The Press: Hot Magazine

Ford Afire!, said the picture caption.

Explained the story beneath: “Dropped axle, 4-inch-long shackles, reversed spring eyes and a leaf removed from the spring group account for snooping attitude of front end. Spic-and-span engine room houses a semi-torrid flathead with lightened flywheel, two-pot manifold, headers and special distributor . . . The lakes pipes are up front.”* Thus the editors of Hot Rod magazine instructed do-it-yourself fans in the delicate art of transforming a 1940 Ford coupe into an authentic, snoop-fronted, 130-m.p.h. “iron.”

By blending jalopy jargon with nuts-and-bolts advice, Hollywood Publisher Robert Petersen has not only rolled his Hot Rod magazine to high success in nine years, but has added five other automobile monthlies (Motor Trend, Motor Life, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, Custom Cars) to his garage. At 31, Pete Petersen is the biggest magazine owner west of the Rockies, boasts the biggest circulation (total: 1,500,000) in the automotive field, and, with a book-publishing business and a nonmechanical magazine called Teen, grosses $6,500,000 a year.

Fish-Scale Paint. A hot-rod buff himself. Bachelor Petersen aims his magazines at a dedicated army of backyard putterers, fellow hot-rodders and sports-car zealots from Hawaii to Great Britain. This 99.9% male audience relies on Petersen’s magazines each month for soup-it-yourself advice, advance reports on the new cars, and styling tips for faddists who keep their autos a la mode with rear-seat TV, stain-pearl paint made of crushed fish scales, “chopped tops” (i.e., lowering the cab) and taillight kits that make a 1952 Ford as finny as a ’57 Plymouth.

Ever since he revved up Hot Rod (on a low-octane stake of $400), onetime Pressagent Petersen has also striven earnestly to eliminate hell-for-leather jalopy jockeys as a highway hazard, helped start up the National Hot Rod Association (headed by Hot Rod’s Editor WalIy Parks) to herd drivers into some 700 “drag strips” that are now specifically set aside around the country for 130-m.p.h. hot-rod competitions (TIME, Aug. 2 9) 1955). Last week Publisher Petersen sat down with his editors to plan an even more ambitious safety project. In the belief that highway deaths could be significantly reduced by a unified, nationwide research organization concentrating exclusively on traffic safety.* Petersen, beginning in January, will use all his magazines to campaign for creation of a new federal department with the task of coordinating traffic-safety research and education throughout the nation.

Two-Thirds of a Jeep. Petersen concedes that his campaign may not get anywhere “for a long time.” Nevertheless, his magazines wield far-reaching influence. By popularizing cars with lower lines and such avant-garde gimmicks as fuel injection systems and dual exhausts, the magazines help stimulate demand for engineering and styling refinements in assembly-line autos (which are rigorously road-tested each year by the editors). In addition, Publisher Petersen, himself an auto mechanic’s son, has been a major factor in building a new, $15 million-a-year market for manufacturers of esoteric auto accessories ranging from racing clutches ($89) to deluxe plastic “customizing” kits (up to $800).

Most of the articles in Petersen’s magazines are written by staffers (total personnel: 107), many of whom are hotter performers at the workbench than the typewriter, clutter the publisher’s parking lot off Hollywood Boulevard with such irons as a 1957 Plymouth equipped with a 1957 Chrysler 300 engine, a 1954 Corvette with a 1956 Oldsmobile engine, a 1956 Thunderbird with a 1957 Oldsmobile engine. Petersen allows that his own 1957 Mercedes 300 SL, 1957 Cadillac Eldorado and 1957 Ford station wagon are equipped with unretouched Mercedes, Cadillac and Ford engines, respectively.

Translation: The chassis was lowered in front: the 1940-vintage V-8 engine was lightened and souped up with twin carburetors and a “hot” ignition system; special exhaust pipes were added to increase power (and noise) by bypassing the mufflers. Unlike the National Safety Council, which is also concerned with prevention of industrial accidents, fires, etc.