Project Cars Garage

Snatch that jaw back off the floor. Youbetcha—in 1967, Tasca Ford had ragged GT350 and GT500 Mustangs stacked up like they’d been pitchforked into the back lot. The sign at the upper left of the lot says,“Bargain Basement.” Just freaking wow.

Photo Gallery: Shelby Mustang Stash – Hot Rod Magazine

Snatch that jaw back off the floor. Youbetcha—in 1967, Tasca Ford had ragged GT350 and GT500 Mustangs stacked up like they’d been pitchforked into the back lot. The sign at the upper left of the lot says,“Bargain Basement.” Just freaking wow.

Photo Gallery: Shelby Mustang Stash – Hot Rod Magazine

My mom knows who Linda Vaughn is. It’s a pretty safe bet that yours does, too. The iconic Miss Hurst Golden Shifter has been a part of the racing and automotive scene since the early ’60s; she knows everyone we regard as heroes (and many more we don’t), and she never disappoints with her insanely accurate memory. Meet her once, even for just a moment, and there’s a good chance she’ll remember your name and what you talked about a decade later. She has probably the most recognized face (and let’s be honest, the most recognized breasts, too!) in the world of motorsports, having represented Hurst and several other companies for five decades now, after George Hurst stole her from her Miss Firebird responsibilities and made her the second Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, initially to promote the company, but eventually to promote everything about motorsports, hot rodding, and our way of life.

Photo Gallery: Linda Vaughn – Miss Hurst Golden Shifter in Her Own Words – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Linda Vaughn – Miss Hurst Golden Shifter in Her Own Words – Hot Rod Magazine

You already know we gearheads are an opinionated bunch, forming strong beliefs about and prejudices against certain vehicle styles. Currently, it’s the so-called rat rodders in the hot seat, just as lowriders were scorned before them. Dragster racers hated and ridiculed the first Funny Cars. Bar fights broke out over flatheads versus overheads. Coupes and sedans were excluded from dry-lakes racing by the roadster snobs who started the Southern California Timing Association. Some things never change.

Photo Gallery: Custom Vans – The ’70s Van Customization Craze Makes a Comeback – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Custom Vans – The ’70s Van Customization Craze Makes a Comeback – Hot Rod Magazine

Today’s HOT ROD staffers are humbled by the heritage of the brand we work for. All we do, all we dream of, and every word we write is in the shadow of the hot rodders, racers, editors, staffers, and photographers who preceded us. They just lived the job and the hobby they loved, but in the process, they created and documented the sociology of hot rodding.

Photo Gallery: Vintage HOT ROD Covers – Timeline of Magazine Cover Firsts of the ’40s and ’50s – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Vintage HOT ROD Covers – Timeline of Magazine Cover Firsts of the ’40s and ’50s – Hot Rod Magazine

Ron Fournier is one of those rare people who knew exactly what they wanted to do with their lives when they were 12 years old. Wandering into a family friend’s garage in suburban Detroit, he saw a Sprint Car under construction. At that instant, he saw his life mapped out before him. “Seeing that process, I decided then and there that this is what I wanted to do. By the time I was 14, I was totally on track with it. I was already learning how to weld.

Photo Gallery: Ron Fournier: Metal Fabricator – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Ron Fournier: Metal Fabricator – Hot Rod Magazine

Adam and Eve, hot rods, and girls. One leads to the next-always has. Even at the seminal hot rod show-the famed 1948 exposition at the Los Angeles Armory-B-actress Colleen Townsend vamped for the wagging tongues. From the beginning, HOT ROD included girls in the magazine as straight eye candy; later, the ladies were popular set dressing alongside cars, and subsequently, they’ve appeared participating in the hobby hands-on. The magazine’s May ’49 cover was the first with a posed driveway scene and also the first to feature a female. The implicit message was, of course, that if you drive a hot rod, dolls will dig you. For Nov. ’49, that memo was also issued to the custom guys, as the cover model could not keep her hands off of Jack Calori’s ’36 Ford. By the time the ’50s were over, we’d seen cover girls as illustrations, roadster passengers, prom queens, cheerleaders, car detailers, moms, and bathing beauties.

Photo Gallery: HOT ROD Pinup Girls – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: HOT ROD Pinup Girls – Hot Rod Magazine

Hardly a day goes by that someone in HOT ROD’s office doesn’t bemoan lost opportunities for interviewing all those pioneers no longer with us, either physically or mentally. To folks lucky enough to grow up in this business, it seemed like hot rodding’s founding fathers (and mothers, such as Peggy Hart and Veda Orr) would always be there for us, answering questions and sharing insight that only a founder could. Even now, it doesn’t seem possible that those people were all born nearly a century ago.

