Ford V8s, surplus wing tanks, weird fuels, treated tires, and anything-goes ingenuity created the California hot-rod culture on the dry lakes and salt flats in the 1930s. Author Robert Genat covers the hot rodding phenomenon including wildcatters on the salt flats and organized class racing of the Southern California Timing Association (1938) and up through the present day. Genat's insider view, illustrated with rare photographs (some never before published) of the SoCal scene in the 30s and 40s, puts the people and cars of the time and place into historical perspective and even includes the reopening of Edwards Air Force Base's flats to hot-rodders.
These stories highlight the inventors, racers, and show-winners from both past and present who have made hot rodding the art it is today! Hot rods are built for speed and each is a unique creation reflecting its builder's vision. The Hot Rod Reader offers similar features with writings and excerpts that capture the excitement of hot rodding, the history of how it came to be, and the major events, people, cars, and builders who have brought hot rods to national attention. The anthology includes diverse contributions from popular writers covering hot rods and custom cars--writers like Tom Wolfe, Jay Leno, Peter Vincent, and more. Also included are stories about the most daring, cutting-edge innovators in the hot rodding field today. The entire collection works like a field guide, helping readers to explore various themes within hot rodding through news articles, essays, fiction, interviews, and more, with more than 60 color and black-and-white illustrations and photographs to illuminate each excerpt and story. Dig deeper into a hobby that's all about tinkering with machines to make them go faster, look cooler, function better, and exceed expectations. Motivated by both craftsmanship and performance, hot rodders encourage us to push the limits of both mechanical objects and social acceptance, and in the process, they have redefined the driving experience. Read the full story of the hot rod with The Hot Rod Reader.
In its sixty-plus years of existence, Hot Rod magazine has featured hundreds of cars on its cover. This book showcases each cover in full color, along with images of the cover car from select issues.
For American teenagers, getting a driver’s license has long been a watershed moment, separating teens from their childish pasts as they accelerate toward the sweet, sweet freedom of their futures. With driver’s license in hand, teens are on the road to buying and driving(and maybe even crashing) their first car, a machine which is home to many a teenage ritual—being picked up for a first date, “parking” at a scenic overlook, or blasting the radio with a gaggle of friends in tow. So important is this car ride into adulthood that automobile culture has become a stand-in, a shortcut to what millions of Americans remember about their coming of age. Machines of Youth traces the rise, and more recently the fall, of car culture among American teens. In this book, Gary S. Cross details how an automobile obsession drove teen peer culture from the 1920s to the 1980s, seducing budding adults with privacy, freedom, mobility, and spontaneity. Cross shows how the automobile redefined relationships between parents and teenage children, becoming a rite of passage, producing new courtship rituals, and fueling the growth of numerous car subcultures. Yet for teenagers today the lure of the automobile as a transition to adulthood is in decline.Tinkerers are now sidelined by the advent of digital engine technology and premolded body construction, while the attention of teenagers has been captured by iPhones, video games, and other digital technology. And adults have become less tolerant of teens on the road, restricting both cruising and access to drivers’ licenses. Cars are certainly not going out of style, Cross acknowledges, but how upcoming generations use them may be changing. He finds that while vibrant enthusiasm for them lives on, cars may no longer be at the center of how American youth define themselves. But, for generations of Americans, the modern teen experience was inextricably linked to this particularly American icon.
America's premier traditional hot rod builder, introduces his Hot Rod Your Model A - This #1 in his "Let Me Help You" Big Book Series is 340-pages, and is a comprehensive how-to guide to the conversion of a stock Model A into a traditional, flathead V8-powered hot rod. The book is unlike any other in the marketplace as it's engineered with a lay-flat spine allowing it to sit flat on the counter to make the step-by-step instructions easier to follow. Included is a note pad, an essential tool in the process of building a traditional rod. This highly detailed, all-color book aims to help hot rodders who simply, and correctly want to build a traditional hot rod, using mostly Ford parts. Surprisingly, only a handful of aftermarket parts are required, thus reducing the cost of building.This book steps out where none has ever ventured, with each step illustrated in color in its 27 chapters. Clear illustrations cover suspension, V8-conversion, basic wiring harness schematics and installation templates for the steering column, floor, and firewall, along with instructions for tools you can make yourself.It's already been called: The Best A-to-Z Guide for Building a traditional Model A Flathead Hot Rod-ever published! Second Edition printed in Black and White with Color Cover
Trends come and go in hot rodding, but true hot rod style never goes out of vogue. It is hard to define but you know it when you see it. Larry O’Toole has been a hot rodder, magazine editor, photographer, book publisher and author on the subject of hot rodding for over 40 years and he has documented every emerging trend from the entire hot rod world. Who better to bring you the latest in that constantly evolving hobby where styling trends meet engineering ability? Traditional hot rods have been cycled and recycled for many years and each time there is a wave of interest in this style of hot rod, that emulates an earlier time, there is evolution of the breed taking place. “Classic Hot Rod Style”, O’Toole’s latest foray into the worldwide phenomenon of traditional hot rodding brings the reader a feast of photographic images that capture the mysterious, intangible ingredient that defines a stand-out hot rod. Even the most die-hard of hot rod fans will struggle to describe what it is that sets such hot rods apart from the rest, they will pause and tell you it is that certain something that is inherent in their design – it’s that “Classic Hot Rod Style”. Gathered together in this fabulous full-color production is a thoroughly researched essay on the evolution of the Classic Hot Rod Style that makes the cars featured throughout the book perfect examples of the breed. This descriptive story is followed up with in-depth features on many such examples with full details on what their owners used to assemble their dream hot rods, together with hundreds of clear photographs that let you see inside these Classic Hot Rods. Finally a pictorial gathering of dozens more examples of the breed let you see where hot rodding is headed in the future. All have been selected for their contribution to that certain something that sets them apart from the pack, it’s that Classic Hot Rod Style that every hot rodder loves.
This book is designed for anyone who has ever seen a hot rod and wondered, "How do I build one of those?" Whether you're a newcomer to the hobby or a seasoned, experienced builder, this book covers every aspect of building a hot rod from start to finish. Author Dennis Parks helps the reader select the right vehicle to build and leads them through the process of making it happen. He answers basic questions and sheds light on the entire process of building a hot rod with lots of no-nonsense advice for any degree of builder.
