Northern Beaches Hot Rods

It began back in July 1964.  A couple of young Hot Rod enthusiasts, Kevin Monk and Roly Huyish, decided they needed to form a club on the Northside of the “Coathanger”.  The Northern Beaches Hot Rod Club was born.  The name soon changed to Northern Beaches Rod and Custom Club, mainly because they had no Hot Rods. 

 

The early club was very involved in early Sydney Hot Rodding, at one time took over the lease of Castlereagh Air Strip from the “Manly Sporting Car Club” and went on to repair, organise and run the first drag meets in NSW.  They also organised, promoted and ran the first National Hot Rod Show in June 1964, at the Totem Centre – Balgowlah.  This was a big success and help boost the profile of Hot Rodding.

 

By the end of the sixties, the club had splintered into different factions – Street or Drag and some of the original members had moved on.  Kevin Monk and Roly Huyish were now in the “Early Times Club” with other guys including Terry Cook, Kevin Murphy and George Kotevich.

 

Meanwhile another group of aspiring Rodders including Al & Graham Bush, Tubby Taylor, Ian Winkler, Dave Hart & Mike Ilsley had decided to fill the void by starting a new club on the North side.  By the end of 1968 the “Early Iron Street Rod Club” had been formed and were meeting at a house in Brookvale.  Early members were soon joined by others including Rick Pacey, Phil Hammond, John Evers, Jim Suttar and Bob Millburn.  In June 1971 Early Iron organise and promoted the first Bobbin Head Rod Run with 37 Street Rods assembling at Top Ryde Shops and travelling down through Lane Cove Park and onto Bobbin Head.   Amongst the participants were cars from the Romans, Drag-ens, Ace of Clubs, Shifters, Ramrods, Early Times and the Chariots.  We even had an American visitor, Dick Rundel, who came out for the Sydney Hot Rod the previous weekend.  It was a memorable event as three members being Dave Pride, Dave Hart and Mike Ilsley had all registered their first build Hot Rods that week.

 

By the mid 70’s the Early Iron’s had splintered with some members going into drag racing, street machines and choppers.  This resulted in the Early Iron fading out, while at the same time the Northern Beaches was losing its public presence.

 

Moving forward to the 80’s and several Northern Beaches residents once again felt the urge to form a club with Street Rodding in mind.  Word went out with a date to see who would turn up.  The venue was “Peter Rabbit Hall” at Cromer.   Those who attended were names familiar with Northern Beaches Hot Rodding.  Rick Pacey, Phil Hammond, Dave Hart, Graham Molle, Phil Baker, Mike Lakejev, Mike Ilsley, Jol Marks, Pete Simpson plus many more.

 

Following preliminary introductions and creation of the “Mission Statement”, officers were elected and there were discussions on a name.  The “Northern Beaches Rod & Custom Club” had come back from obscurity, not very original but eminently appropriate.  The Rod & Custom part was preferred as many of the new members had post 49 cars including 51 Chev ute, 56 Chev and 65 Chev.

 

Today the club is known as “Northern Beaches Hot Rods”.  We have some 40 members and their families, with 35 registered rods and some 11 under construction.