Hot Rod Mavericks: The Builders, Racers, and Rebels Who Revolutionized Hot Rodding

Produced in cooperation with HOT ROD magazine, HOT ROD Mavericks takes you on a rollicking look back on more than a century of trailblazers, risk-takers, hell-raisers, and forward-thinkers.

No aspect of automobile culture embodies the DIY spirit like hot rodding. From prewar pressed steel and milled four-bangers to modern machined billet and 800-hp behemoths, the story of hot rodding has been the story of can-do iconoclasts who did for themselves what Detroit wouldn’t do for them. Longtime hot rod and custom car historian Tony Thacker crafts an illustrated history that leaves no camshaft unturned.

Just some of the 50-plus movers and shakers profiled are:

• Pioneers of the speed equipment industry like Barney Navarro, Ed “Isky” Iskendarian, and Vic Edelbrock
• Postwar racers and builders Alex Xydias, Mickey Thompson, and Ak Miller
• Quarter-mile dragstrip heroes such as “TV” Tommy Ivo, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, and Shirley “Cha-Cha” Muldowney
• Kustom kulture icons Dean Jeffries, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Von Dutch, Sam and George Barris, and Gene Winfield

Thacker also includes latter-day innovators who kept hot rodding a going concern, like Pete & Jake, Boyd Coddington, and Chip Foose. HOT ROD Mavericks is accompanied by exceptional images sourced from Motor Trend Group’s archives at The Petersen Automotive Museum. 

Celebrate the rebels who revolutionized hot rodding with this authoritative and visually engaging history.

Tony Thacker is the former executive director of the Wally Parks National Hot Rod Association Museum and the author and co-author of several previous books on hot rods and customs, including Hot Rods by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and SO-CAL Speed Shop. He lives in Southern California.