Austin Speed Shop Is One of the Seven Automotive Wonders of the World
Austin, Texas is an internationally beloved hotbed for “cool”, especially when it comes to car culture thanks to the Austin Speed Shop. But simply being a cool custom hot rod shop isn’t enough to make it one of the seven automotive wonders of the world. Thankfully, the Austin Speed Shop is a lot more than just a cool custom car builder.
When a shop is founded by a brain surgeon, biotech entrepreneur and a music manager, you’ve got something that ends up being more than the sum of its parts. You’ve got a cultural icon.
In 2013 the Austin Business Journal named the Austin Speed Shop “Austin’s coolest company”. You need only to step inside the place to figure out why.
The moment you encounter the Austin Speed Shop’s arrangement of classic cars, motorcycles, memorabilia and neon, you’re treated to a symphonic effect on your synapses. There’s an emotional and cultural rhythm about the place; the facility’s pulse beats rhythmically with your own oil-pumping heart. If car fanaticism were a religion, and if I were religious, I would worship here, and kneel at the cross located in the shop’s west corner that reads, “Hot Rod Church of God”.
It’s as if the Ford F-100 and Lincoln-Zephyr above are offerings laid at the altar for the benefit of car gods who appreciate a wicked patina with their classic American iron.
The Austin Speed Shop is a place every car nut should visit. Drop everything you’re doing, hop onto a plane, train, lead sled or dog sled and go there right now if you can. If you can’t, here’s a gallery of images to get you by until you actually can visit this wonder of the automotive world.
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