One of my very first favorite deuces occurred when I flipped open the August 2007 issue of Rod & Custom and laid eyes upon Tom Branch's Deuce roadster. There was just something about it that made me look at street rods and rat rods and wonder why I was into them. This car was the polar opposite of those cars. This car had skinny tires, it was bare metal and pretty low. This car stuck in my head for years.. It corrupted me. I wondered why I didn't see more cars like those. I was a regular attendee of the NSRA show in Oklahoma City and used to go to the shows in Pueblo, Colorado. Even then, cars like Tom Branch's weren't found anywhere at the NSRA shows. I wondered why.
This was long before my taste in cars matured to traditional hot rods. That was before I realized there's a deeper meaning to these old cars than trying to stuff as much from a S10 under their '46 Chevy or shoehorning a 5.0 with AOD into their '57 Ford. That was long before I realized how flawed that system is. They're old cars. They're supposed to drive like old cars. Still..
There was just something about Tom Branch's car that screamed "stick it to them." It was different from the "norm." It was mature, sophisticated, and classy. It's traditional. Then I saw it again a few years later and it was painted gold and had wide white tires on it with full face 'caps on it.
That was when I pulled that issue back out and read through it again. His wife had an equally just as cool Deuce tudor too! Studebaker V8? 5-speed? The suspension was composed entirely of early Ford parts.. '40 spindles, '46 drum brakes, '32 split 'bones, '40 rear spring with ladder bars. That's when I realized this particular car was nothing like the cars I was raised around. It was shortly after I read through that issue that I pulled out all the other issues of Rod & Custom that my dad had and read through them, taking in as much traditional hot rodding as I could. I couldn't get enough. Shortly after, my dad discovered the HAMB and I spent endless hours on there learning about traditional hot rods and customs. The HAMB had corrupted me. Overnight, I went from loving to hating street rods and rat rods. From that point on, in my head I couldn't overlook the small details that bothered me in street rods and rat rods. The front tire's too small.. The back tire's too wide.. Those colors are ugly.. The stance was seriously lacking taste. I could never look at street rods and rat rods the same again. I was reborn. Never again. Since then, I have never looked back and do not regret it one bit.
Tom Branch's Deuce roadster holds a special place in my heart. It's the epitome of a modern-day traditional hot rod. In that, I mean this is a truly traditional hot rod that was built within the last ten or fifteen years. It's composed entirely of old parts. Well, almost entirely. You see, that 5-speed is new. Still, there's some flex when it comes to traditional hot rods in today's times. A 5-speed will always be superior to the tired and true '39 Ford top-loader. It has overdrive and the gears won't climb on each other and break the transmission case. It seems the 5-speed is one of the most controversial, yet accepted compromises today. Still.. This car, single-handly, rendered street rods and rat rods obsolete to me. And this was only the beginning.
