Rocket Rods Shorts
Description: If you've been around the Southern California hot rod scene for a while, you're probably familiar with Rocket Muffler, the Burbank shop that spent several decades doing custom exhaust work for drag, dry lake, and street racers alike. Their business cards advertised "Racket by Rocket" which was probably a hint to the kind of work they did in squeezing out just a little more horsepower out of V8 engines in exchange for a little noise. In addition to sponsoring numerous local SoCal racers in the '50s and '60s, they also kept a sign out front of their shop on West Magnolia Boulevard offering free welding repairs on kid's toys, wagons, and bikes. Talk about community service!
Description: The Dr. Oldsmobile theme was one of Oldsmobile's most successful marketing campaigns in the early '70s, it involved fictional characters created to promote the wildly popular 442 muscle car. 'Dr. Oldsmobile' was a tall lean professor type who wore a white lab coat. His assistants included 'Elephant Engine Ernie' who represented the big block 455 Rocket engine. 'Shifty Sidney' was a character who could be seen swiftly shifting his hand using a Hurst shifter. 'Wind Tunnel Waldo' had slicked back hair that appeared to be constantly wind blown. He represented Oldsmobile's wind tunnel testing, that produced some of the sleekest designs of the day. Another character included 'Hy Spy' who had his ear to the ground as he spied on the competition.
