It’s tough to place Tony Thacker in an industry category – hot rod enthusiast, journalist, author, marketing pro, or historian. He’s done all those things, but it’s probably best to simply call him a hot rodder through and through, as few people have been as
In 1993 Alan Johnson debuted his first car, a yellow ’37 Ford cabriolet, at the Street Rod Nationals. The car earned accolades, landed on the cover of several magazines, and the word about this new kid from down south started to spread. Since that day
If you’ve been to any Goodguys events at Texas Motor Speedway, you’ve undoubtedly seen the bright red Peterbilt and matching trailer flanked by a host of cool squarebody trucks and muscle machines built by Hill’s Hot Rods. Jason Hill and his crew, or “Crüe” as
If you’ve attended any major hot rod events in the last three decades, chances are you’ve seen or maybe even talked with Dennis Overholser. You’ll often find him giving a tech seminar about wiring or see him working the Painless Performance booth, the company he
Doug Jerger didn’t name his shop Squeeg’s Kustoms. That name came from his father, known in hot rod circles as Squeeg, who opened the custom paint shop back in 1964 in Ohio before moving it to Arizona 10 years later. After graduating high school in
In 1997, Javier Shorty Ponce followed his passion for custom cars by leaving a secure job at a well-known dealership in the Dallas, Texas, area to start his own his shop, Elite Autoworks. Little did he know that his leap of faith and support from
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the photography portfolio of Randy Lorentzen would speak volumes. Lorentzen started taking photos for Hot Rod Magazine in the early 1980s and spent more than a quarter century shooting features, covers, and more for top automotive
Bill Ganahl grew up watching his father, hot rod journalist Pat Ganahl, wrench on and write about cars. Bill initially followed his father’s path toward writing by pursuing a graduate degree in English Literature, but a job at Roy Brizio Street Rods steered him to
Chris Raschke is a man of many hats. As the Director of Sales and Marketing at Automotive Racing Products, best known as ARP Fasteners, he is deeply entrenched in all forms of motorsports and the technologies involved in how to go fast. His favorite hat,
You may not initially recognize the name Ed Moss, but you certainly know the company he founded in 1974 as Total Cost Involved. This year marks TCI’s 50th anniversary and Ed is still going into their Ontario, California-based facility to design, fabricate, and tinker on
