Post #590367 by bigbrotiki on Mon, May 23, 2011 4:24 PM

Very cool!...now more of the cars you mentioned! :)

That pith helmet thing for the desert races is fascinating to me. I am theorizing about three possible sources of inspiration:

1.)
Just like nowadays we dig 50s and 60s imagery, back in the 50s, people liked 1920s and earlier vintage stuff, like old timer cars and jalopies (=Model T Fords were made into Hot Rods) and slapstick movies...

...which had silly jungle explorer and African hunter characters...

Silent film cliches like that were used in the 50s with the same sense of humor with which we use mid-century Polynesian pop images today, so it was that kind of cliche joke that might have made desert racers wear these helmets.

One example for a hipster who did use this look was

2.)
Lord Buckley, famous Beatnik wordsmith and comedian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Buckley

(note: "In 1959 Buckley voiced the beatnik character Go Man Van Gogh in "Wildman of Wildsville"!")

And 3.)
Considering that Bikers used German steel helmets and iron cross insignia, perhaps (just perhaps!) they were an homage to the German Afrika Korps look:

"Desert Fox" Rommel had always been afforded a certain admiration by Americans...

...and it seems his soldiers did have a good sense of humor, too:

This is just the kind of equipment modification that Hot Rodders would have dug :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2011-05-24 08:49 ]