I have a few books on Hot Rods... some are mostly photos, some are mostly words. I have technical books, and history books. I have a voracious appetite for reading, so I'd like to hear what you guys think are some of the better Hot Rod books out there... both wordy ones, and visual ones. One that's on my list to buy is Henry's "Best Damn Garage in Town"... Thanks! Ben
My Favourites are: Hot Rod History Book 1 & 2. The Birth Of Hot Rodding, The Story of the Dry Lakes Era. The American Hot Rod, Dry Lakes & Drag Strips. Hot Rod It - & Run it For Fun! (1957) Books I need to buy are Don Montgomery's early Hot Rodding books
A few years ago I found a book on the story of Mickey Thompsons life. It was an awesome read! It's hard to imagine how a guy can fit so much into one lifetime. After reading that he is way up there on my list of hot rod heroes. When building my A coupe I decided I would have to sacrifice some stuff to get money together and like an idiot I sold it at a swap meet .[along with a beautiful team shirt from the Goldenrod, dumbass!] anyway that would be my favorite hot rod book and I'm on the lookout for another one. Anyone have an extra? I think the book was written in the late 60's and he'd accomplished so much already!
This thread has been done before: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117109 Some good ones in addition to those mentioned already: Heroes of Hot Rodding, by David Featherston, 1992 The Fast Ford Handbook, by Murray Fahnstock, 1968 Model T Ford in Speed & Sport, 1956 Peterson's Complete Ford Book, Book #3, 1973 [How can there be multiple "Complete Ford" books?] Hot Rods, by Genat, Burger, Gingerelli, and Benford, 2006 Ford Street Rods, Fall 1975 Almost any issue of "Rod Action" magazine. "The Vintage Ford" magazine, Vol 12, #4, 1977
Ijust got it for christmas, The all American Hot Rod. Great reading, read I from cover to cover, don't offen do that.
holy shit..he has a book???my uncle talks about him all the time...raced at the drag strip in kahoka ,mo !!!where do ya get it>>>>>
A couple of my favorites are: They Call Me Mr.500 by Andy Granatelli...great read and very inspiring. Spirit of America by Craig Breedlove...another great book. The Granatelli book is from around 1970 and the Breedlove book is maybe 1968 or so. I have had the great pleasure of meeting both of these guys, idols of mine since childhood. When I met Mr. Breedlove, he told me that he did not even own a copy. Offenhauser by I can't remember.I enjoy racing history and have a nice collection of literature, books, memorobilia and pictures. And like most, a few thousand magazines too.
The Miller Dynasty by Mark Dees is a must have just to see what Hot Rodders had as a goal. Hot Rod by Peter Vincent for a perfect collection of cars.
One that's on my list to buy is Henry's "Best Damn Garage in Town"... [/QUOTE] I'm half way thru that one...it's pretty good so far, if you're in to autobiographies (as I am). The other "bible" I like is Tex Smith's: http://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Custom-Cars-Smiths/dp/1884089046 Out of print, but it's usually the Holy Grail for Custom car guys that don't know any better, like me. More of a how-to than anything else. Still some good ideas, despite being 20 years old or so with dated photos and ideas. For a good "coffee table" book, get this: http://www.amazon.com/Ed-Big-Daddy-...ef=sr_1_2/104-7611411-6759956?ie=UTF8&s=books
for a visual one- great pics by Chuck Vranas - they dont get better than those.. for one with exceptional text : By Alan Mayes. We got this from Alan at SEMA in 2006- great non cookie cutter book. Both can be purchased from Amazon I beleive. Of course there is always 'Cool cars ,Square Roll Bars' cuz there is a pictire of my dad in there.
High Performance by Robert Post; covers the history of (mostly) NHRA drag racing from the beginnings through the early '90s; written from a point of view of the racers & the effects of technology (sounds dry, but it isn't); lots of stories, anecdotes, obscure facts, history of some legends & not-so-legends; doesn't pull many punches so far as individuals' flaws*; the footnotes in the back of the book are almost as good as the book itself. * Read what he says about Romeo Palamides & his jet cars. Two other books, actually magazine specials, are Drag Racing & the follow-up Drag Racing: Funny Cars, by Petersen Publishing. These are from 1980-81 or so; lots of good pictures. I bought them new, since been told by vendors that they are very hard to find, dunno how true it is.
Over the holidays i got 2 pretty good books 1. rocking down the highway :the history of how cars and music influance each other. real good book quick read. 2. 50 years of drag racing if you like drag racing history check out this book.
Not too hard: Anything written by Mike Bishop, aka av8 or, Anything written by Jay Carnine, aka C9. Two excellent writers who build excellent traditional cars and post here on the HAMB for all of us "illiterate" ones who wish we could write and build as well as they do. Thanks Mike and Jay. As a side note, most of what we would consider "good hot rod" books are probably mostly out of print. So used book stores are one of my favorite haunts. For those in the Phoenix area: Bookman's: stores in Mesa and Phoenix Or better yet the best charity book sale in the USA: The VNSA Annual Booksale. This year Feb. 10-11, at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. Over 600,000 used books. Great selection AND you get to benefit charity at the same time.
Oops, forgot the link to the booksale: http://www.vnsabooksale.org/ Great sale for those who can go and great service for charity. If you go Saturday, get there well before the 8:00 am opening as there is a looooooong line for the best choices and they do have shopping carts for those who like to buy a LOT of books. Sunday is half price day.
Breeder, you gotta get the Michigan Madman book and the video, they are great! You will love EJ's style of writing, it's pretty funny. There never has been anybody like him,he did some crazy things. He's retired now in Florida. If you order from him, make sure you have him autograph the book. Both the book and video are very cool.
Of course ALL DON MONTGOMERY BOOKS !!!! and also one of my fav´s is "Hot Rods of the 1950´s" by Andy Southard jr.
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