The Press: Prosperity on Wheels

To most U.S. motorists, hot-rodders are a breed of nerveless nuisances who zip their noisy jalopies in & out of traffic with uncanny skill. But to two young Hollywood publicity men, Robert Lindsay, 27, and Robert (“Pete”) Petersen, 24, hot-rodders seemed to be a custom-made target for a new magazine.

There was one hitch: neither Lindsay nor Petersen knew much about hot rods or publishing. By haunting Southern California race tracks, they learned the lingo, found that “herding a goat” meant driving an old racing car, that a “jug” was a carburetor, that a “featherfoot” had a light throttle touch. Then a neighborhood engraver showed them how to lay out pages; a printer taught them to proofread. With $859 scraped up from trusting advertisers and friends, Hot Rod magazine appeared in December 1947.

Starter Trouble. Lindsay and Petersen sold their first issues at speedways, race tracks, in backyard garages and wherever they heard the roar of motors. By the third issue they were ready to try the newsstands, go ahead confidently on their monthly production schedule, and build up a crew of technical correspondents across the U.S.

Hot-rodders soon took to the textbook-like stories, pictures of engine heads, and cutaway diagrams of new racers which floored ordinary readers. There were how-to-do-it hints from the hot-rodder who hit 120 m.p.h. after “pouring nitrated alky through three 975”; from another whose racing engine “is a Model B Ford, bored .060-inch oversize with Jahns pistons, Pontiac rods and a drilled crankshaft.”

High Speed. At the end of nine months, circulation was up to 20,000, back issues were selling at a premium (current rate for the first one: $5), and the venture was in the black. In September 1949, Lindsay and Petersen launched Motor Trend magazine for auto buffs in the white-sleeve brackets. Last April they added Cycle for motorcyclists. By last week, though Cycle was still in the red, the three magazines were selling a total of half a million a month, grossing $700,300 a year.

Hot Rod Editor Wally Parks still drives to work in a half-souped 1929 Ford (Evans heads and manifold); Motor Trend Editor Walter A. Woron drives a 1950 Ford with a Cadillac grill. Editor Robert Greene of Cycle put-puts to work on his Harley-Davidson 61. But Publishers Lindsay and Petersen now arrive in blue stock-model 1950 Cadillacs.