Alizium Auto Blogs: history

Heads, cams, adapter kits… I’ve even scanned the page of Quick Change rearends & mag wheels. We’re almost done thumbing through the 1959 Almquist catalog, but I figured you might want to check out a few more parts and prices of a half century ago. Notice at the bottom of the Flathead heads page, you’ll see the Weiand “Sportsman” heads. They were all aluminum, high compression heads that appeared stock- A little cheater head idea taken from the Ford aluminum Denver & Canadian heads. My buddy just picked a pair of these Sportsman heads up at the swap last week thinking he was getting Canadian heads, only to find the little Weiand logo on the back. Nice Score!! Check out the Edmunds head selection for flat 6’s and 8’s, and the “Double Disc” brakes by Halibrand for a whopping $595 (about $4,300 in today’s money)!

Anyway, I hope your not getting bored with the catalog scans, cause I’m having fun. Coming up soon, Part 4 will have hubcaps and accessories for the Custom guys…

Zoltan Glass was a jewish kid that grew up in Germany in the early 1900’s. In 1925 or so, he decided to move to Berlin to pursue his passion in both auto racing and photography. It wasn’t long before folks at Mercedes, Auto Union, and other manufacturers began to notice his great eye and stunning photographs. They commissioned his work and Zoltan began photographing at wonderfully historic tracks such as Nurburgring and the Avus circuit near Berlin. As time went on and Zoltan grew as a photographer, the social balance of Germany began to waver. Zoltan recognized the danger and fled to England in 1938 to become a fashion and nudist photographer (hells yes - ED).

Obviously, this is pretty far from traditional hot rods and customs… However, I thought you guys would appreciate the images and the perspective from another part of the word. I thought of two things while studying the images:

1. How amazing is it to see the Nazi symbols from the view finder of a jewish man? Zoltan wasn’t shy - was he? If you didn’t know the evil future of the party, you would think that Zoltan was looking on with innocent curiosity, “Why are these people saluting?”

2. The 1930’s was a hard period throughout the world - not just America. Still, these fellas found a way to make some beautiful machinery a reality. Is it just me or do these cars look and seem much more refined than the machines we were building in states during the same period? Thank god we were better at building performance aircraft just a decade later!

Alizium Auto Blogs

1959 Speed Shop Part 3: More Performance Parts!

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The Work Of Zoltan Glass

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