Greatest novel when I was a kid,.. "Hot Rod"

I was thinking about my life with Hot Rods,..... one car and some magazines started it,...... but when I was in High School I had to do a book report, I couldn't stand reading books,..... articles were fine but not a book !, my Teacher Mrs. Brown (what a great Lady!), had known I liked Hot Rods,...... one day as I was still trying to pick out a book she called me to her desk and said " I think you will like this book",........ it was Henry Gregor Felsen's "Hot Rod" , What a great book for a kid to read. I still have a copy and gave it to my sons to read just before they got there drivers license,...... did you ever read this book ?

 

.............yep. One of the few books "without pictures" I read as a kid.

 

It's a classic book - one that every hot rodder should cherish. I keep mine in a Ziploc bag.

 

I've got that very edition in excellent condition. Took me ages to find a decent one on eBay and was quite pricey compared to other old books. I've got his entire collection of car books, but this one is my most prized.
Felson was a true unsung hero in this hobby.

 

That is a great book. I have the 6 volume set of Felsen books that was re printed back in the 90's and got them autographed in person by Mr. Felsen.
Hot Rod is still the best one out of the bunch......

 

I had forgotten about that book. We had to do a book report too. It was about 7th grade if my figuring is correct.

 

Wow, thanks for reminding me about that book. When I was in school we had to walk to the public library twice a week. I can remember seeing that book on the shelf and getting my library card out to take home. I think I sat on the couch that evening and read it all. If you were into cars at the time, and more specifically hot rods, this WAS the book to read. I'm going to look around and see if I can find one to read again. After all, it's been almost 50 years since I read it. Thanks for the reminder.

 

I've got two later editions of Hot Rod and one of Crash Club. Good books. When that "who would you make a movie about" thread was going, I said "Bud Crayne."

I'd be tempted to follow him after the Rodeo, though. I think he became an engineer in Detroit. He probably did some developmental work on the Thunderbird and the supercharged 312s, then moved to GM in the '60s and suggested the GTO concept to Delorean.

 

The Carnegie library in the dinky-ass town I grew up in had his books. I devoured them. Thanks for reminding me about them!

 

This is my favorite..

 

Yeah, I loved that one. I got another one of his books...."Boy Gets Car". Found it in a junk store for 50 cents.

 

try abebooks.com and other used book searches on line

like biblio or bookfinder but I think they may search the same listings..
the results are very similar

it's always hit or miss of course,
all his titles have been out of print for some time

 

Does anyone know of other authors who wrote books like these in the fifties??? He's the only author I ever heard of who wrote hotrod books.

 

WOW!! I have forgotten about that book...

I did a report on it too...I wanna say 5th grade or so??? I hated to read and my teacher had done the same thing, she knew it would interest me...seems like I had read another one called streetrod or something too??

Now I gotta get on ebay to find one...I might actually read a real book again

Later,
Gary

 

Henry Gregor Felsen was at the Street Rod Nationals in the early 90's . He seemed to be a nice guy but was a little amazed at the impact of his books on young gearheads ( now old car guys )

He was born in 1916 and was 78 when he passed away ( 1995)
He had about 60 books published......

Here is a short outline of his life...

http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/MSC/ToMsC650/MsC601/felsen.html

He touched a lot of young minds........in a GOOD way

 

Do any of those story lines end with the kid building a hot rod and ends up painting it pink and winning at a show? Thats the one I remember reading in jr. high but seems like nobody else has. Someone tell me it exists!

 

It's called Street Rod, which must explain why the car is pink. He builds it with the help of an old drunk mechanic and ends up taking it for "just one race," crashing it, killing himself and his girlfriend.

The amusing part in the book is that it's a '39 Ford and he's disappointed it has floor-shift and not the more modern column shift. HGF wasn't a bad author, but he didn't really know much about cars if you re-read his books. One of the speed parts Bud mentions saving up for in Hot Rod is a "chrome plated camshaft."

The message in all of these books is "take driver's training, drive stock cars sensibly and play sports instead of messing around with your jalopies." We've totally missed the point, but the books are fun nonetheless.

 

That's a great book.

There used to be a website with bunch of pictures that "documented" Bud's life.

Here it is archived:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041020060627/http://www.icnet.net/users/donutman14/avondale.htm

--Matt

 

I loved those books! I've got a copy of Street Rod but none of the others. I think I knew they were kind of silly even then,but it did capture the teenage boy audience.

 

That was the very first library book I ever read

 

William Campbell Gault wrote the following books circa 1960's AND 70'S.

