All three men were instrumental during rodding’s formative years.īeyond the personalities, the cars themselves remain rolling tributes to how hot rods were built before the days of overweight mail-order catalogs and ready-to-mount billet parts. The T roadster was built by one of the most colorful figures in automotive lore today, famous camshaft builder Ed Iskenderian, better known as the Camfather in some circles, or simply Isky in others. The two A-V8 roadsters were built by John Athan and Herman Leham, gentlemen who are now deceased. That alone is an amazing fact, but of more interest, the original owners happened to be best friends when they built their hot rods, and they completed their builds at about the same time, lending each other helping hands from start to finish. The trio of black beauties originated from Southern California at about the same time, 1940, and collectively they represent more than 230 years of hot rod history. Today there remains a large number of hot rods from the pre-war era (read: original hot rods), but few of those survivors can boast a story that these three roadsters offer.

Three Hot Rods, 231 Years of Rod History The Isky T, Elvis Car and Leham-Leonardo Roadster

Hot rod car