Hot Rod Milestones: America's Coolest Coupes, Roadsters, and Racers - Softcover

Hot rodding, at its core, has always been about speed. But the best examples of the breed have also been able to go fast with style, and often the styling cues – chopped tops, rakes, belly pans, etc. – are what make the speed possible. If a hot rodder builds a car that succeeds and looks good in the process, it’s a sure bet that their efforts will be duplicated, in part or in whole, by future hot rodders. That’s what this book is about – cars that, by virtue of their performance and style, defined what a traditional hot rod looks like today. The authors picked 25 of the best and took an in-depth look at each one. Who built it, what did it win, who else owned it, and most important, what makes it significant? For example, look at the McGee ’32 highboy on the cover. This car was built nearly 60 years ago, but it was done so well that thousands of hot rodders still emulate its look and stance when they build a deuce, and the restored car is virtually priceless. We can’t give you lessons in hot rod taste, but we can give you the history and show you the details that make this car – and 24 others – icons. Ken Gross is the former director of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, and is intimately familiar with many of the cars featured in this book. He’s also a well-known automotive writer whose articles have appeared in Hop Up, The Rodder’s Journal, Playboy, and many other magazines. His garage includes a very correct post-war-style ’32 Ford highboy roadster, a ’34 Ford coupe, and one of the world’s largest collections of flathead Ford intake manifolds. (John Lamm photo) Robert Genat is a prolific photographer and writer who has produced numerous magazine articles and more than 20 books, including The Birth of Hot Rodding, American Drag Racing, Retro Rods, and Little Deuce Coupe. He recently built a nostalgic, primered ’32 Ford five-window highboy coupe; that car was sold to make room for either a ’49 Merc or a ’57 Chevy – he’s trying to decide. We’re betting on the kemp.

In this book, you find 25 of the most influential hot rods of all time. Most of these cars are recognized immediately by name: The Niekamp roadster, Isky’s T, the Pierson Brothers’ coupe. You know these cars and you’ve seen them before, but never like this.

Every pastime has its greats, and hot rodding is no exception. Once in a while a hot rodder puts together a car that’s so right and so well done, it becomes an instant icon in the rodding world. These cars represent a clear vision, usually from one talented person, and they set the standard for others to follow. They’ve been imitated, coveted, and revered, and today many of them have been painstakingly restored for private collections or museum display. Ken Gross dug deep into each car’s past, interviewing original builders, later owners, restorers, and others who helped shape these cars. His text covers each car’s history, technical background, and the influence they have today, often bringing to light new information. Robert Genat trained his lens on this select group of cars to capture the proportions, the details, and the essence of what they are. Combine those elements with vintage photos of these cars from "back in the day," and you have a comprehensive history of hot rodding’s heavy hitters--the cars that define what a hot rod should be.