SO-CAL Speed Shop Turns 80
A fast-paced history of the company that helped define modern hot-rodding.
By Tony Thacker
Pete Chapouris III (left) and Alex Xydias revived the original (at the time title case-spelled) So-Cal Speed Shop in 1997, ushering in a new era of signature hot rods that combined reliability and a distinctive nostalgic appearance. (Photo courtesy Randy Lorentzen)
Born in England, Tony Thacker is an accredited automotive journalist, author and book publisher, and served as marketing director at the famed SO-CAL Speed Shop.
Eighty years ago, on March 3, 1946, a young, recently discharged serviceman was, like so many, wondering what to do now that World War II was over. The question weighed heavily on the mind of 23-year-old Alex Xydias, who had trained as an U.S. Army Air Corps bomber flight engineer and top-turret gunner—skills that weren’t much called for after the war. Heck, it was a short-lived career during the war.
Xydias rightly surmised that he was not alone, recognizing that there were thousands of young people just like him with a need for excitement, a passion for cars and Mustering-out payments ready to be spent.
He’d dabbled in hot rods a little bit before the war, had been to the races at the dry lakes and owned a mildly customized 1934 Ford Cabriolet. It was as much training as he was going to get before he decided to open a speed shop with $100 borrowed from his mom.
GETTING UP TO SPEED
The first So-Cal Speed Shop was located at 1806 North Olive Drive in Burbank, California, with a sign advertising “SPEED EQUIPMENT” above the one-room store. Business was initially slow, almost non-existent, as there was no way to reach potential customers (HOT ROD Magazine wasn’t introduced until 1948.) Xydias spent many days lifting weights with his first customer-turned-employee, Keith Baldwin.
The only way to reach prospects was to go lakes racing, which had shifted east from Muroc to El Mirage in the Mojave Desert, where—racing under the Sidewinders club banner—Xydias fielded his first belly tank lakester. Not yet the shop’s well-known iconic red and white, No. 555 was a $60 drop tank partly assembled by Bill Burke around a Ford Model T frame and fitted with a Baldwin–built V8-60. By the end of 1948 it owned the B Streamliner record at 130.355 mph.
The So-Cal Speed Shop went on to campaign a fleet of hugely successful race cars throughout the ’50s until the new, readily available OHV (overhead valve) engines from Chrysler and GM began to push Xydias’s beloved flathead Ford V-8 onto the trailer.
He closed the shop doors in 1963 and went on to enjoy a career in motorsports filmmaking, publishing and, eventually, event promotion with Mickey Thompson. Meanwhile, he was canny enough to keep the So-Cal trademark protected with catalog reprints and commemorative events.
Alex Xydias started the original So-Cal Speed Shop in 1946 after the end of World War II. (Photo courtesy SO-CAL Speed Shop)
A NEW BEGINNING
Fast-forward to 1997, when another hot rod icon, Pete Chapouris III, struggling to find an identity for his new business, had an epiphany that maybe he could resurrect the So-Cal Speed Shop.
Chapouris knew Xydias from his days as marketing director of what is now the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA)—they were both members of the SEMA Hall of Fame—and Chapouris had cannily protected his former business name for more than 30 years.
A deal was reached and in November 1997 the new (uppercase!) SO-CAL Speed Shop was launched.
Chapouris, his old partner Jim “Jake” Jacobs and their band of brothers already had a host of traditional hot rod products on the drawing board and a complementary retro clothing line that took off around the globe. Building hot rods and customs for the likes of ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons generated gallons of magazine ink and in turn sold T-shirts.
Building a fleet of red and white, SO-CAL-branded, record-setting land speed race cars for MG and then General Motors only added fuel to the fire.
The brand went viral before the word “viral” went viral, with licensed speed shops across the country. You seemingly couldn’t travel anywhere without seeing the SO-CAL logo on a hat, jacket or shirt.
Then, suddenly, like a shooting star burning up upon entering Earth’s atmosphere, Chapouris died on Jan. 6, 2017, from complications resulting from a stroke. He was 76.
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES
SO-CAL briefly spiraled out of control until Chapouris’s son Peter (known as “re-Pete” or “PC4”) stepped up to take the reins with assistance from his brother-in-law, Matt Robbins. A new, more retail-friendly headquarters location was opened at 33 S. Eucla Avenue in San Dimas.
While some of the original satellite locations fell by the wayside, there remain three locations besides the San Dimas headquarters still operating: Las Vegas; Hewitt, Texas; and Surrey, British Columbia.
“There is also a string of dealers all over the world,” says Peter Chapouris, “selling the three mainstays: hot rod parts, merchandise and memorabilia.”
The business is still very much “on the road,” he continues.
“We have displays at numerous West Coast events, from the Winternationals and World Finals to the Grand National Roadster Show—all three of which are in our own backyard of Pomona, California,” he says. “The drag races have become a very important venue for us, as we sponsor our friend Jeff Diehl’s Funny Car. We also have a retail spot right inside the public entrance to Pomona and next to the car show corral, and we do well there meeting and greeting the fans.”
Fans can join the SO-CAL Speed Shop Club for $199-per-year at jeffdiehlracing.com to access member-only benefits including discounts on parts, apparel and storage, Chapouris reveals.
“The latter is available only at the SO-CAL San Dimas location, where we have 10,000 square feet total and 1,500-square-feet of retail space,” he adds. “We no longer build customer cars, but we do own several historic SO-CAL rods including the ’27 Roadster ‘SIROD’ and one of the iconic red and white roadsters that have seen a significant uptick (in attention) lately.”
It’s hard to believe in today’s world dominated by “mis-adventure” capitalists’ buy-outs and mergers that companies such as the SO-CAL Speed Shop can survive and indeed thrive—but thank goodness they do.
SO-CAL’s signature red and white hot rods are known by fans all over the world. (Photos courtesy SO-CAL Speed Shop)
“In my father’s 10-year tenure, SO-CAL built more than 20 hot rods, including about a dozen distinctive scalloped rods, of which seven were red and white in the historic SO-CAL livery,” says Chapouris. “Suddenly, 20 years on, they have become collectible in what is otherwise a softening market. I think they are fetching a premium because of SO-CAL’s history, their perfect stance and styling and the fact that my dad and his team that included Pete ‘P-Wood’ Eastwood—who is still with us—built a bulletproof car that you can drive cross-country without a care. And, at the end of the day, that’s what everybody wants from a hot rod.”
Three physical locations still exist outside of the company’s San Dimas headquarters, continuing to offer a mix of hot rod parts, merchandise and memorabilia. (Photo courtesy SO-CAL Speed Shop)
