What Do You Consider as Being the Golden Era of Hot Rodding?

Mid 1950's to late 1960's.

 

I think the formative years were the timeframe after WW II through the very early 60's. The golden years are now. Hot rod history is just now coming to the fore front on a lot of levels. It didn't seem that important until this century.
I helped to restore an old race car. it was purchased 30 or so years ago for a few hundred dollars. It was just an old used up race car. 2010 it went to Pebble Beach and now everyone seems to know the car. Now it is a piece of art. So many cl***ic race cars, hot rods and customs are finally getting the recognition for what they were and are today.

 

40's, 50's and 60's

 

1948-1964

 

1950 to 1965. A kid could win at the drag races on Sunday, and drive the same hot rod to high school on Monday. Then came muscle cars and kids quit building hot rods.

 

For me, "hot rodding" came to the fore in '46 or so when the WWII vets came home. It ended in 1964-65 when factory muscle cars came out. You didn't need to build your own rod anymore to go fast.

 

I would say the late 50s and early 60s, muscle cars almost killed Hot Rodding, that is the peroid I grew up in. You still had to fab most parts but there was still a lot of good early parts availible

 

"Golden Era" can mean anything. It's all a matter of opinion. My favorite was the 60's. Lots of development in that time. 50's....kinda plain....70's got a bit goofy.

 

Hot rods: Early post war-late '50s.
Customs: Late post war-'68 Customs might have dies, but for painters like Watson and Cerney.
Drag racing: Early post war-'80s.
This is purely subjective. The traditional hot rod and custom scene today is wonderful. Parts availability and the number of fine craftsmen is better than ever. Today's younger fellas, the ones that "get it", bring new p***ion to it. But today is not the Golden Age. The Golden Age can't be recognized by the people living it. It's not Golden while it's current. Folks in the future may see the early 21st Century as a Golden Age. Wouldn't surprise me.

 

Hot rods: Early post war-late '50s.
Customs: Late post war-'68 Customs might have dies, but for painters like Watson and Cerney.
Drag racing: Early post war-'80s.
This is purely subjective. The traditional hot rod and custom scene today is wonderful. Parts availability and the number of fine craftsmen is better than ever. Today's younger fellas, the ones that "get it", bring new p***ion to it. But today is not the Golden Age. The Golden Age can't be recognized by the people living it. It's not Golden while it's current. Folks in the future may see the early 21st Century as a Golden Age. Wouldn't surprise me.

 

Dean brings up a very valid point. Pre 1965 the way you got a fast hot rod was to build it, then along came the muscle car era. Suddenly you could go down to your favorite dealer and drive home in a car that was faster, more dependable, and cleaner than any car we could build at home. In 66 I bought a brand new tripower four speed 3:90 geared GTO with no money down and $ 99.00 a month. Best part was, girls would actually WANT to ride in it versus the reaction I got from the stuff I turned out. I didn't even think of building another hot rod until 1970, when cars started becoming smog laden pigs.

Don

 

Dean hit the nail on the head. This is my Golden Era.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=646155


Fortunately there is still El Mirage and Bonneville where bottom feeders like me can go out and run and possibly set a record or two.

 

1949 to 1965,real style and OHV8's

 

I have a little different take on the subject as I was lucky enough to make a decent living in the hot rod industry. From my perspective, the golden era was the late fifties through the sixties. Magazines were run by enthusiasts and the industry leaders were hands on innovators. SEMA was formed in the mid sixties and with a few exceptions, the industry was based in SoCal. It was a magical time.

 

1940 to 1955 I would say. Every time I see pictures of cars from this era they just seem timelessly cl***ic, and tastefully built. The 60's were the era of *****en' Dragsters, Alterds and G***ers. When I see pictures of cars from the 70's, even pre-war Fords, they look gaudy and dated because of the stupid paint jobs, and tacky wheels & tires. In my opinion things went south pretty fast from 1970 on. Production cars looked like **** too! The last cool cars Chevrolet ever made were a 67 Vette, and a 69 Camaro, until recently that is. Now they have returned them to their former glory, after many years of pure KA-KA!

 

I think every era has its 'golden age'. As a Baby Boomer, it's probably 1950-65, but when I think back to when I was a kid growing up in SoCal, I was fascinated by what the old guys used to tell me about hot rodding in the 1930s-40s.

I agree with Curly Hand that the '70s were a low point and think the '80s were worse still.

However, it's all to do with the perspective of when you grew up (***uming you really did grow up). I've read threads in the Archive of Street Racing group waxing lyrically about the SoCal scene in the 1980s. In comparison, my perspective would have been to think that things were pretty tame compared to the mid-1960s-early-70s.

Those of you into rodding these days should cherish the times...

 

1945-1965..........The Greatest Generation had won WWII and came home to build the America we have today. Thank you. Somehow things went down hill after 1965.

 

I wasn't around, but for me the most interesting time frame is from early 1930's to circa 1955. After that, the hot rods and customs became wilder and, to me, less tasteful by the year. The focus shifted towards more and more extreme builds, faster dragsters, and more powerful factory cars, and maybe being on the "edge" of it was getting more out of reach for a common guy. Again, I wasn't there, so I might be wrong with that last part.

