Rolling Bones: Opening Friday November 11
/WORLD RENOWNED “ROLLING BONES” HOT RODS SET FOR SARATOGA AUTOMOBILE MUSEUM EXHIBIT
Saratoga Springs, NY California may be the home of hot rodding, but automobile lovers and collectors worldwide know that some of the world’s finest hot rods are constructed across the USA in Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell’s Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop in Greenfield Center, NY. The duo’s renowned handiwork will grace the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s main Golub Gallery beginning Friday night November 11th at 6PM, free for members $10 for non-members.
Modeled on chopped pre-war coupes and roadsters familiar to followers of speed record racing on the Bonneville, UT salt flats and the El Mirage, CA dry lake, newly built rods from the Rolling Bones shop look like they came right out of a 1950’s Hot Rod Magazine and have spent the decades since in storage.
“We’re not interested in building street rods with new or reproduction parts,” Schmidt insists. “Plenty of other guys do that. Our cars are aggressive, but they’re approachable. These cars make people smile; you want to hear them run and see them move. You can drive them during the week but they’re almost a full out race car.
“Anybody can make something look dirty. It takes an artist to make something look old. Great hot rods are works of art. Like a painting, when you look at it, a serious hot rod will tell you enough of its story to grab your emotions, then let your imagination take you as far and as fast as you want to go. We build stories, Rolling Bones hot rod style, one story at a time.”
Among others, the 18-car exhibit will feature a half-dozen Rolling Bones cars returned to New York from California, Englishman William Medcalf’s 1930 Model A hot rod and the original cars fabricated by Schmidt and Cornell that attracted national attention and got the Rolling Bones franchise started.