What it's called: The Road to Bonneville
Who done it: Brian Darwas (Atomic Hot Rods)
What it's about: Hot rod builder and filmmaker Brian Darwas rides shotgun with Keith Cornell and Ken Schmidt, aka Rolling Bones, in their trademark three-window coupes as they make their annual pilgrimage to hot rod Mecca, the Bonneville Salt Flats, to race their Flathead-powered roadster.
Notes: To understand what makes a movie about riding with the Rolling Bones interesting is to know how they think about hot rods. Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell are traditionalists at heart; however, rather than copy what's been done to death, they reassemble these old parts in new and inventive ways. Though made of 75-year-old parts, their cars are innovative, as ironic as that may seem.
Best of all, they have fun with 'em. Their annual pilgrimages from Upstate New York to Wendover, Utah-"sacred ground," as Ken calls it-have become the stuff of legends. Most recently, they took the driving part to a whole new level: They campaign a Deuce roadster in the Flathead Ford class. The video that Darwas made is a firsthand account of the Bones' '07 Speed Week trip.
We'll get it right out in the open: This video is a testimonial to the experience of a road trip in stripped-down hot rods. It's an archive of crackly pipes, quick-change howl, and whipping wind. It's a documentation of roadside repairs of head gaskets, weeping master cylinders, and stuck starters, or, as Ken says, the making of good memories. In a nutshell, it's a 90-minute shrine to the dedication that these guys have to prewar passenger-car parts assembled to postwar racing standards. It's a philosophy in motion. It's fun, captured on video, and presented to you in your living room.
Where to find it:
www.atomichotrods.com