City of Speed: Los Angeles and the Rise of American Racing

City of Speed: Los Angeles and the Rise of American Racing
ISBN-10
1610608771
ISBN-13
9781610608770
Category
Transportation
Language
English
Author
Joe Scalzo

Description

No American city opened its arms and embraced the automobile like Los Angeles. But for L.A. the car was always more than basic transportation. From the days of Ford's Model T right through today, Los Angeles and Southern California have been all about speed, racing, and building performance in a thousand ways that no one else in the country ever imagined. When L.A.'s racers and car builders decided to storm Indianapolis and its seminal 500 in the frantic 1920s and 1930s, their super-advanced race cars and cocky drivers blew off everything in their path. The disgruntled competition cursed the whole L.A. race colony as "those damn cowboys out of California."Little did they know that still more speed-obsessed cowboys were queuing up hundreds deep in the City of Speed. Seemingly unfettered by conventional notions about what a car should be or do, L.A.'s speed freaks were busily introducing hot rodding, land speed racing, the performance industry, drag strips, and countless other gearhead enterprises. Throughout the twentieth century, Los Angeles would assert itself as America's absolute mecca of speed.Joe Scalzo's City of Speed" is the first book to explore the huge influence of L.A.'s racing culture and its personalities on all of motorsports. Its fantastic tale is illustrated with historic photography, much of it previously unpublished.Los Angeles' racing history is America's racing history.

Other editions

Similar books

  • WINGS LIKE EAGLES PB
    By Paul A. Schweizer

    Directors : R. S. Barnaby , T. Boyer , G. Briegleb , S. Corcoran , J. S. Charles , A. Dawydoff , F. Compton , P. Leonard , W. Klemperer , A. Raspet , E. J. Reeves , J. Robinson , A. Schultz , E. Schweizer , P. A. Schweizer , B. Shupack ...

  • Barney Hall's Tales From Trackside
    By Barney Hall, Ben White

    He also witnessed the unforgettable '76 Daytona finish between Richard Petty and Pearson. In Barney Hall's Tales from the Trackside, he reflects on many memorable stories, including Bill Elliott winning the Winston Million in 1985.

  • Lost Sounds: The Story of Coast Fog Signals
    By Alan Renton

    ... lens is still in daily use and though it no longer ... revolves in its liquid metal bed by clockwork 36 it seems likely that it will continue to revolve in its mercury bath after automation . ... Stone , John Harris op . cit .

  • American Auto Racing: The Milestones and Personalities of a Century of Speed
    By J.A. Martin, Thomas F. Saal

    But by the end of the season the hot combination was Mark Donohue in the Camaro . Cougar did not return but Donohue did , taking ten of the twelve 1968 races , including eight in a row . American Motors entered the series with the new ...

  • The Truck, Van and 4x4 Book: The Definitive Guide to Buying a Truck
    By Jack Gillis, Karen Fierst, Scott Beatty

    Gillis is a Contributing Correspondent for NBC's “ Today Show ” and has appeared on all three network evening news programs as well as local and national talk shows , including “ Donahue , " “ 20/20 , " “ Nightline , ” “ The Oprah ...

  • Human Factors for Naval Marine Vehicle Design and Operation
    By Jonathan M. Ross

    Miller , J. , M. Sanders , E. Fitzhugh , K. Plummer ( 2005a ) . “ Real or Self - Imposed : The Gap Between Cognitive Systems Engineering and Softward Systems Engineering , ” Human Systems Integration Symposium , Arlington , VA , June .

  • Locomotives of the Western United States
    By Jonathan Lewis

    St Maries River Railroad GP9s 101 and 102, both built by EMD in 1959 for the Milwaukee Road, are seen working a freight from St Maries to Tacoma Rail Switcher MP15 1521, built by EMD in 1983. Plummer, Idaho, beside Chatcolet Lake on the ...

  • Picture History of the Cunard Line, 1840-1990
    By William H. Miller, Frank Osborn Braynard

    134 PICTURE HISTORY OF THE CUNARD LINE 1840-1990 Frank O. Braynard. Adriatic, 63, 64 Alaunia, 51 Albania, 44 America 1 1848), ... 110.111, 112, 118 #fx,44 Russia, 4 Sagafjord, 130 Samaria, 25 Saturnia, 1 10 &«w»w(1900), ...

  • Karen Brown's England, Wales and Scotland: Exceptional Places to Stay and Itineraries
    By Karen Brown

    Map : 4 Eglwysfach Ynyshir Hall Ynyshir Hall shares its location on the Dovey river estuary with a 1,000 - acre bird reserve , home to herons , oystercatchers , curlews , and cormorants . Nestled in acres of gardens full of azaleas and ...

  • The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment
    By David M. Levinson, William L. Garrison

    The Transportation Experience seeks to understand the genesis of transportation policy in America and the UK, along with the roles that this policy plays as systems are innovated, deployed, and reach maturity, and how policies might be ...