Great Machines: Le Haute Rod
June 2, 2004
Say “hot rod” to most people and the image projected on their
mental video screen looks a lot like the cover of the Beach Boys’ Little Deuce
Coupe record album. It featured a kandy-colored, fenderless ’32 Ford with fat
rear tires and a monstrous chrome-plated V-8 engine spilling out of the engine
compartment. Images similar to this are what influenced a 19-year-old apprentice
machinist named Boyd Coddington to leave Idaho in 1966 for the hot rod mecca of
Southern California. For most of the 1970s, Coddington spent his days machining
parts for the rides at Disneyland and his nights fashioning parts for the
“rides” commissioned by his hot rod clients. He also reshaped the idea of what a
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Sleek lines and smooth surfaces defined what came to be
known as the “Boyd look,” one defined as much by a car’s attitude and
performance as by its ground-hugging stance. The aluminum-bodied Aluma Coupe he
built in 1991 resembled a classic postwar dry-lakes dragster but was powered not
by the traditional American V-8, but a turbocharged Japanese 4-cylinder from
Mitsubishi. Coddington’s forward vision was the key ingredient that led to his
lofty first-name-only recognition among the hot rod set. Hot Rods by Boyd
customers include a number of celebrities such as the Beach Boys, comedian Tim
Allen, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. (Click image to enlarge)
But hot-rodding is not about maintaining
the status quo, and Coddington has shifted his attention for his latest project
commissioned by Texan car collector Scotty Gray. This time the hot rod visionary
is looking over his shoulder for inspiration. Named What the Haye, the hot rod
expresses Coddington’s appreciation for the sweeping elegant curves of sporting
coupes from prestigious French automakers of the 1930s such as Talbot Lago and
Delahaye. The latter marque provided more than inspiration for the project. It
also contributed part of its name, along with the shape of its swoopy pontoon
fenders and sloping tail.
“We’re really liking what we have done with What the Haye,” Coddington
explains. “It’s very stylish. We combined the styling of the French cars in the
thirties with the latest in high technology underneath.” Classic car fans will
be happy to know that none of the rare coachbuilt exotics were harmed or
endangered in the making of What the Haye. “We didn’t start out with a real
Delahaye,” says a grinning Coddington. “It started out as a piece of sheet metal
and a drawing.”
That piece of sheet metal was transformed by Marcel DeLay
& Sons into a body that not only emulates the style of the 1930s, but also
the handcraftsmanship of the era’s coachbuilders. Bringing out every nuance of
this coachwork is a striking metallic silver-over-black color scheme applied by
Coddington’s in-house artisan Charlie Hutton.
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