Hot Rod Pioneers The Creators of the Fastest Sport on Wheels by Ed Almquist Book reviews in progress, appearing this winter: '32 Ford Deuce by Tony Thacker Flat Out The Race for the Motorcycle World Land Speed Record by Rocky Robinson Fuel & Guts The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing by Tom Madigan Hot Rod Kings Top Traditional Rod and Custom Builders by David Perry and Kevin Thompson Hot Rod Roots A Tribute to the Pioneers by The American Hot Rod Foundation How to Pinstripe by Alan Johnson Sundays with Von Dutch by Richard Karl Koch and Tony Thacker Hot Rod Pioneers The Creators of the Fastest Sport on Wheels by Ed Almquist Published in 2000 by SAE Publications http://www.motorsportsengineering.org/ The author did a superb job of locating so many early photographs for the book. As you might hope with a work of this magnitude, the book's photos alone are worth the entry fee. Hot Rod Pioneers is the kind of book you will spend weeks going through, and then want to keep for reference. The main sections of the book are each devoted to a particular decade, beginning with The Founding Forties through to The High-Tech Nineties. Two pages at the front of the book comprise an alphabetical index of The Pioneers, showing readers where to find articles about 219 of the key people involved in the history of hot rodding. At the back of the book, an eleven-page index shows where to find information about everyone mentioned anywhere in the book. No book is without its limitations. I noticed a dozen typographical errors, which will be corrected in the second edition. Some mention might have been made of some of the people who are currently working to preserve early racing and hot rod history, such as Bruce Meyer and Greg Sharp. Also, some readers would have preferred if the book's color photos were of traditional hot rods and their builders, rather than custom cars. In projects like this, it's never possible to include everyone. It's unfortunate that some very important people got left out, including engine builder Gale Banks; cam grinder Racer Brown; Jim Culbert, whose company, CAE (Culbert Automotive Engineering) provided innovative quick-change rear ends and front suspension systems used on dragsters and sprint cars; Bill Devin, who designed and built many beautiful fiberglass sports car bodies; Chauvin Emmons, the master machinist, veteran drag racer and Bonneville racer who created the first billet aluminum cylinder heads for Top Fuel cars, and whose independent suspension designs have been used on Indy cars and dozens of hot rods; Norm Grabowski, the creator of the "Kookie" Fad T in 1956; the master aluminum dragster body fabricator Tom Hanna; fifty-year veteran Southern California Timing Association official Bob Higbee; the father of the racing kart, Duffy Livingston; Romeo Palamedes, who started American Racing Equipment in the 1950s; Bill Thomas, builder of the Corvette-based Cheetah race cars; Bonneville racer Don Vesco (470 mph in his turbine streamliner, and, at 333 mph, the fastest motorcycle rider in history) and his brother Rick Vesco, who more than anyone is responsible for saving the Bonneville Salt Flats; veteran Top Fuel engine builder Sid Waterman; and one of the more innovative and truly colorful custom painters, Larry Watson. Anyone with more than a passing interest in traditional hot rods (and all high-performance American cars) will want to read this book. Hot Rod Pioneers is an extremely important work. It is an outstanding documentation of most of the people that were responsible for the birth of the American automotive speed equipment industry, as well as many that were involved in Land Speed Record racing at Bonneville and El Mirage and in organized drag racing. Hot Rod Pioneers is very enthusiastically recommended. All text and images on Roadsters.com are Copyright 1996-2009 Dave Mann |