Bury Me in An Old MOWOG Parts Box - In the Still of the Night

By Jay Lockrow

Several weeks go a friend of mine gave me a copy of “HAGERTY Magazine” that is published by the insurance company that insures classic cars. There were two or three articles inside that I thought most interesting. One was about the Dymaxion automobile that was the brainchild of R. Buckminster Fuller. Three of these were made before going belly up. One exists and the one in the article is a reproduction. It was a three wheel vehicle with rear wheel steering and a Ford flathead V8. From what I read a real handful because it handled terribly. Anywaya more interesting write up was on two cars put together by certain gentlemen that needed a little more go so as to outrun other gentlemen that were pursuing them because they were thought to have on board some “shine” and I donot refer to the finish on the car. “Haulin shine” at one time was a popular practice and I would assume that it may very well go on to this day. For some reason there are a good number of folks who still feel the government really has no business asking for a share of the profits that they make from this enterprise. The “gummint” would like to get a piece of the action on every quart sold and to provethepoint would like to put one of those little red and white long thin stamps on the bottle top which must be broken to get out the contents.

Now this article brought to light two Ford automobiles, a 1939 and a 1948 (I think they are wrong, I think the one is a 1938 and the other a 1947 but I am no expert on Fords) that were used in this endeavor but to be fair the subject really started a good deal earlier that the two models shown in the article, Prohibition, or the eighteenth amendment to the constitution was ratified in 1919 and went into law in 1920. This prohibited the sale, import, manufacturing etc. of alcoholic beverages. The “gummint” spent millions over the years trying to enforce it but the bootlegger’s prevailed and as above, some of it STILL lives on today. (Pun intended) The eighteenth amendment was repealed by the twenty first amendment.

Early on many of the folks hauling shine used Model T Fords. These were good reliable cars but were not what you would call fast. Along came the shade tree mechanic and with a little judicious filing, boring, and a little ingenuity a good deal more life was breathed into the Model T engine. Also around this time a good number of chauffer’s used there employer’s vehicle for a little of this evening activity. As soon as the owner found out about this it was no longer permitted. Can’t you just see a Duesenberg, Packard or something like a Locomobile loaded with bootleg alcohol roaring down the road? About this time a gentleman by the name of Harry Hosterman arrived on the scene and Harry, or Hal as he was called, worked the magic on these early engines. Hal was the one who came up with such innovation as overhead valves, twin carburetor manifolds, manufacturing these items himself. Hal may well have been the first guy to come up with what we call “Speed Equipment” today. Many of these innovations were for the Model T Ford but as time went on additional items were created for the Model A as well as the soon to arrive Ford flathead V8. One very odd thing that has never really been explained is when the revenuers came to people like Harry Hosterman they could never get quite as much go for the buck as did the haulers. Wonder why?

The two cars featured in the article were both originally equipped with the flathead V8 but the later 47 Ford sometime in its life was fitted with a Cadillac overhead valve V8. This vehicle would really move. Also reading the article the builders had several ingenious developments on handling load placement chassis modifications as well as special lights and cooling systems. All the work of these so called shade tree mechanics.

A few interesting points many are unaware of. With these warmed over engines it wasn’t long before someone thought his car could beat that car of yours so some sort of racing prevailed. At first it was over back country roads but soon enough it became a feature at local fairgrounds. Hence stock car racing was born and morphed into what we call NASCAR today. In fact a good number of the early stock car drivers were still “haulin shine” for several years before they could make a living from racing.

Harry Hosterman or “Hal” kept at it for many years and eventually made his own engines that were used in dirt track sprint cars or midgets. Today a HAL is a much sought after item. So the next time you have a bit of the old gargle remember what these guys did before things like NASCAR gave them a good living. I always think of such things when I hear that old bootlegger’s song “In the Still of the Night”