Timeless

Zocchi’s “Cool 50” At 40 … Eternal Style.

- Rob Fortier

Among everything that the ’70s embraced—from horrid polyester to the great oil shocks—traditional custom cars will likely not be amongst the popular topics of the era that will go down in the annals of history. Well, with one exception … STREET RODDER magazine (more specifically, Pat Ganahl) and its efforts to not only revive the “street custom” trend, but to keep the topic fresh in readers’ minds.

It may just be that without the editorial contributions of Ganahl himself, a true custom connoisseur, the ’70s would have come and gone without any periodical-paper real estate dedicated to the custom car scene. And furthermore, who knows to what extent that scene, overshadowed by the budding pre-’49 street rod movement that R&C and others were fully supporting, would have been revived by the mid ’70s (if at all) without his input. (It should be noted that outside of the publishing world, Jerry Titus and his organization, the KKOA—Kustom Kemps of America—are to be credited for keeping the “kustom” flame lit as the decade came to a close.)