Hi my name is Elliot but all my friends just call me Elmo. I have been into hotrods and modifying vehicles since I was a kid. My earliest car memories go back to a family holiday when I was about 7 and driving around California, looking out of the back seat of a rental my dad was driving…seeing this black speck in the distance getting larger and larger until I could see a shiny 32 roadster with a huge gleaming blower out the top of it…. It sounded like Satan with a soar throat as it went passed and I swear I didn’t blink until it disappeared over the horizon…. at that point I knew I wanted a 32 Ford of some sort… funnily enough it took 32 years before I got my first one…I am now on my second and have no plans to change.

I have had lots of cars and like a lot of Hot Rodders I started off with a cheap Mini. By the time I had finished toying with Minis I had a Cooper S with a 1380 engine in it…my craving for speed wasn’t realised and as my taste in music at that time leant heavily in the Rock’n’Roll side I decided to get something more in keeping with the scene…I bought my first 50s ride…A black MK1 Consul from the lead singer of Joe Boxers, Dig Wayne (Timothy to his family… hardly a Rock’n’Roll name…). I had a few MK1s all Consuls. My enthusiasm for the marquee, lead me to eventually become the editor of the monthly newsletter…although this assignment was short lived, but that’s a different story… I always loved the shape of 50s cars and decided to jump into the American side of things and bought a 52 2door pillarless Buick Special. This was a straight eight land yacht and drank like an alcoholic on payday but I has loads of fun with it…. I dropped out of the car scene for quite a few years due to work, marriage as well as ill health….

I really missed driving the great big yanks and after I had a bit of a windfall I bought a 1955 Cadillac Coupe Deville…this was a huge red beast and I loved it to bits…unfortunately it hated me and I only got about 100 miles out of it before it just died…I did everything to get it going and nothing worked…I put it into storage and there it sat for 2 years…I eventually PXed it for a MK2 Zephyr and cash my way…. I always seemed to come back to Fords.

The Zephyr ended up 2 doored, couped with a rear window from a mini grafted into the back. I spayed her black with a nice set of flames on it…. It had a Mustang 289 lump and went like a bullet. Whilst at a local meet a guy came up to me and waved £3500 in cash in my face and said, “I want to buy your car” not being a fool and knowing I still wanted a 32 this was an offer I couldn’t refuse….Que Ebay…A short surf later a couple of phone calls, a visit and a fistful of cash burning a hole in my pocket…I was the proud owner of a 32 roadster…albeit a just about rolling shell and lots of boxes of bits…it was a shed but it was my shed… I finally had my 32 and it had a 8BA flathead, 32 truck box and banjo back end…very retro… This I drove until I totally mulched the engine, ending up with seven cracks in the block…this led to me parting with it and cash for Doris the 32 Ford Pickup I have now. Not a chance on this planet would lead me to selling her and whatever happens she will always be in the family.

I have helped build a lot of cars and although I now have trouble getting up once I have got under a car, I still know my way around a few…been a member of a few clubs but now only a member of the NSRA.