Southern California… I’ve heard it described as “extended parking lot in the desert all the way to the beach.” But it was not always like this. Around 18,000 years ago, parts of So Cal had HUGE inland lakes. Everything changes given enough time and today these lakes have been empty for a long time. They are now dry lake beds of southern California. So why write about geology in a car article? I’m just setting the stage for one of the most exciting periods in the development of Hot Rodding. Read my friends and find out some cool car history!

The dry lake beds of southern California—places like Muroc, Harper, Rosamond, and El Mirage—have attracted auto racers since the early 20th century. Shortly after some guy made a couple of modifications to his car, he started looking for a good place to test them out and not get hassled in the process. These dry lake beds fit the bill to a “T”, pardon the pun!

In the 1930s, established dry lake racing began to evolve in response to several factors. Young men with mechanical skills and a love of tinkering with their plentiful, cheap project cars would get together, organize into clubs, and compete to see what the rewards for all their efforts were. Racers from the Los Angeles area and Orange County began to “centralize”, running their cars on the Muroc dry lake. Due to its size, Muroc was the oldest popular place. It eventually took over when Edwards Air Force Base was built. Racing continued to grow, despite losing Muroc. Other popular sites (Harper’s, Rosamond and later El Mirage) sprang up to fill the void of a place to drive cars.

Accidents and injuries were an unfortunate (and unwanted) byproduct of this young hobby. The Southern California Timing Association, started in 1937, was the result of the cooperation of several clubs in the interests of organization, safety, and keeping local authorities away from the runners. In those days, most of the cars that ran on the lakes were trams. Once there, everything that didn’t make a car “wow” came out. Some runners went to extremes, notably Dick Kraft, who removed his body and sat on a board on his back while racing in a bathing suit!

Modifications, such as changing carbs or consuming alcohol, became common. Ford Model A and B four-cylinder engines were the engines of choice. Two or four port overhead conversions were performed on them. SCTA Racing News identified cars by their heads (Winfield, Riley, Cragar and others). At first, the four-bangers held their own against the newer V-8 Flatheads, mainly because of the number of speed kits out there for them. However, history shows that cut size won out in the end and the 4 quickly gave way to the 8.

Side-by-side drag racing was also not the initial system used. At first, cars were raced individually to qualify for classes based on speed. Then all the cars in each class would line up for one last race and all race at once to determine “king of the hill”. Ultimately, a four-car limit was imposed. The SCTA began to develop more specific classes. Before World War II, the cars ran in the Roadster, Modified, or Streamliner classes. It was pretty primitive and the distinctions weren’t always hard and fast. Later, the classes became more standardized, focusing on factors such as engine size and modifications.

This brief golden age of racing was marked by limitless experimentation and homebrew. Ed Iskenderian was once quoted as saying, “It was just fun. Everyone had their own ideas, and you learned from the other guys: what they’d done. That’s how you figured out what you might want to put together.”