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Chapter One is called Hot Rods on the Streets and discusses why the young hot rodders of the 1920’s and ‘30’s developed the hot rod culture. They took old Fords and Chevy’s and turned them into works of art. They cut, chopped, channeled and customized the cars to suit their tastes. They revved up the engines and got more horsepower out of their cars than the police were able to get from the best stock cars from Detroit. These young men and women developed their own language and culture and the hamburger stands became their special headquarters. Montgomery breaks hot rodders in the 1940’s into three categories; racers, street rodders and street rod-racers. Chapter Two is named Hot Rods and Street Racing. Hot rodders were constantly being castigated by their local communities for using the public streets to go racing on. More responsible hot rodders traveled to El Mirage dry lake, near Phelan, California in order to do their racing. Eventually, drag strips closer to these young hot rodders would open up and take away the urge to go street racing. Chapter Three is titled Clubs and Associations and discusses the groups that were involved in hot rodding. Some of those groups, such as the Road Runners and Sidewinders, are still around today. The group photographs are priceless but many young people are not named in the photo captions, which is a great loss.
Chapter Four is called Speed Equipment Shops and talks about the places that were famous for speed equipment in the Southern California area. Bell Auto Parts was the center of hot rodding and racing since the 1920’s, until Roy Richter passed away in the 1980’s. Louie Senter’s speed shop; Ansen’s Automotive Engineering was another famous place. Don Blair’s Speed Shop vied with Alex Xydias’ So-Cal Speed Shop. Montgomery lists auto stores like House of Chrome, muffler shops like Smitty’s and machine shop’s like Cook Machine Shop as some of the places to find the best parts and service. Some of the manufacturers of speed equipment were; Navarro, Webber, Moon, Pink, Donovan, Carrillo, Potvin, Evans, Schiefer, Thickstun and Iskenderian. Chapter Five is titled How Fast Were They and tells the story of how early hot rodders souped up their cars and recorded fast times at the dry lakes. Speeds and acceleration times in the 1940’s are equal or better than most of the modern stock automobiles of today, which means that the young men of that era really knew how to develop horsepower. Chapter Six is named Street Rod of the ‘40’s and explains the terms used to customize and build up the stock cars of that time. Montgomery explains the terms; Carson tops, lowering, De Soto bumpers, fender skirts, ripple disc hubcaps and much more. Hot Rod Memories Relived Again is a delightful book and a must for any serious historian and lover of early hot rodding.
Gone Racin’ is at RNPARKS2@JUNO.COM.
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