Member – John Baldacchino 333

John joined the NSRA and the Committee in 74 and served until 1976 when he became the clubs Chairman, a post he held for the next 3 years. The club was in its infancy, and he had a 105E Van, which had fogged paint panels. After acquiring a Fordson from Simon Lane, he built the stunning and eventually legendary Hot n Bothered. This car was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013. John followed the Fordson with another stunning Street Rod Small Fry, this time for a customer. The next car John built for himself was a HA Viva van an unlikely choice, but the chopped, V8 powered car was another superb car from a very clever man. All of John’s Street Rods were multi award winners and fired the imagination of so many of the clubs members, who sought to emulate his cars.

Street Rod – Tivoli Fordson

In July 1987 we got our first glimpse of the car that a youngster called Keith was building, this was a Fordson and 3 in build shots heralded its arrival in Street Machine. Later in the year they carried the full feature on the bright orange Fordson which reset the bar and engineering that went into the heavily chopped Street Rod. This was the second of Keith’s cars to wear what would become Atkinson Orange, his first being a sister to the Fordson in the form of his ‘Orange A Peel’ Pop. The sublime Fordson that Keith built exuded quality from its Pro Street styling, polished Centerlines, flip front and supercharged Chevy V8.This Rod fired and inspired the imagination, and is one of the cars from the 80s that still does that.

Individual – Tony Thacker

If there was an award for living a life of Hot Rodding, then one person in line to lift that trophy would be Tony Thacker. He has and still manages to cram so much into his, as he is an accomplished author with over 100 books published, unsurprisingly they all involve the car culture scene. Tony Thacker first became interested in modified cars aged 13, via the pages of Hot Rod which he delivered on his paper round. He attended the first drag meet at the pod in 1966, having walked the final 15 miles from Newport Pagnell. He began submitting car articles to magazines, this led to a job on Hot Car and then Technical Editor on Rod & Custom UK before joining Custom Car. Here he eventually became the Editor and detailed the build of his hi tech 32 roadster. In 1988 he moved to the States where he went onto set records at Bonneville with MG and Jimmy Shine with their 32 Roadster and held a number of influential positions:-  

SEMA News Magazine Editor

Marketing Director for So – Cal Speedshop

NHRA Museum Executive Director for 6 years

World of Speed Museum Executive Director 

Retired, he currently handles the PR for Rat Trap Fuel Altered

Organisation/Supplier – Wolfrace Wheels (Barry Treacy)

In 1971 Barry saw the opportunity to fill a gap in the market and started Wolfrace Wheels. The company were soon manufacturing a wheel that would take on legendary status the slot mag. This was over the 70s and 80s snapped up by so many customizers and Street Rodders. Not content with watching from the side-lines Barry had a Ford Pop called Mister T, the name being used again by him when he built the Mister T Bucket. In the 80s Wolfrace created some one off wheels for a customer with an uplifting plan. These were for Richard Nobles Land Speed car Thrust 2. Barry was also responsible for commissioning Nick Butler to build a twin engined car Sonic, utilising 2 Rover V8s side by side. This was to promote a new wheel from Wolfrace the pepperpot.  It’s hard to imagine what customizers     would have been putting on their cars had it not been for Barry and his Wolfrace business.