THE AMAZING HISTORY OF HOT RODS

 

Hot rods first appeared in the late 1930s in southern California, where people raced modified cars on dry lake beds northeast of Los Angeles, under the rules of the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA), among other groups. ... Hot rods built before 1945 commonly used '35 Ford wire-spoke wheels.

This is the most unusual issue of HOT ROD you've ever seen, as it only has one story outside of the monthly editorial departments, and we've pushed aside several of those to save as many pages as possible for this singular tale. It's the story of hot rodding itself. It's far from the complete story, we admit, but is a remarkable living history as told by 144 surviving cars featured in HOT ROD magazine from 1948 through the '90s. These special cars and about 130 newer ones gathered at the HOT ROD Homecoming in March 2013 at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, to celebrate the 65th anniversary of HRM. It was the world's largest collection of historic feature vehicles, and many were not the hero cars that have been vaunted over the past half-dozen decades—instead, the show was thick with small-town rides, hot rods that haven't been in public in many years, cars that have been used regularly, some that had been freshly restored, and others that were barn finds or survivors.

The genius was in the remarkable mix that had attendees proclaiming the Homecoming to be the best show they'd ever attended. The not-genius of it is that, as we disclaimed, some facets of rodding history went unrepresented at the Homecoming, leaving blank chapters in this issue's chronicle. Filling the voids, we've authored a few timelines as a primer for the new generation and a refresher for the graybeards. It's all one story, but with multiple characters, plotlines, sidebars, and tangents. It's the basics of hot rodding history as you've never seen it.

HOT ROD thanks presenting sponsor Chevrolet Performance and co-sponsor Edelbrock (celebrating 75 years in 2013) for helping make it happen.

This 1932 Ford roadster was not featured in HOT ROD until the 65th anniversary edition (January 2013), but we lead with it here because it's among the earliest hot roadsters still in existence and one of the most important. Vic Edelbrock, Sr. founded his speed-equipment company in 1938 and used this car as a daily driver and testbed for the development of his merchandise. This included the famed Edelbrock Slingshot intake manifold for flathead Ford V8s. Vic would keep the fenders on the car for the street and then remove them for dry-lakes racing. The high stance, using stock suspension, is a signature of prewar rods; guys learned later that lower cars went faster. After Vic sold the car to Eddie Bosio in 1947 for $1,500, it was totally revamped into a show car that won the America's Most Beautiful Roadster aware in 1956. It remained in that trim until a decade ago when Vic Edelbrock, Jr. bought the car and had it restored to dry-lakes trim by Roy Brizio.

March 1948

While many dry-lakes racers used stock-profile bodies from production cars, it's surprising how early the dedicated race cars appeared, built with modified OE sheetmetal or even sheetmetal hand-formed from scratch. These one-offs were knows as modifieds of streamliners. Dean Batchelor's The American Hot Rod describes how, in the 1940s, a modified had the body clipped behind the driver, whereas streamliners had complete bodies aft of the driver, usually tapering for aerodynamic effect—at least in theory. Open-wheeled modified would later become known as lakesters, and streamliners are now defined by enclosed wheels. The car seen here is Jim Lattin's re-creation of a narrow single-seater modified, built by Dusty Campbell in the late 1930s with a four-cylinder and then raced by Danny Sakai with a flathead V8 until he died in a motorcycle accident in 1941, The cut-down grille is from a LaSalle. When the car was shown in HOT ROD, it was owned by Willet Brown (misspelled as Willit in the mag), a manager of Los Angeles-area radio stations, including KHJ, who later co-founded the Mutual Broadcasting System.

April 1948

This is Jim Lattin's cloe of a race car built before WWII by Bill Warth and purchased by Stuart Hilborn on December 7, 1941—the day of the Pearl Harbor attack. Stu went to war and, when he returned, installed a flathead Ford V-8 in the car. It was first powered by a four-cylinder, but he had purchased it minute the engine. He crashed it in 1947 and broke his back but had the car repaired by the time of the April 1948 cover photo with Stu sitting in the streamliner in his parents' Santa Monica driveway. A few months later, it was the first to break the 150-mph barrier at the dry lakes. Significantly, it used mechanical fuel injection of Stu's own design, and his company Hilborn Fuel Injection was founded. Hilborn injection would become dominant at the Indy 500 and many other forms of racing.