Hot Rods: Dry Lake Racer Roots (Part II)

In continuing with my series on hot rods, these unique cars have had an interesting evolution from their early roots in Southern California. One of the most significant parts of this evolution was speed and the attainment of it in any way possible. Young, mostly blue collar guys, many of whom were recent veterans of WWII, were bored with life and needed some sort of excitement to spice things up. Then, as now, living on the edge of death proved to be a way to satisfy these testosterone driven urges.

To go fast, hot rodders required a few essential elements: a cheap car, an easily modified engine, a lot of space, a fair amount of creativity, a slight disregard for personal safety, and some semblance of mechanical ingenuity. Many of these things could either be attained around town or learned with time. Space, however, was an element that could not be constructed or bought, it had to be found. Lucky for Southern Californians, there was a ready made race track that existed right near Los Angeles: dry lake beds. Without going to much into the geological history of the southwestern United States, parts of the country used to be under salt water seas. As the landscape changed, these seas dried up leaving vast, open dry salt lake beds. Because the lake beds dried evenly, they were very hard and table top smooth--the perfect conditions for going fast.

Hot rodders would typically start with commonly available cars with cheap, powerful engines. The most popular cars were Ford V8 roadsters, which were easily found and could be attained for a song after WWII when no one wanted them. Rodders would start with easy modifications that cost next to nothing, like removing weight and streamlining the body. All non-essential items, such as fenders, tops, windows, and windshields were removed. These items were rarely removed permanently, as the cars often served as the daily drivers for the people that raced them. In addition to body modifications, the engine would usually be modified to make more power by adding better heads and more aggressive cams. Characters like Vic Edelbrock got his start on the dry lakes. Cars were sometimes lowered on their frame rails to bring the car closer to the ground (or channeled), the roofs were lowered (chopped) and sections off the body work were removed (sectioned) all to give the car a lower appearance.

Cars would then race along a track drawn in the salt, trying to attain the highest speed over a given distance. As the sport progressed, many major innovations were made, such as the inclusion of 'belly tank' racers made from the old long range fuel tanks used by WWII fighters. Eventually, sanctioning bodies were formed to create rules, regulations, and classes that allowed for some form of order to be brought to the grassroots sport. Today, lake bed racing continues to thrive both among old car enthusiasts and innovative new pioneers who use jets and other alternative means to power their cars. In the end though, it was the early efforts of the first dry lake bed pioneers that founded the sport and helped start the evolution of the hot rod.

A video of early dry lake bed racing can be found on Hot Rod TV. Pictures on the left side are of a1932 Ford Highboy Roadster known as the "Miller Automotive" Special. On the right is the very famous 1934 Ford Pierson Brothers Coupe, a 200+ mph streamliner.