WARNER ROBINS -- The Lancasters have a hobby that has led them all across the Southeast, most recently to Bowling Green, Ky., at Kentucky’s National Hot Rod Association Hot Rod Reunion on June 16-17, where the couple brought their 1930 Ford Model A car.
“We didn’t go there to win,” Jean Lancaster said, but win they did.
Street Rodder magazine’s judges picked the couple’s car as one of its top 10 for the event. At the end of the year, it will compete against 99 other cars to determine the hot rodder of the year for 2012, according to a Street Rodder news release.
Owners of cars in the top 10 for each show received prizes. The grand prize winner will receive “a custom-made, leather-sleeved jacket and a one-of-a-kind trophy, featuring a billet aluminum air cleaner with the likeness of their car engraved on the top plate, from Eddie’s Motorsports,” the release stated.
The Lancasters’ car has a 1961 Chevrolet 348 engine with two four-barrel carburetors.
Jean Lancaster calls it a “simple” hot rod.
Their car was chosen from among the 2,000 that were at the show.
The Lancasters drove the car the 7 1/2 hours to Bowling Green, and said they loved watching other people take photos of their ride.
“They’re not trailer queens, as we like to call them,” Jean Lancaster said, noting that they drove all their restored cars.
Kert and Jean Lancaster are Warner Robins residents who restore hot rods together. When they were married in 1971, Jean quickly realized her new husband was obsessed with cars.
“I knew if I wanted to be with my husband, I would have to be in the garage,” she said.
First she was just a fetcher. Fetch this tool, fetch that wrench.
Now she is hands-on, and the couple bounce ideas off of each other for each new project.
Kert Lancaster grew up in Detroit. His grandfather owned a Dodge/Plymouth dealership. A young Kert learned how to fix the cars, and the skill has kept him busy since.
Currently, the couple is working on three project cars -- a 1956 Corvette, a 1946 Ford and a 1939 Dodge.
Though they never put for-sale signs on their finished products, Jean Lancaster said there always is a figure in their heads in case someone asks how much they want for one.
“It’s a team effort,” she said.
The couple does all the work on the cars except the interior work. Some of the engine work Kert Lancaster will send out.
For a street rod, the ideas are endless, and the cars are modified to be faster than they were originally.
“We’re just crazy about cars,” Jean Lancaster said.
