ok, Im writing a paper on hot roding from a historical and cultural aspect, and was wondering if anybody could give me a better history than what i can find on most websites. Thanks! Jordan
Check out your local Borders book store or the like. 'The Birth of Hotrodding' has a lot of good and interesting information in it.
Or better yet, go to that bookstore and get the ISBN numbers. The're the goofy numbers above the bar code on the back. They will begin with 10 or 13. Then go to your local library. You can get just about any book you want through the inter-library loan system. You can even get books from arouond the world if you are willing to pay the shipping. Ask the referance librarian to help you. I've gotten to read some amazing, rare books this way. PM if you need more help with the library.
Take some time to look through the public profiles of some of the senior members here. Some of them go into great detail about who was from where and who raced who and stuff like that. Yup. It'll take work but you will learn so much more by getting the info from the folks who were "there". Check out your local library too. Ya never know. That is unless you just want to get the paper done. If so... go to the library and read some magazines and make some stuff up.
If you haven't yet checked out the American Hot Rod Foundation, do so. Lotsa words from the guys who were there: http://www.ahrf.com/
Jordan- write this down. Early hot rodding the REAL birth of hot rodding developed itself in the late 1920s not post-wwii as many would be so misguided to think. Look up or BUY these books: "Flat Out" by Al Drake "The day the hot rods ran" by William Carroll "Hot Rods As They Were" by Don Montgomery "Old hot rodding s****book" by Don Montgomery Postwar info: "The birth of hot rodding" by Robert Genat "dry lakes and drag strips" by ?? (hmm, the name escapes me!!??)
If I were your professor/instructor/teacher and you couldn't show me a bibliography with anything but internet "research" I'd flunk you in a heartbeat. The whole idea of the paper is to force you into researching as many sources as possible, extracting the relevant data, evaluating that data and presenting your own conclusions.
One of the rod magazines, 1970's from memory, ran a multi-page article on the 'history' of rodding, including lots of original photos. You'll probably pick up a copy on Ebay for $5 or so. Cheers, Glen.
I really think there's nothing at all wrong with internet research, along with books, but fact is, its pretty hard to even find out about many good hot rodding history books without the internet. The net allows everyone to delve into areas of history not availible otherwise. No one knows exactly how many resources this young man has or has not approached so far....I know I dont. Dont be so harsh on the poor fellow, he asked for help, not redicule. Anyone can criticize, that's easy, why not lend a hand instead??!! Just a side note on history via magazines, never trust them....I was told once by a woman, "sorry to burst your bubble, but, my husband has been a machanic for 30 years and has been reading Hot Rod magazine forever,....he says hot rodding got its start after WWII because there was plenty of military airstrips abandoned and during the war there was gas rationing,..."
It ain't like The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire where everything is do***ented. Next, If you find the "Right" Web Siye are you just going to copy it? There's moral/legal issues with that. Get the books suggested above, read them, and come up with your own take on the History of Hotrodding. Oh, if it's due Monday, you're screwed, so take the weekend off and Party.
I wrote one of my final history papers on the same topic. Aside from what I gathered from forums, and from primary sources (magazine articles from the 50's, newspaper clippings, etc) everything else had to be pieced together. After the fact, I found this on Youtube, which should help: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DB79BB35BBADFD91
Much has been written about hot rodding but the more research you do on any subject automotive you will find that many authors are lazy and rehash others work. Twenty years ago I wrote a three part article on the history of Mercer in racing and one of the main reasons was that everything that I had read to date was incomplete or incorrect. There is a different perspective that can be written on the birth of hot rodding but it would take a great deal of effort, requiring a lot of time which when we have to pay the bills is somewhat precious. I have spent thousands of hours researching racing from the teens and at times I think I must be nuts but for some odd reason I find it to be enjoyable. I don't seem to find the time today and I tell myself I will have to wait until I retire to research and write any lengthy pieces. Often we read that the birth of hotrodding started in the dry lakebeds of So Cal. That may be true for the hot rods that have become traditional today but hot rodding has been around since the advent of the automobile. CoalTown Kid made a reference to not trusting magazines but after years of research I have found the best source of early information to be from the Automobile, Motor Age, Horseless Age etc all early magazines. Maybe some of the later publications are more hype than fact but early magazines are a treasure trove of solid info. It may be hard to find these magazines at your local library but there are libraries on the both coasts and especially Detroit where these magazines are available. A feature that runs in these publications is readers sending in photos of the racy changes they made to their cars. There were kit bodies back in the teens for your Fords so you could strip them down and make them look and run racy. These same publications ran ads for Roof head conversions for Fords and you will run across Ford races where the locals bring out their modified Fords and run them on the support races to the big boys in AAA (such as Maywood/Chicago). This photo is an early Ford that struck my eye with a Mercury body at a recent show at the Glenmoor Gathering. Not sure of the year of this body but similar bodies were available back in the teens. Many ran these bodies without fenders and put overhead cam Roof heads on them and in anyones eyes that should be a hotrod, circa 1919. If you really want to research you may find out it is enjoyable watch out and good luck-Jim
Thanks for the info guys! Monday Im picking the books I have on hold at the library. I tried before to find some books with information at the library, but for some reason coulden find what I wanted before. I dont plan on using only internet research for this, but need a place to look for what books are good and what ones are not. The other thing I knew about but couldent find much information on was the prewar stuff, which isnt covered much. I also watched those videos on You Tube and they had some good information that I took notes on. Thanks again! Jordan
hot rodding started before the term hot rod was coined. probably as soon as the car was invented. people started racing cars as soon as there were cars. barney olfield was one of the first celeberty racers before 1920.
Just like the guys in the late thirties and early forties that took hopped up jalops and went racing on the So Cal lakebeds, here is an early hot rod that was built to run at Ormond Daytona in 1905 I believe. This is Bowden's 120 HP Mercedes (actually 2-60 HP motors end to end).-The more you dig the more you will find hot rods pretty close to square on-Jim
To et a sense of the East Coast scene in the '50s, you might find a copy of: Cool Cars and Square Rollbars, It covers some of the development of hot rods and early drag racing.
The Jalopy Journal
