Motorbooks
800-826-6600
www.motorbooks.com
$35.00
★★★
Merchants of Speed
Paul D. Smith
Motorbooks
800-826-6600
www.motorbooks.com
$40.00
★★★★
Some of the most innovative minds in post-war automotive history did their creating in disorderly garages alongside tract houses,
or in two-bay service stations. Their unconventional, daring thought
still created performance empires, names that are with us today. This
is a compelling, necessary look at the post-war titans of hot rodding
and their tentative first steps.
It’s surprising, we guess, that it took a native Canadian to assemble
this collection of 26 profiles about the performance industry’s inventors.
Each such pioneer’s story gathers up 10 or so pages in this hardcover
volume, plus photos of cars, equipment and personalities. The writing
is drier than the prose in Dean Batchelor’s final title, The American Hot
Rod, to which Smith’s work is certain to be compared. This book, however, is more dense and factual. That’s saying a great deal.
Leaders such as Edelbrock and Iskenderian are in here, as you’d
expect. The luminaries left more dimmed by time are thus extremely
welcome inclusions: Mel Scott, Tommy Thickstun, Wayne Horning,
the Spaulding brothers. Very appropriately, Barney Navarro wrote
the introduction before he passed away. Unlike some other volumes,
Smith’s book takes in drag racing, land speed, the ovals and street
action. It’s absolutely vital for any post-war or racing historian.
– Jim Donnelly
