Hot Rod. The car hobby grew to be quite complex by the mids, and it involved both engine and body modifications along with creative painting techniques. Pre -WWII antecedents included the organization of dry lakes racing at Muroc , California in under the leadership of speed equipment manufacturer George Riley and sponsorship of the Gilmore Oil Company.
Hot rodding took off after WWII, however, and it is clear from reading early issues of Hot Rod Magazine that the phenomenon, while focused in Southern California and dry lakes racing, was really nationwide in scope. By numerous dirt track activities in the Midwest featured designs similar to Southern California cars at venues at Columbus , Indiana and Dayton , Ohio. One example of the diffusion of hot rod culture from west to east involved the Granatelli brothers of Chicago.
During the late s, Joe Granatelli , who had constructed a hot rod in Chicago , drove it to the West Coast, where he picked up parts to stock the family speed shop Grancor. After an initial experiment with the inclusion of fiction in the first issue, readership demands focused the periodical on two major topics: technology and pretty girls. In fact, the remaining eleven issues of Hot Rod Magazine in featured the photo of a very pretty Hollywood model holding a car part!
Pretty girls attract young men, and at its core hot rodding was all about autonomous technology; young people tinkering on limited budgets and working in their garages. These hot rodders and custom car builders, using rule-of-thumb methods, made significant improvements in engine horsepower and chassis design. It was all about going fast and looking good, first on the streets and the lakes and then later more on drag strips and custom car shows.
The central figure of the story is Bud Crayne , with an accompanying cast of half a dozen high school students from the small town of Avondale. As mentioned above, Bud is a car builder and street racer, and while a social outsider, also has as his girlfriend the pretty but mercurial cheerleader LaVerne.
