Old Hot Rods Scrapbook: Memories from the Past

This is the eighth in a series of hot rod history books. The book relives the golden era of hot rodding - the 1930s to 1950s. Almost 600 photos show the early days of hot rodding. The photos all come from veteran hot rodders albums or shoeboxes. The pictures display the ideas and modifications that went into the hot rods in that period. The text explains what was happening then and why. The book shows the popular hot rod styles and the reasoning for them. This is an excellent reference for enthusiasts who want to learn about the hot rods built over 50 years ago. The photos and text show what hot rodding was like in California back then; what the guys wore and the looked like in that period. Today's hot rodders, who are interested in the traditional style of hot rod, will find the book a gold mine of ideas for their projects.

Don Montgomery was one of the many young men in Southern California who jumped into hot rodding in the 1940s. He participated in street activities, not always legal, and raced at the dry lakes time trials with the Russetta Timing Assn. Organized drag racing took off in 1950 and Don competed in it. After six seasons of dry lakes racing, with his class record in the last two seasons, Don moved on to concentrate on drag racing. He raced a fuel coupe in the 1950s and a supercharged gas coupe in the 1960s in addition to arranging drag racing programs. He has been a street rodder since.
Hot rodding was, and is, his hobby. He has an engineering degree from the University Of Southern California and has spent most of his career in the electronic industry manufacturing frequency control devices. After selling the business he wrote some articles about hot rod history in an effort to tell it like it was. This led to publishing his first book - Hot Rods In The Forties. The book relied on photos from veteran hot rodders albums or shoeboxes. After the first book came out more photos were found and more books published. Don has authored eight hot rod history books. The books cover the 1930s to 1950s era or the 1960s drag racing period. The purpose for writing these books is to make available an accurate look at the early period of hot rodding. The author was fortunate to have participated in a great period for hot rodding and to have known many of the pioneers of hot rodding.