It was roughly seven miles across the town of 19,000 which had been home to EMI/Capitol's vinyl record pressing plant from 1965 to 1995. We cruised in the right lane while the Hot Rod staff van took up a position in the left lane about two car lengths ahead of us. Mr. Allison propped himself up in the shotgun seat of the van, on his knees, facing backwards with the entire top half of his body hanging out the open window. He would give Aaron exaggerated hand signals to adjust the distance between the vehicles, take a few shots, then more hand signals, all the time looking angry and frustrated.
"What do I do?" Aaron asked me, feeling the pressure.
"Stay between the lines, and don't hit any of the other cars", I teased. I wasn't like we were the only two cars driving through the heart of town at 6:30 on a Thursday evening.
Wes motioned for the park lights to be turned on, took a few shots, then asked for the headlights.
"Heck of a game face he has!" I commented.
"Yeah, you'd think he hated his job from the look of him", Aaron added, then he breathed noticeably easier when the van faded back to Rachael and Skippy to repeat the process with the Belvedere.

It's not the first time Wes Allison has shot the Valiant or the Belvedere, it's just that I've never seen the pictures...they are probably buried in the Hot Rod archives by now, never to be seen again. Luckily Elana used these in one of her Hot Rod Drag Week updates on Hotrod.com, so I had the opportunity to get them, and they are easily among my favorite photos ever of both cars.