I'm really in the simple but innovative, stylish, low budget, common man's builds, that were built to be cooler and faster than stock, but also to serve as every day transportation. For me, some early builds have succeeded in bringing into sight the best of the car, whereas many later builds just try to be more extreme and more modified than the next car. I think after decades of evolving of hot rodding, many longed for those simplier and humbler roots that started to look timeless, thus making traditional hot rodding and customizing popular, and this is why we are here on the HAMB now. Now we have a long history and countless things to choose from, and every one of us can find what's just the right thing for him/her, and why. And in that sense, perhaps you can call our present day the golden age, as many have stated here...

 

Good question. I would say the original Golden Era ended mid sixties when the pony and muscle cars started coming out. Then I would say the Next Generation Golden Era ended in the early eighties when fuel injection started replacing carbs.
My own personal Golden Era is right now because I'm at that age where the kids are now grown and moved out and I finally have spare cash to blow, I mean invest on MORE HORSEPOWER.....

 

Tomorrow!
But i think "resto" rods were to hot rodding what "disco" was to Music!what i refer to as the "dark ages" of hot rodding!
JimV

 

Factory hi performance cars are just that, they're NOT hotrods. Never were until someone hotrodded them after they got them home.
The golden age was late 50's and all of the 60's for me.

 

I think it's hard to beat what's going on now.
I don't think there has been a better time to own a Hot Rod
The huge amount of events, the availability of cars, parts and services and above all - communication via the Internet, has opened up the hobby
enormously.
We are also in the position of being able to relive some of the best bits of previous 'Golden Eras'
I for one am having a ball!

 

My take on this is similar to Denis4x4 above..built my first "A" in 1950.got into the speed intustry in 1951..Back when guys like Fred Offenhauser,Els Lohn,Vic Edelbrock,Harry Weber,Geo Hurst,Joe Hrudka. etc. called on us to hawk their wares. was no Jegs,Summit and the likes around then.Our speed shop was one of the first in Texas and we supplied parts for guys miles around..
most of who did their own building,whether for street or drags.
I stayed in this industry till I retired in 1980.so from my experience 1950 thru 1965 was the height of the good old days.

 

I have to agree. In the past things were so local. You might never know what was happening in the next town or next state except for magazine coverage. Now its all on the web and the ability to share knowledge is amazing.

Parts at your fingertips, techniques, technology.....it really has been amazing.

 

When I was young. It was the golden era of everything for me.

 

I agree Rich. Now it's the "golden years", and sometimes they aren't so golden.

 

YEP!---Gotta' go along with ya"
Born in the good year of 1932, I have enjoyed all the previous comments, especially about the returning vets from WWII using all their aquired mech. knowledge from various branches of service.
Being in hi school from 1946-1950, in Inglewood,Ca. there were many "gear heads" in that hot bed of hot rod activity, & the talk around school was always about the "Lakes" & who was running the fastest.
The cops at that time were always on you for equipt. tickets----Headlights too low---2 exhaust pipes showing under the bumper---Etc.
Drive in's were the hot spot for "Choosing" off illegal street races,--Sometimes for "Pink slips".
Lots of old stories can & have been told of "Yesteryear", but I think the Golden era truly was from 1946-1960, a whole new world opened up for hot rodding & muscle cars after that---But so did a whole new generation!
Don

 

I get a chuckle out of all the guys that say the 70's ****ed for Hot Rodding. Really?
I submit these as examples I would be Happy To Own, all from the 70's!


The ****an Lobeck Roadster


The California Kid


Boyd's Silver Bullet


Phil Cool's 32


Jake's 34


So while Yeah, there was a bunch of Resto Rod stuff and psychedelic paint that was out there (every era had JUNK) I reckon the 70's were a pretty good time. And I imagine most of the Early Times CC guys would agree.

 

Toby! GREAT premise, WELL stated!!!!!!!!!!

By your guidelines (wise, IMO), I won't even read others' posts yet. I'll give my top-o'-the-mind response, which is: The GOLDEN AGE of hotrodding (which is to say, what the HAMB is about) . . .

. . . extends from the immediate post-WWII days -- when a ton of young, spirited guys came out of the service WITH great hands-on hi-performance know-how, PLUS a little jingle in their pockets -- until roughly 1965 when "factory" hotrods from Detroit could usually blow any truly trad hotrod made of parts from the '20s, '30s, '40s off the backroads where impromtu dragstrips existed. (I think this is at the core of the Lucas allegory, "American Graffiti.")

After that, drag racing "matured" into all sorts of cl***es to try and level the playing field and take modern equipment into account. Before the '60s, it had, pretty much, all been about good old-fashioned American INVENTIVENESS, including often making or modifying parts yourself out of stock parts, etc.

Now, we respect the OLD way, but it's acceptable to sort of "blend" post-'65 hypo stuff into a new build. Fortunately, I think most HAMBers know the difference from a real trad 'rod and one that borrows modern electronics, air, suspension, brakes, etc., from many sources, many countries -- stuff that didn't even exist in, say, 1953.

 

The late 40's with all the dry lakes cars that were garage built, and then when they started letting coupes run the lakes. Bad ***. The cars were simple, everything was purpose built, and 32'-34' weren't 30,000 for a rotted out body.