HOT ROD Highlights from 20, 40, and 60 Years Ago: Inside Our May 1959, ’79, and ’99 Issues

20 Years Ago

May 1999 (164 pages, $3.95): Conspicuous by their absence from this engine-intensive issue are the crate motors coming soon from Detroit. Two short decades ago, rodders still preferred rolling their own, guided by our hands-on writers. A “Best Builds” section recalled 426 Hemi, big-block Chevy, and 351W staff projects from earlier this decade. Co–technical editor Steve Magnante’s pros and cons for the street’s four favorite power-adders could’ve been published in 2019. Rat Fink Reunion coverage led off with what may be the final mug shot in a Petersen magazine of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, two years before his death.

40 Years Ago

May 1979 (172 pages, $1.25): A big, shiny GMC huffer hogged the glory up front, while turbocharging didn’t even rate a cover blurb. Inside, though, Lee Kelley’s editorial boldly predicted a turbo-boosted return to muscle-car excitement, and we road-tested a 185hp, turbo’d V6 Buick Century posting 10 more ponies than a new Z28. Linda Vaughn admitted lying about being 18 to become Miss Georgia Poultry at 16 (“I was kinda developed at a young age”). The decade’s second “gas crisis” was reflected in classified ads for a 1965 GTO ($3,000), restored 1963 SS 409 ($2,500), 1970 440 Six-Pack Road Runner ($4,500/obo), and 1967 Hemi Coronet R/T ($6,800).

60 Years Ago

May 1959 (108 pages, 35¢): Wally Parks tried selling the new SoCal sport of drag boating in his column while conceding that some rodders would not be buying a deviation from land-based activities (“You’ll probably snap when you see our newest addition, Boat Roddin’”). Sure ’nuff, this and all similar attempts by succeeding editors would generate hate mail and cancelations from subscribers calculating that each page of boats deprived them of one page of cars. “HOT ROD Mart” deals ranged from a $300 Deuce coupe with full-race Merc to a $500 Olds-equipped 1951 Victoria and a Cad-powered 1952 “Fordillac” custom with “15 coats red lacquer” for $800.

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