Its big eyes stare at you from your hat, your T-shirt, the back window of your station wagon, and the inside of your toolbox. Mooneyes' logo adorns the sides of the Landspeed Streamliner, Nitro Funny Car, and even his AMG GT3 Endurance Car. Perhaps just below the heart of the Hooker header for an American car brand, the founding story of the Moon Equipment Company, or even more interesting, its rescue and rebirth as Mooneyes after the death of founder Dean Moon. How many people know the story?
I don't think there were that many, but that's why we were so happy to see a preview of the upcoming documentary. craft of speedwhich follows the brand from its creation in the early 1950s to its current iteration.
Dean Moon was a Southern California hot rodder in the 1940s. He worked at his father's cafe in Norwalk and modified his '34 Ford behind the restaurant. This era was a time of great innovation for aftermarket components, allowing smart manufacturers to make their mark on single hop-up components such as heads, cams, intakes, and fuel blocks. The fuel block started out as a machined billet part that Moon designed in his high school craft class. The fuel block works to equalize pressure in multi-carb setups, like many hot rod flatheads and four bangers used at the time. Moon quickly realized that if he wanted to make any number of blocks, he would have to cast them, and with his success he spun his aluminum wheels, now known as “Mooncaps” from his engine kit to his covers. Additional product designs were created, ranging from
By 1954, Moon Equipment Co. had become a household name among Dry Lakes racers and car customizers. In 1957, Moon purchased a small store in Santa Fe Springs and hired an artist from Disney to design an eye-catching logo. craft of speed While we have some of Moon's famous cars on display, we have also established the Mooneyes site as a hub for performance development. It was in the back garage of Moon's equipment that Cobra Carroll Shelby first shoved his V-8 engine.
Even if the Mooreyes story ended with Dean Moon's death in 1987, it would still remain an important part of automotive history, but what makes this story stand out compared to other stories about early hot rodding? All that matters is what happened next.
The Dean Moon Roadster is still in its original location at Mooneyes in Santa Fe Springs.
moon world trip
One interesting detail in the documentary is that Dean Moon knew hot rodding had international appeal. Moon was one of the first American drag racers to ship a car to England, where he ran speed trials. He also worked with Nissan on his 1960s Japanese Grand Prix R381, cementing the Mooneyes' love for generations of Japanese car enthusiasts. This occurs later in the film, when a Japanese hot rodder named Shige Suganuma teams up with Moon and his college friend Chico Kodama (a Japanese-American hotrodder that Suganuma met while studying abroad in the United States) in Yokohama. It will appear when you start selling speed parts. ) to put American products on the shelves. When Mr. Moon passed away in his 1987 year, it made sense for Mr. Suganuma that he and Mr. Kodama would buy the business and carry on its legacy. This is about half the story.
“The difficult thing about this movie is that it's an epic story,” he says. craft of speed Directed by Ming Lai. “This is 30 years of Dean Moon's history, and 30 years of Shige and Chico carrying on that important legacy. And when you put it together, it's just the history of hot rods from then to now, and that “It's a big challenge trying to capture all of this. That made the movie a little bit longer, but we didn't want to shorten the history.”
Shige Suganuma and Chico Kodama attended the premiere of The Craft of Speed.
Lai's own interest in the Mooneyes story is also two-part. Because of his family's ties to hot rodding, he recognizes the company's importance in the automotive community, and as an Asian American, he believes this famous American brand is well-received by fellow Asian American car enthusiasts. When I learned that it was owned, I was intrigued. The documentary doesn't delve deeply into Kodama and Suganuma's experiences with racism, but it doesn't gloss over them either. Even more heartening is the look at how diverse Mooneyes' customers are and how a shared love of cars and googly-eyed stickers unites the planet's hot rodders. .
As if that wasn't enough to fill a film reel, craft of speed We also follow Chico Kodama's recent land speed endeavors at the Bonneville Salt Flats. This story alone could be a standalone film with plenty of technical and emotional challenges. I won't spoil it, but the audience cheered at the end.
Shige Suganuma of the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Mr. Rai talks about the following ideas: craft of speed He came to him after realizing that he and Kodama attended the same Buddhist temple in Newport Beach. “After an event, someone introduced him to me and said, 'Oh, this guy is into hot rods.'” This is a total understatement when talking about the president of Mooneyes. Rai and Kodama became friends, but each time Rai suggested they work together, Kodama politely declined. It wasn't until Lai started Land Speed Cars that he realized it was worth documenting a bit of the shop's history. “I said, 'You need to document the construction of your car.'” “As someone who builds cars, I think that was irresistible. That became the story of the frame. But that was really the whole Mooneyes story.”
Rai spent four years photographing Kodama and Suganuma, as well as their friends and family, in their stores, overseas, and on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Ultimately, we get a closer look at the brand's automotive history and Suganuma and Kodama's lifelong friendship. For much of the film, their voices are heard off-camera in footage of cars and events. “They're both humble people,” Rai says. “Often when we stopped filming, they would tell the best stories. So I started recording what we call in Hawaii, 'talking stories,' just recording rich voices talking about past regrets and hopes. I just wanted to record it.'' There's the great Cambodian film director Rithy Phan, who says he doesn't make films. about He's making a movie, folks. and people. So I took that to heart. ”
Director Ming Lai spent four years working with the Mooneyes community to film Craft of Speed.
watch a movie
craft of speed ' is still in the process of finding a distributor, so viewers will have to content themselves with a 'making of' video and trailer for now, but we hope to see it on streaming services hopefully sometime in 2024. It will no longer be shared.
Like the sleeper agent activated late in the game, Elana Shale didn't know her calling when she was young. Like many of her girls, she planned to become a military veteran, astronaut, and artist, and came closest to that ultimate goal by attending UCLA's art school. Although she drew an image of her car, she did not own a car. Elana reluctantly got her driver's license at the age of 21, but not only because she loves cars and wants to drive, but because other people also love cars and want to read about them, she said, I knew I had to write about cars. Since receiving her activation code, Elana has contributed to numerous car magazines and her website, covering classics, car culture, technology, motorsport, and new car reviews. In 2020, she won the Best Feature Award from the Motor Press Guild. CD Story “Drive Classic Americana in Polestar 2” In 2023, she car and driver His novel “Washington D.C.'s Secret Carpool Cabal: Every Day is a Slug Festival'' won first place at the Los Angeles Press Club's 16th National Arts, Entertainment and Journalism Awards.
