EVERYMAN'S HOT ROD

How Gray Baskerville's primer-spotted 1932 Ford represents all of us.

- JOHN MCGANN

As a preface to this narrative, let's travel back to 2002 when then-Editor David Freiburger took on the task of eulogizing his mentor, Gray Baskerville, vis-a-vis a feature on his car. In many ways in our world, a person and his car are often one in the same. Our cars are a physical manifestation of our personalities, personas, aspirations, skills, and abilities. What we do with them is also representative. Gray's car was his daily driver. It went on the very first HOT ROD Power Tour. It made dozens of trips to the Bonneville Salt Flats and California's dry lakebeds. From about 1966 until Gray's death in 2002, the car was not only synonymous with Gray, but it was also synonymous with HOT ROD itself.

The car was built in 1954 by Paul Horning, a sometime employee of Ernie Murashige at M&V Automotive in Pasadena, California. Gray was a customer and friend of Ernie and eventually became fast friends with Paul. The epitome of a budget build, this car was constructed completely of salvaged parts. Originally built as a race car, the '32 had a supercharged Olds V8 for a while. After a run-in with the law over a street racing incident, Paul was ordered by a judge to sell the car, which he did to Gray, famously, for $1.00. However, he retained possession of the car until he was killed in a traffic accident in 1966. Gray bought the car from Paul's family for $500. He put a 292-inch small-block Chevy in it that had been built by Ernie.