When we look back at the past, especially with the hindsight of some aging, people and events tend to take on a varnish of drama and romance akin to the patina on Renaissance artwork, or the now fashionable mystery bedecked, "barn-found" treasures of the rad rod set. The interwoven history of hot rodding, racing, street rodding, and the aftermarket companies that developed the hardware to support these pursuits is one that needs no fictional embellishments to make a fascinating chronicle. If anything, the characters and exploits in this story are colorful enough that some of the true facts need to be scaled back to make the narrative appear less contrived!
It's a tale big enough for a book and in fact a number of fine books have been done already, but for our allotted pages here, we chose to encapsulate a moment in hot rod history and follow the characters to fame or obscurity. We're going to look at one publication, the SCTA racing program, from the 1948 season opening race at the El Mirage dry lake. In it, there are some 21 advertisers of speed equipment. Some of the names have faded from the memory of all but the old-timers, and others have become industry giants from their humble beginnings in those glory days. One facet all of these companies and people had in common was the psyche of the time, which included the all-American desire to tinker and build-the inventor spirit born of necessity, lack of funds, and the need for speed and adventure found in all young men.
Racing, in one form or another, has been around since long before the car was developed, but with the collision of that sport with this particular mode of transport, a reaction was set off that continues to accelerate a century later. Plank-surfaced board tracks, dusty dirt ovals, and paved bullrings across the country put on a loud, dangerous, and stimulating show from the 'teens on that spread the romantic image of the fast car and the hero driver. Henry Ford unintentionally set us off on a path that would lead to entire TV networks devoted to auto racing, by mass manufacturing the T, as durable and adaptable as it was inexpensive. If the only vehicles on the market back then were Duesies, Pierces, and Packards, the hot rod movement could never have reached the widespread grassroots growth it has seen in America in the last 100 years.
The thrill-packed racing at the "serious" venues inflamed a generation to strip down and hop up their cheap transportation Ts and Chevys for street performance and impromptu racing, even if it was just to outrun the Keystone Kops. As the Tin Lizzie was the basis for most hot rods, what we know of today as the automotive aftermarket originally began with speed and custom accessories for the T, available at auto parts stores. Eventually, even the giant Sears Roebuck catalog (the "Thrift Book of a Nation") had a dozen pages strictly for cool Ford stuff. The ancestor of today's giant consumer parts catalogs, Sears offered everything from exhaust cutouts ($1.20) to bigger carburetors ($4.85) to complete speedster bodies.
As universal as the appeal of going and looking fast may have been, there was something about the West, California in particular, that spawned a disproportionately huge interest in motorvation. Maybe it was the climate, the soil, or something in the dry air, but red-blooded, all-American hot rodding really took root in the "land of fruits and nuts." Car clubs were everywhere, and the bonding of comrades, the sharing of talents and parts, and friendly competition further accelerated the growth of the subculture. Out in the desert areas, northeast of Los Angeles, nature had dried up several small lakes and fire hardened their silty surfaces into the most perfect, free racecourses you could ask for. These dry lakes-Muroc, Harper, El Mirage, and Rosamond-played stage to both famous race drivers in search of official speed records and hordes of dirt-under-the-nails regular guys with hopped-up four-barrels (four-cylinder engines).