Manufacturing muscle : the hot rod industry and the American fascination with speed, 1915-1984

This dissertation focuses on the pursuits of a particular subset of automobile users: hot rodders, those who modify their standard production automobiles for improved performance. More specifically, this project examines the history of the speed equipment industry - the aftermarket subsector which manufactures high-performance products for hot rodders - from its infancy in the 1910s through the mid 1980s. The thesis begins by examining the role of technological enthusiasm in the early growth of hot rodding, focusing in particular on the ways in which this enthusiasm led a handful of individuals to begin to manufacture high-performance parts in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s. After tracing the wartime experiences of these industry pioneers, the project then explores the ways in which, in the midst of America's postwar affluence, the spectacular growth both of the high-performance industry and of hot rodding itself helped spawn the youth-oriented musclecar movement upon which the Big Three would later feed. In its examination of the 1940s and 1950s, the dissertation closely examines the evolution of this industry's production methods in an attempt to understand the manufacturing dynamics of a market-sensitive, flexibly-oriented, late-twentieth-century industrial sector.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Lucsko, David Nicholas

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Merritt Roe Smith.

• Program in Science, Technology and Society.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39177

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39177