ABSTRACT
Car songs, like surf music, were largely a southern California phenomenon. They were a byproduct of the region’s active hot rod scene, which had evolved from the illegal street races of the 1940s to the Bonneville Salt Flats speed weeks and drag strips of the 1960s. Hot rodding included its own crew of culture heroes, including customizer George Barris and drivers “Big Daddy” Garlits and Craig Breedlove, who set a series of land speed records in his “Spirit of America.” In addition to musical tributes, the hot-rod scene was lionized by Hollywood films, plastic car models available in hobby shops, and Bob Peterson’s mass-circulation periodical, Hot Rod.
