The word “tradition” gets tossed around pretty frequently in hot rodding these days. There’s a lot of conversation about “traditional” cars and “nostalgic” parts and accessories. That’s a good thing—it’s important to know the roots from which hot rodding grew. But how many people—or companies—have truly been around long enough to remember when all this “traditional” stuff was new?

As long as there are high-performance enthusiasts who feel strongly that an internal combustion engine is more than just the means of propelling a vehicle from A to B, the name Arias will be remembered long after he, and we, are gone.

Hot rodders, the so-called hooligans, didn’t hang out in bars, they hung out at speed shops and drive-ins; drive-ins to find out who was going faster and speed shops to learn how to go faster.

Those lucky enough to have access to Post War SCTA Racing Programs will see an astonishing number of competitors who raced at El Mirage Dry Lake with little or no recognition. The official entry list from September 25-26, 1948, had 249 entries. Of those names listed were the points leaders: Stu Hilborn, Alex Xydias, Phil Remington, and Ak Miller, whose achievements at the lakes and in the automotive industry drew the ink and made them legends.

The Great Depression altered countless lives and maybe some for the better. Bob Bondurant was born in Evanston, Illinois, in 1933. Bob’s father owned a car dealership that sold fast cars in nearby Chicago; very fast cars—Cords to be exact.

The ultimate for all American land speed racers was/is Bonneville. For many, their paths lead to the Indianapolis 500. The all-American racers who competed at Indy from its inception to the ’50s would give way to the foreign influence in the ’60s.

This story is about Don Blair, his speed shop, and the guys who worked there back in the day. But it was a young Don Blair’s interest in racing at the dry lakes that propelled him into opening a small business selling speed parts. If any business contributed to hot rodding in Southern California, it was Blair’s Speed Shop in Pasadena when 25-year-old Don opened for business in 1946. (However, Don’s older brother, Bruce, was an equal racing competitor and contributor in the speed shop business before he was killed while riding in a ’34 Ford that hit a tree on Foothill Boulevard in Arcadia. Bruce had an ad in Hot Rod in 1948 for his own product line out of Blair’s Speed Shop that offered dealerships “Lower the front of your car with a (his) dropped axle”.)

If you were among the millions who followed open-wheel racing during the ’50s and ’60s, all you needed were the initials “A.J.” Except during that same period there were two dominate racers named A.J.—one drove race cars (Foyt), the other built them (Watson).

Though as few as three of the original examples may have been cast, the boat-type windshield frame that Duke Hallock created for the early Model A roadster endures as probably one of the most recognizable shapes in early hot rod history. Only not that many people know the story behind it. Editor Fortier asked if I could change that.

Tim Timmerman was one of the first employees to work at Blair’s Speed Shop in Pasadena at Don’s location on Arroyo Parkway before Blair moved to Foothill Boulevard and Daisy. Tim later became one of the premier racing engine builders in Southern California for over 60 years. Tim raced his hot rod wheel to wheel with some of the biggest names in auto racing in the ’40s.

Young Danny Eames was a regular spectator at Legion Ascot Speedway in Alhambra, California. It was close enough to his parents' home to almost smell the benzene and Castrol R oil. What he saw and heard was enough to get him hooked on circle track racing.

If you owned a gow job back in the '30s, you owned a race car. You raced it on the street, then you went to the dry lakes and raced it. It was that simple. You might have only raced that "hot iron" a few times, just before World War II, or a "hot rod" just after, and you probably did so with little or no notoriety.

Henry Ford kinda started it all, as far as land speed racing (LSR), when he cranked off 91.32 mph in 1903 (the speed of light in 1903 terms) on a frozen lake in Michigan.

Dick Megugorac, from Peoria, Arizona, and Bob Wenz, from Los Gatos, California, were inseparable in the early '40s. They hung out together at Santa Monica High School, they raced together on the street, and they raced as fast as their gas pedals would let them at the dry lakes. Bob was Dick's best man when he married his high school steady, Lois. The two were inseparable, that is, until life separated them.

Do you want to put creativity, as well as fun, into your business? Hire a gag cartoonist, 'cause nobody thinks like those comedic pencil pushers. That schnozzle, that lantern jaw (and that cool hot rod, too) may be material for their next cartoon character. Robert Petersen got all of the above and more when he hired 28-year-old Tom Medley in 1948 to add a little humor to his new mag about hot rods. Little did Mr. Petersen know his employee would become a much-beloved legend.

Noise and air pollution have always been excessive in the L.A. Basin, but in the '40s and '50s it was particularly prevalent in Glendale (just west of L.A.), where the sound of uncorked racing engines and the smell of methanol permeated the air. Imagine being a kid growing up in the town next door (Eagle Rock) where that pollution got into your system and you weren't able to get it out. Don Zabel was that kid.

Had Dick Burley (born in 1927) stayed in Iowa instead of moving to Culver City, California, he wouldn't have been hooked on the sound of Ford Flathead V-8s screaming for mercy or broken records at El Mirage dry lake that would've stirred his hot rodding juices in the late '40s.

Moving from Chicago to Montebello, California, in 1946, Jerry Kugel attended catholic school up until his senior year when his family moved to Whittier, California. A chopped '34 Ford coupe whizzed by bike-peddling Jerry and his mind was forever locked into the look. He set his sights on owning one someday-but the mood for more than pedal power just wasn't encouraged in his school, especially not for a kid with hot rod tendencies. Such things as shop classes were unheard of.

Innovation was happening in quick succession at the dry lakes after the war. There was Chet Herbert's roller cam, Stu Hilborn's fuel injection, and the Spalding Brother's (Bill and Tom) torsion bar suspended roadster, yet many a hardened hot rod jaw dropped when Jot Horne unbolted the towbar from his Model T at the June '48 SCTA meet at El Mirage.

Leslie Long was one of the earliest Southern California hot rodders (before hot rodders were willing to embrace the term) and was a regular at the dry lakes in the days before World War II. Recent conversations with Leslie were the basis for the article "The Guys Who Invented Hot Rods," which ran in this magazine in May 2009.

Duffy Livingstone will always be remembered as the father of the Go Kart. This story, however, is about Duffy the hot rodder, a card carrying member of the NHRA Charter Club (#156) and the Pasadena Roadster Club.

Images From The Millar Family Collection And The Source Interlink Archives

In the very early 1950s a proverbial tree fell, but today almost nobody remembers hearing it. It certainly wasn't due to mediocrity; with its scratch-built tube chassis, handformed alloy body, and domestic V-8 grunt, the Astra Coupe is a true handbuilt sports car/hot rod hybrid cast in the same mold--or is that beaten over the same buck?--as Briggs Cunningham's legendary race cars from the same era.

Southern California's dry lake beds have attracted racers since the turn of the 20th century, but things really exploded in the Thirties. More than 70 years later, hot rodders are still fascinated by this period and this place. Luckily, a lot of the racers are still going strong.

In 1948 Bill Waddill helped form a local hot rod club partially named for Genesee County where it was based. The balance of the name may have been influenced by an existing organization, the Gear Grinders of Bell, California, a member club in the Southern California Timing Association.