What You May Not Know is the Gold Standard of Show Cars

April 24, 2014
Story By
Chris Shelton

Okay, I know exactly what most of you are thinking right now. What the hell is that? It’s Boothill Express, the brainchild of Ray Farhner and his son, Larry. But more than that Boothill is an icon of show-car innovation, one of the most recognizable show rods, not just of the 1960s, but of all time. And it turned a lot of spectators into builders in their own right.

To understand Boothill Express’ significance, you’ve got to know a few things about the culture that inspired it. Despite its prominence in late ’50s pop culture, hot rods were in steady decline, a transformation expedited by cars like the ’55 Chevrolet. No longer were mechanical aptitude, inventiveness, and a surly attitude required; anyone with a job and a down payment could finance a car that held its own at any stoplight. Hot rods needed another way to shine and in 1960 Ray Farhner did so both figuratively and literally with his flake-painted, chrome-laden ’32 Ford roadster pickup, Eclipse.

Depending on your perspective, the overblown custom-rod trend that followed inspired either a rise to glory or a downward spiral of excess and kitsch. Eager to outdo one another, would-be trendsetters pushed the boundaries, each time asking us to reevaluate what a hot rod was. But something curious happened: the procession of scratch-built creations that bore little if any resemblance to anything else got a little boring. One again, rods needed another way to shine.

And once again along came RayFahrner. Rather than build from scratch he used a cultural reference point. But this time he didn’t feed off car culture; he tapped into the red-hot Spaghetti Western genre to create a hybrid that had appeal likely far beyond his wildest dreams. Specifically he combined a real-life funeral coach—allegedly the coach that transported The James Gang’s BobYounger to his final resting place at Boothill cemetery in Arizona—with what amounted to a funny-car chassis.

Despite today’s media saturation it’s difficult to appreciate the kerfuffle Boothill Express created in 1967. Though built as a static display, as most show rods were at the time, crowds went wild at its mere presence. Boothill toured nationally, filling promoters’ coffers at every venue. A fiberglass-bodied wheel-standing exhibition version that followed toured the drag circuit as well. Then Monogram rendered it in 1:24^th scale and sold it as a kit that any kid could build. Ironically the thing that ushered the dead achieved a kind of immortality. Boothill Express became sort of a supercharged and pearl-painted grim reaper if you will.

Naturally Boothill inspired a trend of successively wilder and wackier show rods. Each post-modern example bore an even unlikelier theme. In 1969 JoeBailon, a game-changing pioneer in his own right (he developed the candy paint technique which Boothill also boasts) built a car with a barber-shop theme right down to the chairs and poles. The craze probably reached its height (I say its depth) with GeorgeBarris’ Bathtub Buggy, a sled piloted from, of all things, a toilet seat.

But to many, Boothill Express is the Alpha and Omega of show rods. Both the first and some say the best example of the themed show rod, it still captivates anyone in its presence. Even if only to say…what the hell is that?

Driving Line graciously thanks the Smith family and crew at the Museum of Speed in Lincoln, Nebraska for granting us access to Boothill Express. It’s but one example of thousands that represent a roadmap of America’s contributions to the high-performance, racing, and in this case, show-car industries. We urge all of you to make the pilgrimage to this automotive Mecca; it represents 135,000 square feet of the most unbelievable artifacts, most of which you’re likely to never see anywhere else. Seriously, go. It’s incredible.

Museum of American Speed 599 Oak Creek Drive Lincoln, NE68528 (402) 323-3166 www.museumofamericanspeed.com

What You May Not Know is the Gold Standard of Show Cars

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