A little over ten years ago my days were filled with attorneys, accountants and tons of billet aluminum. It was 1995 and I had just achieved a tremendous goal, taking Hot Rods by Boyd and Boyds Wheels public!
I was the guy behind the scenes; Boyd Coddington’s business partner and President of both companys. Just six years earlier, I had joined a small but creative hot rod shop and now we were listed on NASDAQ. You have heard the saying, “These are the best of times and the worst of times.”. That pretty much sums up my last year with Boyds.
PHOTO: Boyd Coddington and Brad Fanshaw on Wall Street the day of Boyds I.P.O. 1995
The best of times are so endless, that I cannot even list them all, but here are some highlights:
• Leading the creative marketing and a team that crafted some of the finest hot rods and innovative wheels ever built!
• Working with Harry Hibler (Hot Rod Magazine’s Publisher) and Gray Baskerville (Hot Rod Magazine Legend)
• An assembly of the finest employees and friends to work with; such as all of the Swedes like Larry, Karl, Andy, Pele and Johnny, Keith Russell and Greg Morrell (Painters Extraordinary), Jesse James, Chip Foose and Lil’ John Buttera. Yeah it was quite a team!
• The planning and completion of the I.P.O.
• Having a job that was all about cars!
Instead of going into the worst parts, I’ll leave it on the positive side. The people, the cars and the projects are what made Boyds the incredible company it was. When I resigned and sold my stock in the company, I thought that I was out of hot rod and wheel business forever. If you love cars, I mean really love cars you can’t just walk away.
Many things happen in ten years and it was 1996 that I was starting a new part of my automotive life, that is when bonspeed was born. Born under the name Bonneville Sports and later the Bon was combined with Speed; “bonspeed”. This blog represents a new era and it is a great way to begin the next ten years.
That brings me back to a question, where were you? Leave your comments about where you were ten years ago and what you drove.
Top photo:
Boyd and I proudly showing off the newest creation from Hot Rods by Boyd. The Larry Erickson designed “Smoothster”, a hot rod that set new standards. With us is the team of craftsman who made the cars from Hot Rods by Boyd reality. Look just behind me and you will see Chip Foose, he had just recently been hired to sketch the hot rods.
2 comments:
Where was I ten years ago? When I reflect on my last ten years I too see the best of times and the worst of times. In 1995 I was struggling to make it through the end of my overly long college career. The bad part was going to class. The good part was working at the race shop tooling on stock cars during the week, and being at the race track every Saturday night (it would've been Seekonk Speedway in 1995). I made the huge decision to come out to CA shortly after getting my engineering degree. I met some great people. I never imagined where I would be now, compared to ten years ago. Meeting the guys at bonspeed by chance, and being given the opportunity to help build some of the most forward thinking tuner concepts in the world is definatly a high. Even my day job has become a high, designing "tuner cars" to cruise around a planet a couple million miles away! Who would've thought? Oh... what was I driving? Audi 4000 CS Quattro - not really a hot rod.
Ten years ago after graduating from college, I started working in the auto industry teaching dealership training, promoting cars at auto shows and special events around the U.S.
Representing the bonspeed Jaguar X-Type at the 2004 SEMA show was a high point in my promotional work. I'm proud to have met and worked with the team at bonspeed.
This past winter, my promo work took me to select markets where the film, "The World's Fastest Indian" was screened. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves machines.
Rhonda Smith
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