This is truly historic video. This is some of the earliest known footage of early hot rodders racing their stuff on the dry lakes in the western portion of the country. There are amazing roadsters, some truly beautiful coupes, and a bunch of customs rolling low and slow by the camera. Seeing these people and these cars in their natural environment is like time travel.
The other thing that caught our eye was the range of quality exhibitied in the physical appearance of the race cars. There are a ton of rattly little roadsters and buckets, but a select few of the cars are down right beautiful and look amazingly well crafted. We wish that every one of these cars were around today but the ones that weren’t blown up or wrecked have either been rodded to death or are rotting in the high desert somewhere.
If you truly dig old school hot rodding, this video is right in your wheelhouse. Seeing the pioneers of this sport and hobby doing their thing at the humble beginnings of what would later become the hot rod craze is really something and an opportunity any good BangShifter shouldn’t miss!
Press play below to see an incredible video showing pre WWII Hot Rodders racing on dry lakes!
THAT is some AWESOME stuff!
I saw a couple famous racers in there…. Leroy Neumayer’s lakester which later became the Chrisman roadster. I saw Phil Remington’s lakester, and the Bob Rufi bellytank. A couple nice customs, too – though I can’t recall who owned them.
Ry Cooder playing slide made it real nice, too.
That’s pretty good footage for the era.
Watched it again, and the Stu Hilborn streamliner is in there.