His Purple Passion

Eli English was a grade schooler when he first spotted this '34 couple peering through the open doors of a local garage. Thirty years later, he got to work on this period-perfect late-'50s hot rod and put her back on the road.

- Scotty Lachenauer

IGNITED. Eli English was an 8-year-old schoolboy when he spotted a strange car peering through an open garage door on his way home from school. From the window of his bus he could make out the silhouette of an old purple hot rod, front lit by the fading sun, and contrasted by the darkness of its surrounding lair. He really wasn’t exactly sure what the old car was, but he was damn sure that he wanted to get the chance to inspect it close up and personal.

Young Eli was no stranger to hot rods. He grew up in a family that was chest deep in the hot rodding hobby. His grandfather had a barn full of Model Ts and As, and his storehouse was a place where the burgeoning car aficionado spent quality time with the family’s collection of Blue Oval iron. Some of Eli’s fondest memories were of days riding in the rumble seat of grandpa’s ’31 coupe, cruising in the vintage Ford through the rolling countryside of rural New England.

Eli kept an eye out for the purple hot rod on his rides home from school, but over the years, the Ford never made another appearance. He tried to catch another glimpse of the coupe from time to time, but the hot rod stayed tucked away behind closed doors.

That purple coupe ignited a passion deep inside young Eli and pushed him into his current field of employment. After several years doing general bodywork, he followed his heart and joined a restoration shop in his home state of New Hampshire. And then, after several years of working at mastering his trade, Eli struck out on his own and built his own shop, Traditional Speed and Custom, based in Pittsfield, New Hampshire. There, Eli and his crew build and restore period-correct hot rods for a select clientele, taking on work from across the U.S. and Europe as well.