On our way to the dentist my daughter asked me a question. “Were the old moonshiners cars the first to be souped up and customized”
I hadn’t thought of those guys since I was a kid and I did know a moonshiner or two. One guy down the hill fed his mash to the pigs and he had visitors when he’d run off a new batch. Course by that time he didn’t have to drive his load anywhere if he didn’t want to but he could and did do custom orders
I think what prompted the question was the Fast and the Furious. She adores their cars and she likes the old moonshine movies and she knew I did some racing when I was young. I’m sure if they hadn’t started the trend someone would have just maybe not as soon but we did discuss the ways they modified their cars, such as the very stiff rear axle that wouldn’t show the weight of the shine on board and later on in the war between moonshiners and revenuers they introduced the use of nitrous oxide to get that extra speed if Smokey was laying in wait for them
By the 1960's those bootleg cars were hitting the West coast and they took off with a bang. Although if memory serves we had our low riders and tricked out cars Befor drag racing
The Saturday races were a family event and many of the local women took part when they had Powder Puff and demolition derbies. I have to say I usually kept my racing to long stretches of back roads where it was safer, although my husband had a knack for racing when some board Sheriff decided to check that area
My biggest thrill back in 1980 was driving a Lamborghini back to Vancouver WA on a full moon night with no cops or traffic. If I were my daughters age I’d be wanting to learn how to drift and drive heavy equipment
