Hot Rod Update: Still don't have one.

I'm sorry to say that my driveway is still hot rodless. And the way things are lookin', it's gonna be for quite some time. Crap.

However, my wife picked up another copy of this paperback at a thrift store the other day. HOT ROD by Henry Gregor Felsen. Written in the 50s and in print for ages. I read it one summer in Texas back in the mid-70s, during a period when my cousin Koby and I were all about hot rods and street rods and show cars and all that stuff. We built the models. Read the magazines (and all the Felsen books). Collected the cards, from Odd Rods to the Don Russ Hot Rod cards. And just generally daydreamed about these things. The fact that Strawn, Texas, is littered with raggedy old Fords and stuff probably inspired a lot of it.

Back to this paperback. HOT ROD is the story of Bud Crayne, a Midwestern highschool kid who works at a garage and has a cool set of wheels and is always wrenching on it to make it go faster, drive better and be safer. His girl's La Verne Shuler.

Over the years, I've gotten several editions of HOT ROD, with all sorts of really cool cover art. But this one, from an early 60s printing, I believe, just kills me. That has to be one of the all-time most bitchin' paintings ever. The sweet cars. The cool-looking guy in his t-shirt and rolled-up Levis. The kicked-up dust. And that girl! You can have your Picassos and your Monets and all that stuff. I want this thing hanging over my couch.

Wonder who painted it? I couldn't find a credit on the book. Whoever did it, I've probably stared at that art longer than it took 'em to paint it. A masterpiece. The ones for some of Felsen's other books -- STREET ROD or CRASH CLUB, for instance -- have great covers, too, that seem to be painted by the same artist. They're all great, but HOT ROD really does it for me.

Always thought it'd be boss to build a rod to match the one in this painting. That burgandy color. The fenders. The chrome firewall. Yeah.