Hot Rods: The Birth of Drag Racing (Part IV)

As hot rodding moved into the cities, the urge to have races and speed contests remained. No one wanted to drive all the way out to the desert to do a land speed run on a dry lake bed that would gum up the paint though, so people raced on the streets instead. People would gather on long, open straightaway streets and test their cars and themselves. Weekend nights on streets such as Wilshire Blvd in downtown LA would be filled with the sound of screeching tires and roaring engines. In addition to racing in straight lines, some even more daring individuals would take to the Hollywood Hills and race along Mulholland Drive. Before and after races, people would gather at fast food joints like In-N-Out Burger and show off their cars--an image that still holds true today with local cruise in gatherings and numerous examples of pop art from and representing the era.

These fete's of speed and demonstrations of testosterone addled invincibility were often accompanied by personal injury and property damage for the drivers and those around them. This bad boy, rebellious image became attached the hotrod. To try to stem this association, some hot rodders formed organizations to conduct short distance speed trials under safer, sanctioned conditions. The most important of these organizations was the National Hot Rod Association. By defining the structure under which drag racing, including 1/4 mile and 1/8 mile trials, was to be conducted and facilitating the creation of safe tracks to perform the races on, the NHRA began a tradition of safely conducting speed trials that it continues today.

Hot rod drag racing still had plenty of rebels racing on the streets long after the 1951 establishment of the NHRA, of course. We still have street races today all over the country. But for the most part, drag racing moved to the track. Even still, pop culture had its go at glorifying the rebellious teen drag racers in such movies as the previously mentioned American Graffiti as well as songs by the Beach Boys like Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down.

Next time I'll explore the growth of the Kustom and Beatnik rods.

Pictured is the famous "Little Deuce Coupe" from the Beach Boys 1963 album of the same name.

Hot Rods: Early Individual Customs (Part III)

In continuing my series on the hot rod, I'd like to turn my focus to how hot rodding became more mainstream. While I won't jump to George Lucas' first truly big movie, American Graffiti, the movie's subject is telling. Hot rodding couldn't survive on dry lakes alone. There were a number of die hards that lived and breathed speed records on the salt, but for most people, a lake bed racer required too much work for a product that was very good at getting one thing (speed) but not another thing crucial to every young male (girls). For that, hot rodders had to turn their attention to aesthetics and streetability in the city. With these changes came new types of vehicles, but old social mores kept the presence of racing (in some form or another) a part of the hobby and many of the modifications continued to find their origins in lake bed cars.

In cities like Los Angeles, young teens and twenty-somethings desired the same things in the 1950's, 60's and 70's and they do now (and I'm pretty sure that young ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and even cavemen are no different here): girls and thrills. Cars, since their inception, have provided both, but usually at a high monetary costs. What hot rods did was bring this cost down somewhat. The basis was the same as I have mentioned before, mostly pre-WWII Fords and Chevy's with simple flathead V8s (not too many Chryslers were used because they often only had inline sixes). As time moved on, people began to use newer cars that had trickled onto the used market, namely 1949 and 50 Mercury Coupes.

The modifications where similar to those done by the lake bed boys, dropping the cars down to the ground by chopping, channeling, and sectioning the cars (also see the previous post). Unlike before, however, looks were key. Cars were smoothed out and polished and items that detracted from the slick lines of the car, such as door handles, trunk handles, and other elements were eliminated or 'shaved.' Headlights were inset in the body work, or 'frenched.' Paint was liberally applied in bright pearlescent colors (so called because early pearlescent paints got the glittery shine from crushed sea shells). Chrome was usually liberally applied with toothy grills, elegant trim lines, or heavy bumpers. Engines were usually worked over as well with the usual exhaust and head cover replacements combined with occasional flame thrower pipes. The resulting product, called a 'Leadsled,' a 'Deuce,' a '3-Window,' or any other of a host of names (depending on the make, model, and mods performed) tended to be an outright expression of personal taste, rebellion, and an individual's idea of a chick magnet (as with fish and birds, brightly colored shiny things seem to be what men think girls love).

Guys would cruise the streets in their ride, which was often also their daily driver and only car. This meant that while the car was being fabricated, they had to drive the unfinished wreck around, so a finished car was something to be proud of. Boys being boys meant that just looking pretty wasn't enough. While there were certainly competitions for whose car was the best looking, whose car was the fastest was also important. Next time I'll take a look at how racing moved from the lake beds to the cities with drag racing.

Pictures, clockwise from lower left, are of the 1929 Ford Model A Roadster "Tin Man," the 1951 Mercury "Knight Cruiser," a 1932 Ford Model B SoCal Deuce Roadster, a hot rod being built, a flathead Ford V8 with Offenhauser heads, and a 1929 Ford Hot Rod Roadster driven by Elvis Presley in Loving You.

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.