rod was definitely built with technical knowledge and for business: we at least know for sure its speed on the dried-up Lake Murok (it is now Rogers) on May 3, 1948 – 174 kilometers per hour. And if it seems to you that this is slow, then here are the maximum speeds of factory sports cars of those years.:
1946, Alfa Romeo 6C, 171 km/h.
1947, Healey Elliot, 178 km/h.
1947, Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport, 200 km/h.
In other words, a car capable of competing with the fastest factory sports cars of that time was assembled in the garage and on the knee. Which, in general, was the original purpose of hot rodding. Mission accomplished, so to speak.
Hot rods are considered old school. But when you look at modern monsters with seven-liter hemispherical engines, superchargers and four-chamber carburetors, you realize how far our old school has gone from the really old school with a simple flathead engine and a pair of Strombergs.
Well, it is impossible not to return to the participation of this car in the movie Loving You.According to popular rumor, Elvis liked the hot rod, and even very much. It is said that Presley tried several times to buy back the car, but Jonathan never agreed. In addition to Elvis, by the way, billionaire Robert Peterson also tried to buy a car, intending to purchase a Ford for an Automobile Museum named after himself. In 1994, Peterson offered John as much as 800 thousand dollars, but Efan did not agree to such an offer. And all because this hot rod was not just a car for Comrade Efan, but a very significant part of his life. It is known, for example, that it was in this car that John drove his beloved from California to Las Vegas, where they got engaged, and returned home as newlyweds. Ethan put the hot rod in the garage only in the 70s, where Ford stayed for twenty years before John finally found the time and money to renovate his old car. The restoration was carried out by Efan’s close friend, Tom Leonardo Jr. Tom tried to preserve the original, pre-war technical features of the car as much as possible, and after the restoration, the hot rod was exhibited in museums for a long time.
Actually, nowadays a museum is the most suitable place for such a car. This hot rod is exactly a monument; a piece of history frozen in time, whose age is almost 90 years old. And this is not only one of the few representatives of the pre-war racing culture who have survived to this day, who participated in the formation of many traditional solutions used in the custom scene, but also almost the only one of them who left his mark in creating strong links between cars and music.
