Hot Rod

Start running with HOT ROD - the biggest, baddest, car-guy magazine in the business! We bring you the broadest performance car coverage you'll find anywhere. From one end of the smoking¹ rubber road to the other. Barn finds, hot rods, rat rods, race cars, home-built super cars, land speed racers, the latest Detroit iron, and classic muscle - if it¹s hitting the streets, you¹ll read about it here first!

HAPPY 75TH

HOT ROD MASTHEAD

HOT ROD’S FIRST COVERS CAME FROM LEE BLAISDELL’S PHOTO FILES

THE HOT ROD ARCHIVES — 20 YEARS AGO • January 2003: 100 pages, $3.99

THE HOT ROD ARCHIVES — 25 YEARS AGO • January 1998: 228 pages, $4.95

THE HOT ROD ARCHIVES — 40 YEARS AGO • January 1983: 100 pages, $1.75

THE HOT ROD ARCHIVES — 50 YEARS AGO • January 1973: 206 pages, 75 cents

THE HOT ROD ARCHIVES — 60 YEARS AGO • January 1963: 120 pages, 60 cents

THE HOT ROD ARCHIVES — 75 YEARS AGO • January 1948: 24 pages, 25 cents

BLAME (OR THANK) THESE GUYS • Former HOT ROD editors look back on what was hot, what was not.

JIM MCFARLAND, JANUARY 1967-APRIL 1968 • I had the opportunity to meet some of the people I had heard about or read about for years. [Don] Garlits, [Bill] Jenkins, a lot of the drag racers, Mario [Andretti], people that I otherwise would never have had a chance to even talk to, let alone get to know.

TERRY COOK, APRIL 1972-JUNE 1974 • I’ve always told people that working for HOT ROD was like being paid to sleep with Sophia Loren, except the pay was lousy.

JIM MCCRAW, JULY 1974-JANUARY 1975 • I got the editor job when I was 31 years old, and I will treasure every day of my tenure as long as I live. Petersen was a great place to work.

JEFF SMITH, MAY 1987-MARCH 1993 • I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that all this no-prep “street car” racing that’s happening now can be traced back to the inaugural Fastest Street Car Shootout race we staged with help from the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) in Memphis in 1992.

STEVE CAMPBELL, APRIL 1993-MARCH 1994 • I think the basic tenet of content generation remains the same: Follow the audience. Stay abreast of current trends by visiting shops, attending car shows and trade events, and talking with parts manufacturers, builders, and enthusiasts.

DREW HARDIN, APRIL 1994-AUGUST 1996 • When I joined the HOT ROD staff, I was young, new to hot rodding, and was supposed to be Gray Baskerville’s manager. Fat chance. It didn’t take me long to realize it was best to let him do his thing, and I just trailed in his wake, absorbing as much “Gray matter” as I could.

DAVID FREIBURGER, SEPTEMBER 2001-FEBRUARY 2008, JUNE 2009-DECEMBER 2013 • We relaunched with the July 2004 issue, and it resulted in a huge spike in newsstand sales, subscriptions, advertising, and relevance. It was the single most rewarding phase of my career.

ROB KINNAN, JANUARY 2005-NOVEMBER 2011 • I’ll give the advice that Wally Parks gave me, in the tower in Pomona, back in 2004: Report the truth, don’t lie, and they will understand and respect you.

EVAN PERKINS, OCTOBER 2016-DECEMBER 2017 • It was a truly amazing image and a beautiful story, and I’m blessed to have played an ever-so-small role in covering it. But newsstand sales were dismal. America just didn’t understand the blood, sweat, and tears inside the cockpit of that streamliner. If I could go back in time, I’d change nothing.

TONY THACKER. INDUSTRY INSIDER REFLECTS ON 75 YEARS OF HOT ROD AND THE PERFORMANCE AFTERMARKET • Somebody on my paper route subscribed to HOT ROD magazine. I’d sit on the curb under grey British skies surrounded by grey British cars reading about red and yellow cars under California blue skies. I was hooked.

JOHNNY HUNKINS. CURRENT STAFFER ON WHAT HOT ROD...