If you want to see some of the best classic cars in the world you would need to be in Montery California this week for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. If you wanted to see modified versions of those classics setting land speed records you needed to be at Bonneville last week for Speed Week 2012. While serious work is being done during Speed Week, it isn’t all about setting records, as proven by James Gaulrapp’s 1949 DeSoto.
Many of the spectators during Speed Week use the event as a way to get together and show off their own rides. More than a few drive their old rods to the salt, James’s ’49 DeSoto is one of those.
The car is a 1949 DeSoto 2 Door Custom with just under 70,000 miles on the original straight six flat head engine.
James has owned the car for the last five years and in that time he’s lowered car 3″ in the rear and 2″ in the front to give it that period perfect custom stance. He’s also replaced all the glass and, like any self respecting hot rodder, he installed the obligatory cherry bomb exhaust.
As popular as the “rat rod” or patinated look is these days, on some cars it just looks right, and a seafoam green DeSoto is one of them and the red wheels give the car that authentic look that so many are trying to mimic lately.
James has drive the DeSoto to Bonneville from nearby Salt Lake City for the last three years and he plans on continuing to do so for many years to come. It’s easy to see why, the DeSoto is a unique classic.
Thanks to James Gaulrapp and HOT Iron C.C. of Salt Lake City