Photo Gallery: Hot Rod’s First Photographer – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Hot Rod’s First Photographer – Hot Rod Magazine

Even with the pictures to prove it, it’s hard to believe that anyone could cram as many dissimilar experiences into a single career as Bob D’Olivo did between August 1952, when he was hired as Robert E. Petersen’s junior photographer, and March 1996, when he retired as director of Petersen Publishing’s photographic department. Arguably the best-known automotive shooter of his era, he also became familiar to millions of regular folks in magazine spreads and television commercials by national advertisers.

Photo Gallery: Bob D’Olivio Photos 1952-1960 – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Bob D’Olivio Photos 1952-1960 – Hot Rod Magazine

Plymouth. Oldsmobile. Pontiac. Now add one more name to the list of recently lapsed American car brands: Mercury. The culling of the domestic herd continues. For the Detroit Three, this is neither a good thing nor a bad thing; it’s simply a trend that has to play out so the automakers can move forward. Ford currently owns around 16 percent of the North American car market, with its junior division Mercury holding a shaky grasp on less than 1 percent. The brand no longer justifies its marketing budget, let alone the huge investment required to develop new products. So Mercury is going away. By the time you read this, the division will be in wiping-up mode, cleaning up the remaining inventory and turning off the lights one last time.

Photo Gallery: The Beginning and the End of Mercury – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: The Beginning and the End of Mercury – Hot Rod Magazine

We may not want to admit it, but hot rodding has a long history of running afoul of the law. Making a car go faster or radically altering its appearance just doesn’t sit well with The Man. It’s been that way since rodding’s first big growth spurt following World War II, when the common perception was that rodders were outlaws blatantly ignoring traffic laws in fast, noisy jalopies. The reality then, as now, is that few rodders actually lived the thug life, but it didn’t appear that way when local newspapers exploited the tragedy of street racing fatalities with lurid front-page headlines and grim accident-scene photos. In fact, one of the reasons this magazine was founded was to burnish the already tarnished reputation of the men who hopped up cars.

Photo Gallery: Can They Outlaw Hot Rodding? – Hot Rod Magazine

We may not want to admit it, but hot rodding has a long history of running afoul of the law. Making a car go faster or radically altering its appearance just doesn’t sit well with The Man. It’s been that way since rodding’s first big growth spurt following World War II, when the common perception was that rodders were outlaws blatantly ignoring traffic laws in fast, noisy jalopies. The reality then, as now, is that few rodders actually lived the thug life, but it didn’t appear that way when local newspapers exploited the tragedy of street racing fatalities with lurid front-page headlines and grim accident-scene photos. In fact, one of the reasons this magazine was founded was to burnish the already tarnished reputation of the men who hopped up cars.

Photo Gallery: Can They Outlaw Hot Rodding? – Hot Rod Magazine

“It’s one of those places that you can’t get to from here,” explains Danny Burrow as he throws my luggage into the bed of his Nissan Frontier parked at Memphis International Airport. My flight didn’t arrive from Detroit until after midnight, and it’s pitch black as we speed south down Route 78. “You couldn’t find it even if I told you where it was,” Danny says as the small pickup passes over into northern Mississippi. “And the people who live around here have no idea-no idea-what George keeps there.”

Photo Gallery: George Poteet’s Hot Rod Collection – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: George Poteet’s Hot Rod Collection – Hot Rod Magazine

Asking Don Prudhomme about retirement seemed like a good idea at the time this article was assigned. Not until driving down the Pacific coast to Snake Racing’s headquarters complex did the possibility of encountering a coiled Snake occur. After all, one of the most successful, most intense drag racers of all time had just been shut down by the only opponent he hadn’t been able to outsmart, outdrive, or outhorsepower: the cost of racing a fuel car without multimillion-dollar sponsorship.

Photo Gallery: Don Prudhomme Snake Racing Headquarters Tour – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Don Prudhomme Snake Racing Headquarters Tour – Hot Rod Magazine

It’s no mere cliché to say that drag racing will never be the same without Don Prudhomme. For half a century, all he had to do was show up to influence the outcome of any event. Only his opponents know for sure how many foul starts, crossed centerlines, and exploded engines were inspired by seeing his dragster or Funny Car in the other lane. Pity the fool who met the icy stare of those big, blue eyes. Only Don Garlits maintained such extreme intensity for so many racing seasons. Big Daddy may be the greatest fuel car racer ever, but nobody drove fuel cars better than Prudhomme.

Photo Gallery: Don Prudhomme, Legendary NHRA Drag Racer – Hot Rod Magazine

Photo Gallery: Don Prudhomme, Legendary NHRA Drag Racer – Hot Rod Magazine