That Time When HOT ROD’s XR

Sep 29, 2023

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You know what they say about beauty and the eye of the beholder. To my eye, the angular, asymmetrical XR-6 isn't a beautiful hot rod, but the judges at the Grand National Roadster Show thought differently, and awarded the HOT ROD project car the America's Most Beautiful Roadster trophy in 1963.

The XR-6 (which stood for "experimental roadster, six-cylinder engine") was the brainchild of associate editor LeRoi Smith. As he recalled in the buildup's first installment (March 1962), he was bench-racing with other staffers during a coffee break and pointed out that "the cost of the average rod had risen considerably during the past decade, but hot rod design had failed to keep pace. We were immediately frowned upon by the 'old heads.' We stuck to our guns, and the end result was our resolve to build a modern street roadster of our own." The car would incorporate "many of the automotive design and performance advances introduced during the past several years," but at the same time it would have to be "simple enough for anyone to build" with "no strange and exotic, hard-to-duplicate items; it had to be relatively inexpensive, and we must do as much of the work ourselves as possible."

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Smith asked designer Steve Swaja to sketch a body based on a fiberglass 1927 Model T tub with a track nose and an abbreviated 1923 T truck bed. Smith built a rectangular tube frame with a Volkswagen frontend and a trailing-link rear suspension holding a Dodge Lancer axle. For power, Smith chose the relatively new Chrysler Slant Six backed by a five-speed Siata gearbox from Motor Trend editor Chuck Nerpel "that had seen service behind a Ford V8-60 race car."

When Smith next reported on the car's progress (June 1962), the Siata box was replaced by the transmission from a 1961 Lancer. Smith did some preliminary fitting work on the fiberglass tub, channeling it 4 inches over the frame. Bonneville racer Tom Beatty machined Triumph TR3 disc brakes to fit on the VW spindles, and Morris Minor rack-and-pinion steering was fitted with help from Indycar builder Frank Kurtis.

In his next two updates (October 1962, January 1963), Smith hinted that Swaja was dreaming up new ideas for the roadster's body, though readers wouldn't see the final form until the Oakland show coverage in May. Until then, Smith covered the sorting-out of the chassis, revealing it in its finished form in April.

Among the hot rod heroes who helped with the car at this stage were Frank Airheart, who contributed brakes, and Carroll Shelby, who loaned three Weber carburetors to mount on the intake manifold fabricated by Bobby Barr, builder of the headers for Tommy Ivo's Wagonmaster dragster.

Readers saw the finished XR-6 in the Oakland show coverage, but it wasn't until the August issue's final installment that Smith explained the body's evolution. Between Swaja's new ideas and the fact that "doors were deemed an absolute necessity," the decision was made to build a body in steel rather than using the repro fiberglass. The finished chassis, plus "the basic parts of a '27 Model T body," were delivered to George Barris, "and the bodywork began." Once the body panels were shaped by Jack Sutton on his English wheel, the car was painted in Tangerine metalflake (as was the frame, though it was "left coarse for effect"). Tom McMullen, then working at Auto Electric Engineering, wired the car, and Tony Nancy made and upholstered the seats.

Oakland was not the XR-6's final show stop. Smith wanted to take it to the Miami Custom Auto Fair, and there were a few tweaks to do between the two shows. He took the car to Gene Winfield's shop for an aluminum nosepiece and fenders. The car was also repainted—still in Tangerine but without the metal flake this time—and Tony Nancy made a new set of seats. In Miami, the XR-6 won the Street Rod Sweepstakes trophy.

While the XR-6 strayed beyond Smith's original plan for an affordable build, he published a chart in the final story tallying the costs for an "economy version." If only we had a time machine to take us to 1963, when you could pay $10 for a Model A frame, $10 to $50 for a steel Model T body (or $150 for a fiberglass one), $3 for wheels, $50 to $250 for an engine, and so on. At those prices, a build like this could cost, as Smith figured it, between $600 and $1,100.

Be sure to check out the new book HOT ROD Magazine: 75 Years by author Drew Hardin. It's the definitive collection of information on the history of HOT ROD Magazine, and features more than 200 pages and 300-plus black-and-white and color photos. Each chapter of the officially licensed book explores a different decade of the magazine's feature cars, customizers, builders, and technical milestones—including the first small-block Chevy and first LS, testing the Mystery Motor 427, and the Junkyard Jewel projects—plus interviews with legends and HOT ROD staffers. It's available both online (including Amazon.com) and in bookstores.

On season 3, episode 2 of HOT ROD Unlimited, Thom Taylor drives a channeled, topless Deuce roadster in the dead of winter from Nashville to Los Angeles, encountering what you would expect in the middle of winter: ice, rain, cold, frost—did we mention cold?? Watch the roadster slip, slide and spin 2,000 miles as Thom takes Interstate 40 through eight states and 70 degrees of temperature change, taking breaks for burnouts, breakdowns, bad weather and junkyards. Sign up for a free trial to MotorTrend+ and start streaming every episode of HOT ROD Unlimited today!