GMP 1934 Ford

With a name like Pork Chop what’s not to love? One of my favorite series of diecast even if they are 1:18th scale a must have series for the true motor heads amongst us.

As a somewhat wild kid or so my mother said, cars similar to Pork Chop were not uncommon to me. Living in what was called a patch town located in NE PA we pretty much had no police or authority to crack down on us wild ones, as the local residents lovingly referred to us. We had full run of the town to pretty much run anything that we could strap a motor on thereby terrifying everyone in the process. Most of our motorized vehicles didn’t have brakes we liked to keep all the neighbors senses sharp as they never knew when they would need to run like hell to get out of our way or get ran over (that never happened I assure you, all those stories about it being me are not true).

You have to remember these were hard times it was hard enough to scrape together the .18 for a gallon of gas let alone worrying about brakes. I simply figured if I could get it moving forward stopping would come naturally so to speak. Anyway we had a ball with these old clunkers we drove them until they died then we simply left them where they expired.

As I reflect back on those early days I realize it’s a wonder I am here to write this article for you. I guess those gray hairs that mom had at such an early age are really from me? Thanks mom for allowing me to enjoy my youth and yes I'll pay for those chickens that the neighbors claim I ran over I still deny doing so but to make you happy the check is in the mail.

Now onto the Pork Chop story I am sure you will enjoy.

Car guys know of many stories and legends about other car guys. Some are fictional and some, well, sound so made up that you might think they were fictional, but are not. GMP recently uncovered an "urban legend" lurking in their "neck of the woods". Just outside of Winder is Pine Sap, Georgia. A small, almost forgotten little town, with one post office and a fabulous little known secret. Pine Sap is home to a little known hot­rodder named Pork Chop. Pork Chop is the owner and proprietor of Pork Chop’s Chop Shop. Right over his garage door hangs this slogan: "Fastest Chops in the South!". Pork Chop is a very unassuming, quiet man with a real talent for building fast cars. After a few cold beverages, Pork Chop told us his story:

Back in the 30’s Cletus Clements, or "Pappy" as family fondly called him, was a hog farmer here in Pine Sap. When times got tough, he took to running moonshine at night for the Dooner boys. His set of wheels was quick, and the money running shine was pretty good. Pappy watched all that money trading hands, and decided to try his luck with his own still in back of the smoke house. He made the best dern shine in three States, and when the Dooner boys ended up in the penn, Pappy could hardly keep up with the business. That’s when my Paw started runnin shine. He knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but we needed the money. Paw had quite a few brushes with the law and built some pretty quick cars to stay ahead of them "revenooers". He was dog gone good with a wrench and I learned everything I know from him. He and Pappy worked that old beater over until it smoked anything on the road. Even the local law was impressed with how fast it ran. So impressed that they overlooked the ’shine runnin’ and asked if Pappy and Paw would work on the county’s fleet.

I used to help Pappy and Paw in the smoke house during the day, that’s why they call me Pork Chop, but I’d be in this shop every night. We spent a lot of hours together out here. As soon as I could hold a wrench Pappy and Paw had me help in the garage. I was a wiry thing and they would hold me by my ankles in the engine compartment and told me which way to turn the socket on the spark plugs. We spent hundreds of hours working on our cars and cars of our friends. Maw was always sore ’cause my clothes were always covered in grease — even my church duds. I really enjoyed working on cars and still do.

I still love it here, building and driving these cars. I can’t figer for the life of me doing anything else. If you want it we’ll build it!

We finished the interview and shook hands, walking away we couldn’t help but notice the cars parked all around the shop. Hot looking cars with unique features — even a few sleepers with monster mega-cube, stump pullin’ engines and huge exhaust pipes. Pork Chop is an unassuming man who keeps to himself, his shop certainly not a Boyd Coddington type. Although he rarely ventures out but when he does, you know it by his ride and he always wears shades. If you’re real lucky you may even see one of his rods tearing down the street. To talk to him you wouldn’t even know that he is an artist in his own realm.