If you’re already in Southern California for the Grand National Roadster Show and the gathering of some of the living legends of customizing, you may want to clear up a little time in your schedule to visit the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsport Museum on Saturday afternoon when four of the remaining members of the Low Flyers hot rod club – Stuart Hilborn, Phil Remington, Dick “Magoo” Megugorac, and Bob Wenz – will get together for a bit of bench racing and for telling tales from the earliest days of hot rodding. From the museum’s press release:
The Low Flyers of Santa Monica was a very competitive dry lakes racing club that reached prominence in the immediate post-World War II era. An incredible number of auto racing luminaries came from the club, including Stu Hilborn, inventor of the fuel-injection system that bears his name, and famed cam grinder Jack Engle. Phil Remington, instrumental in the development of the Cobra and Ford GT-40, and Indy 500 winning mechanics Jim Travers and Frank Coon were also members. After winning back-to-back 500s with Bill Vukovich in 1953 and ’54, Travers and Coon formed Traco Racing Engines and were responsible for winning entries for customers such as Roger Penske, Lance Reventlow and Jim Hall. America’s first World Driving Champion, Phil Hill, once remarked that as a young man growing up in Santa Monica, he was in awe of the Low Flyers.
The discussion will be moderated by NHRA Museum Chairman Alex Xydias and Jim Miller, son of Eddie Miller Jr, one of the original members of the Low Flyers. Admission to the discussion is free, courtesy Dan Webb, who was responsible for re-creating Phil Remington’s famed roadster.