Hi folks -- tonight I'll be going again to the local Cruise -In and photograph some local hot rods. Seen often as curiosities by those outside the car hobby, hot rods have had a powerful influence on modern culture, particularly during the Golden Age of the automobile during the 1950s. What follows is an analysis of hot rods, their history and culture, taken from my book, The Automobile and American Life:
Hot Rod
The car hobby grew to be quite complex by the mid-1950s, and it involved both engine and body modifications along with creative painting techniques. Pre-WWII antecedents included the organization of dry lakes racing at
One example of the diffusion of hot rod culture from west to east involved the Granatelli brothers of
The tensions of this era relating to rodding were encapsulated in Henry Gregor Felsen’s Hot Rod, a novel directed to early 1950s youth but that became so popular that it remained in print to the mid-1960s. The central figure of the story is Bud Crayne, with an accompanying cast of half a dozen high school students from the small town of
Felsen’s writing about hot rodders and the police took a very different turn four years later in his Cup of Fury. In this story, the reader is introduced to a young hot rod enthusiast, Link Aller, not terribly different in character than Bud Crayne. Unlike the understanding policeman in Hot Rod, however, in Cup of Fury there is a new sheriff in town, and he taught young Link a brutal lesson in obedience and respect at their first meeting. After Link was caught spinning tires in the school parking lot, policeman Kern, introduced himself this way:
The cop didn’t say anything. There was a click and before Link could set himself, the door of the police car was hurled open, and smashed against him. It seemed to hit him all at once, from his head to his knees. He was stunned where it hit against the side of his face, and bruised where it hit his chest and legs . . . Holding his light inches away from Link’s eyes, Kern used his wrist to push Link’s chin up, and his head back. Link’s eyes were glassy. Except for the hold Kern had on him, he would have fallen. His mouth was open and he was fighting for breath. Kern pressed against him, choking him a little. Link’s left eye was beginning to swell and change color. Kern maintained his pressure as Link sucked air into his throat in long, noisy, tortured gasps. His eyes cleared and his limp body became rigid. He stared into the light that was being directed into his eyes, trying to remember what had happened.[5]
Most likely, the police of the 1950s in reality treated young men more like Link Aller than Bud Crayne. It was an era before such issues as police brutality and human rights were public concerns.
In addition to Felsen’s fiction, the hot rod was also the subject of songs – actually many of them by the early 1950s. The seminal lyrics of many versions that followed was that written by George Wilson and performed by Arkie Shibley and his Mountain Dew Boys in 1950. “Hot Rod Race” proved to be the precursor of many future songs, including “Hot Rod Lincoln,” the best-known version of which was performed by Johnny Bond in 1960 and Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen in 1972. Initially, the song told the story of a family trip from San Pedro in a Ford that turned into a race with a Mercury. Surprisingly, at the end both the Ford and the Mercury are blown off the road by “a kid, in a hopped up Model A.” Later, the Ford and Mercury were replaced by a Cadillac and a Lincoln, but the continuity in common among the long chain of version is obvious.[6]
As one might expect, numerous B-grade films featured teens and hot rods during the 1950s – Hot Rod (1950), Hot Rod Rumble (1957), Drag Strip Girl (1957), Hot Rod Gang (1958), The Ghost of Drag Strip Hollow (1959), and finally, perhaps the best known of the group, Hot Rod Girl (1956). Following Felsen’s story line, Hot Rod Girl was about an attempt on the part of authorities to co-opt teen hot rodders by getting them off the street and onto the drag strip. Its actors and actresses are teens who look more like they are in their mid-to-late 20s and early 30s. Starring Lori Nelson as the “hot rod girl,” the budget for the film was so tight that Nelson drove her own 1955 Thunderbird to save money. With Chuck Conners playing the role of a sympathetic policeman and Frank Gorshin as the character “flat-top,” the highly unlikely and often silly plot involves a confrontation of “chicken,” several fatal accidents, and a happy ending. The message of the film seemed clear: in the war between good and evil that takes place in the minds and lives of teens, understanding elders know best and incorrigible rebels meet with an untimely demise.[7]
Shifting from cultural manifestations to the technology that made the hot rod possible, perhaps the best example of this tinkering that led to cutting-edge technologies was the efforts in
The hobby demanded not only new technology and expertise, but also equipment suppliers, and Hilborn marketed his fuel injection apparatus by the 1950s. Other prominent equipment manufacturers included Vic Edelbrock, Ed Iskenderian, and Phil Weiand, who ported, polished and in other ways modified Ford flathead V-8s in
[1] “Hot Rod History,” Hot Rod Magazine 1 (March 1948): 7. In Hot Rod Magazine: The First Twelve Issues (Osceola, WI: MBI, 1998). Especially important on this topic and more is Robert C. Post, High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing (
[2] Anthony (Andy) Granatelli, They Call Me Mister 500 (Chicago: Henry Regency, 1969), 46-63.
[3] The definitive work on the history of drag racing and its technologies is Robert C. Post, High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing, 1950-1990 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1994). See also Stephan Wilkinson, “Tanks, Hot Rods, and Salt,” Air & Space Smithsonian 12 (1997): 60-63.
[4] Felsen, Hot Rod, 183.
[5] Henry Gregor Felsen, “First Skirmish,” in Evan Jones, ed., High Gear (NewYork, Bantam, 1963), 10-11.
[6] Joe Wajgel, “A Short History & Evolution of ‘Hot Rod Lincoln,’” http://www.rockabillyhall.com/Hot RodLncln.html (February 26, 2004).
[7] Hot Rod Girl, Alpha Video (1956), 203.
[8] For an interesting interview with Hilborn that discusses the various steps that led to his development of fuel injection, see http://www.cruzinmag.com/feature3.html (July 2, 2007).
[9] See ad for Ditzler custom colors for custom cars, Hot Rod Magazine 1 (October 1948): 28. See Andy Southard, Jr. and Tony Thacker, Custom Cars of the 1950s, (Osceola, WI: MBI, 1993); Nora Donnelly, ed., Customized: Art Inspired by Hot Rods, Low Riders and American Car Culture (
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