THE KARTERS, THE CHECKERED FLAG, WHEELS OF FORTUNE, ROAD-RACE ROOKIE, TWO-WHEEL THUNDER, THROUGH THE LINE, DIRT TRACK SUMMER,DRAG STRIP,DIM THUNDER,ROUGH ROAD TO GLORY,SPEEDWAY CHALLENGE, THUNDER ROAD, THE LAST LAP. He aslo wrote GASOLENE COWBOY ( about AMA motorcycle racing)

Phillip Karkens wrote; THE DAY OF THE DRAG RACE in 1960.

 

When I was in elementary school (late '60s/early '70s), periodically the teacher would hand out four page pamphlets that we could order paperback books out of. I managed to find Hot Rod, Road Rocket (also known as Boy Gets Car), and Street Rod, all by Felsen. There was also a novel called Road Race by another author, but written in the same vein. I bought the six volume reissue in the early '90s, and have since found vintage copies of some of the novels for my collection. I never heard of Fever Heat until the '90s reissue; it was more of an adult novel, and had enough sexual reference in it that I guess they didn't want to let us 5th graders read it! Every true motorhead I know has fond memories of reading and rereading Felsen's car novels during that time in our lives when we were too young to drive, but not too young to dream about it.

 

Yes, when I was in high school (1961) there was a waiting list to read HOT ROD. And you could not renew it, One week was it. It was required reading among "hot rodders" even if you hated reading books. Forty years later the librarian at the highschool where I worked new I like old car books. She told me they were throwing out books that kids no longer read. So she gave me a couple of copies of HOT ROD, BOY GETS CAR, STREET ROD plus books by William Campbell Gault. I still have them. The moral of the story is: Go to your local highschool and see if you can get old copies before they toss them.

 

Thanks for reminding me. I forgot about Dirt Track Summer; I remember ordering that one out of the Scholastic paperback catalog in school as well!

 

Yeah, come to think of it, a couple of the vintage copies I picked up at swap meets do have school library cards in the back. Imagine my surprise when I was looking through a 1955 Playboy, only to find a short story by....Henry Gregor Felsen!

 

Thanks. I hadn't heard of these. I'll look for them.

 

Was a big fan of Felsen amd Gault growing up. Certainly played a big part in making me the gearhead I am today.

...part of my collection...

 

I read his books in Junior High as well, starting with HOT ROD, and then worked my way through the rest of his car novels at our school library.

Felsen wrote "Hot Rod" in a rather short amount of time (two weeks if I remember correctly), and he did so at the suggestion of the Iowa Saftey Council, who wanted him to write a book about driver training. His editor suggested maybe making the story about a young hot rodder who changes his lawless ways and becomes an upstanding citizen, so he ran with that angle.

The funny thing being, his publisher rejected the book! Felsen threatend to go to another publisher, so they struck a deal...if Henry could drum up some sort of endorsement for his book, they'd publish it. He found a member of the National Safety Council to write him a recommendation, and the book was put to print in 1949 or 50.

Of course, the book was a runaway success, and lead to many other car books penned by Felsen, including "Street Rod", "Crash Club", "Boy Gets Car" (which was later released as "Road Rocket") and "Rag Top". I read all of those in Junior High, and re-read them in high school and afterwards, with "Boy Gets Car" being my personal favorite!

Like any good author, Henry based people and places in his books off of people and places that he was familiar with. Most of the characters were composities, combinations of traits and characteristics of several real people rolled into one. The one curious exception was the kid in "Boy Gets Car" (Road Rocket)...that character was based on Felsen's son, who had dragged home an old 39 Ford sedan to try and rebuild. Other characters in that story were 'cast' from people Felsen knew as well.

Curiously, there really WAS a "90 mile curve", and he just wrote it into the first car book, "Hot Rod". Felsen admits he was never a hot rodder as a kid, but after all the success his books brought him, he did buy an old 49 Chevy convertible...and he even 'raced' it around 90 Mile Curve...but it only topped out at about 70mph stock!

He reworked the Chevy a bit, adding a Jimmy six with two carbs, a 3.54 (automatic) geared rear axle in place of the 4.11 (stick) axle in the car and had it painted gold with a set of Moon discs installed. It was his only real "Hot Rod", and the car lives on as Link's car in the book "Rag Top"!

So, while Felsen wasn't a true, die-hard 'hot rodder', he understood the relationship between young men and fast cars and carved a niche for himself writing about them in many successful books that went on to become timeless classics enjoyed by generation after generation (which surprised and delighted Henry as much as anyone else!). He was my first favorite author, along with Peter Benchley, and my first book blends elements I admired from both authors, even if it isn't really about hot rods or terrifying sea creatures!

Henry Gregor Felsen gave us all a great gift with his works, and I'm sure that his stories would be enjoyed just as much by today's 'tuner' kids as they were by the young, eager rodders of the 50s...then the 60s, 70s, 80s...!!!

 

Wow, Hack, that's interesting. How'd you learn all that?