"Hot Rod" books you read as a kid

I remember several -- 'Crash Club" was probably the best, "Hot Rod" was also pretty good.

There was a series on "Bucket of Thunderbolts" IIRC.

Few others about Indy and dirt track racing I don't recall the ***les to.

any others?

 

Henry Gregor Felsen---"Hot Rod" "Road Rocket"
"Street Rod" "Fever Heat"
"Crash Club" "Rag Top"

 

yep Henry Gregor Felsen. HOT ROD ! checked it out in jr high, in van nuys in `1979 and am looking at it now ? I wounder what the late charge`s are gonna be .

 

Henry Gregor Felsen books, "HOTROD" & "STREETROD"
I've read them several times in the last twentyfive or so years

 

Want some modern day reading about the 1960's??? I've written two books about being a car crazy guy growing up in the Midwest...and all the nutty stuff we used to pull (got in trouble for) with a car. The stories have been equated to Henry Gregor Felsen's stuff...visit my website to read an excerpt from each book.

R-

 

I've read the 6 felsen books mentioned. I also read "high gear", "stock car racer" and "when engines roar"

 

Damn, You made me go lookin' for the book!!!! I actually still have it!! It is called Hot Rod Road, by Carl Henry Rathjen. I'm goona have to re-read it cause at age 50, I can't tell ya what the **** it's about anymore. It must have been good or I would have trashed it when I was done readin it back in 1969. I actually found that copies are still available on epay!!!

Good thing the print is big... I might be able to read it without my gl***es!!!!

 

OK, what is the "Hot Rod" story about? Did the kid have a model A? I think I read it but the memory is foggy. I remember one about a guy learning to road race an MG too, double clutching and setting up for corners.

 

Still have dog eared Hot rod and Car Craft mags from the 60's. Peaterson "tech" books were good also!!!

 

Not a book, but for me CARtoons magazine was great!

 

Exzactly.....Dad walked in with CARtoons and my day was made

 

Felson.

J.

 

Radlaur Books....."Dragstrip Challenge."......was my favorite in grammer school I use to check it out in the library and finally kept it.

 

"Hot Rod" was a sort of "lesson" novel. The main character rethinks his ideas after witnessing a rather grisly two car accident involving most of his friends. The MG story you're thinking about is called "The Red Car".

 

My wife is a school teacher and recently picked up a children's book from Borders called The Night Henry Ford Met Santa. When we have kids I'll be reading this one to them!

 

Read all the Felson hot rod books when I was a kid, would like to read 'em again. Got a couple of others not by Felson but in a similar vein called Hot Rod Doom and Hot Rod Thunder that I found at a yard sale several years back.

 

Thanks Heathen. They were rewards for being a good boy and pushing the shopping cart at the grocery. That's where my first Hot Rod and Car Craft mags came from, too.

 

I read all the Felsen books. I also read, and still have, a book called "The Fastest Funny Car". It was one of those you could order through school every so often when they would p*** out those papers with books and posters for sale. It is about a high school kid who goes to play piano as a summer job at some sort of old folks resort. He blows a head gasket on his '49 Ford coupe and finds a garage where he can buy one and the owner has a Willys coupe with a blown 392 that he drag races. Parts of it were kind of dull, but the racing and descriptions of the cars was pretty good.The Willys isn't a funny car, but I guess they needed a ***le. It is copyrighted 1967.

 

I bought a book, "How to Customize Cars and Rods" by George Barris off a newstand when I was about 9 years old. I still have the book!

 

Read Bangin' Gears & Busting Heads on the airplane on my way to the GNRS. Read if from cover to cover and thought it was great. Thank You

 

MY mom bought me a book at a garage sale about 4 years ago when i was 12 called "Road Race" writtin in like 1954, a kid fixed up a model A roadster and got into trouble with the law with the car, and was snubbed in the right direction by Webb Waldon who raced crossbred ford/duesenburgs

 

That would be "The Red Car" by Don Stanford...here's a bit of it:

He pointed the stem of his pipe at Hap, and said, "Remember this, son: a luxury is a thing that's perfectly unnecessary, perfectly useless. It's a thing people don't need, but want; and the more useless it is the more they want it, just to have it and love it. And everybody ought to have one luxury, one useless thing he loves just to have. Even people who can't afford luxuries, like us; maybe especially people like us . . " ​

He paused, and his eyes *****led briefly, and he said dryly, "That is truth, that bit of philosophy. It is also what we are going to try to sell your mother, when we come home with this absolutely unnecessary, wildly impractical, perfectly useless car of yours. We'll give her her present first; if she likes it as well as I think she will, knowing your mother as I sometimes dare to think I do, you're in. We have only to point out, then, when she sees the car, that she has something useless to love, and certainly you should have the right to the same luxury. Right?"​

 

I've used that excuse about a million times with my wife. I'll bet the price of these books goes sky high on Ebay because of this thread.

 

Go Dog Go

 

Here is my small collection. As an elementary school teacher I was able to visit school libraries to get a few of these. The interesting part is looking at the names and dates of when they were checked out. Many of them by the same person on consecutive trips to the library!

 

Got both of your books for Christmas and couldn't put them down. Just about finished with the second one. Great reading!

 

Along with all the Felsen books, one I still have is "Hot Rod Showdown" by Robert Sidney Bowen.
It's about a kid living in Hawaii who has a 53 Chevy Convert custom.
He helps the police trying to break up a stolen car ring. Not to bad of a book. Published in 1967.

 

I was one of those kids that didnt take well to reading but one of my teachers allowed me to do book reports on hot rod magazines. That was a god send for me and probibly the real reason I learned to read.

 

I read all the Henry Gregor Felsen books when I was kid. About 10-15 years ago I saw a set of 4 of his books advertised in one of the street rod magazines and my wife bought them for me for X-mas. I relived my childhood all over again. They were still good reading material

 

I read this book in jr high about a guy who fixes up a car and drives around with his buddies. The only real detail I remember was that when they decided what color to paint it , pumpkin orange was chosen but that could have been the stripe. It has always stuck with me and I wish I could remeber the ***le/author. Does this ring a bell with anyone?