Pasadena Roadster Club
Reliability Run ’24
May 2024 • By Tony Thacker • Presented by HandHFlatheads.com
Pasadena, a ritzy town north east of Los Angeles, was one of the original hot beds of hot rodding. Pasadenian Earl Mansell hosted the first organized lakes meet, the Southern California Championship Sweepstakes, at Muroc in 1927. The city was also home to early speed shops owned by Reg Schlemmer, Jack Eisen, Al Hawkins and Don Blair. In fact, Blair’s, now owned by Phil Lukens, is the world’s oldest continuously open speed shop that opened in 1945 and is still open.
Pasadena was also home to some of the earliest hot rod clubs including the Night Flyers and the Velociteers. The Night Flyers were involved with dry lakes racing before the formation of the SCTA in 1937. In October 1945, the Flyers and the Velociteers joined forces to form the Pasadena Roadster Club (PRC). The PRC worked hard to counter the bad rap that hot rodders got and one of their main activities was their annual Reliability Run (RR) that started in 1947.
The PRC was reinvigorated in 2002 as a club for early-style hot rods, primarily roadsters. Their held their first RR in 2004 covering the original 1947 route. This year saw the 12th running of the event with more than 70 hot rods covering the two hour, 100-mile route up into the San Gabriel Mountains. Nobody broke down.
For more information about the American Ho Rod Foundation visit: https://ahrf.com
For more information about H and H Flatheads visit: https://handhflatheads.com
For more info about the Pasadena Roadster Club visit: https://pasadenaroadsterclub.org
Not on the Pasadena Roadster Club Reliability Run but worth inclusion, Lil’ John Buttera’s seminal white roadster now owned and driven by Karpo Murkijanian.
