To earn this sought-after award, vehicles must be older than 1948, show up with a minimum of 500 miles on the odometer and finish a reliability run that consisted of over 100 miles of scenic Tennessee back roads and runs down a drag strip. The car must have a true Hot Rod attitude – and as you can see by the wild paint scheme, stance and injected classic Hemi engine, Gewertz’s ’34 exudes the definition of hot rod.
The Saint Christopher Coupe as Gewertz calls it, started life as a body shell he acquired from Mike Wolfe of the television show American Pickers. The build was performed over several years by South City Rod & Custom in Hayward, California, and features a long list of traditional hot rod custom touches such as the chopped top, rows of louvers across the roof and deck lid, vintage magnesium wheels and of course, a souped up 331 cubic-inch vintage Hemi engine.
As expected, the wild paint work, by Compani Color, makes an immediate impact. The vertical stripe arrangement was inspired by the paint schemes of drag cars from the late ‘60s and fits Gewertz’s goal: “I set out to build a car that goes back to when drag racing was still cool.” Builder Bill Ganahl of South City Rod & Custom added, “We built a cartoon on wheels.”
Goodguys will be crowning 10 more vehicles to complete their Top 12 Program throughout the 2023 season which includes Muscle Car, Street Machine, Truck of the Year and other top categories for classic vehicles. Congratulations to Coby Gewertz and the teams at South City Rod & Custom and Compani Color for being named the Goodguys 2023 Tanks, Inc. Hot Rod of the Year.
