When there were far fewer people around, far fewer laws and regulations, when the legal speed limit was 75 mph, when gas was cheap, when driving was a pleasure, if you owned a hot machine you could point the grill down an empty road and go!

Flat Out

In the late 1920s hot rodders began to gravitate to the various dry lake beds near Los Angeles to engage in straightaway time trials. By the late 1930s the sport had become formalized and was booming. It’s a purely American activity, and one that continues to this day. 

Flat Out: California Dry Lake Trials 1930-1950 is the  definitive history of the sport during the Golden Age of dry lake competition. It covers the beginnings, Muroc Racing Association, SCTA, the "bootleg races" during WWII and the postwar period. 300 photos of almost every notable dry lake car.

When Drake started this book, almost nothing was written about dry lake competition during the years 1930-1948 (when Hot Rod Magazine began). This book contains information that would otherwise be lost.

The book has 300 photographs, showing almost every notable dry lakes car, and many "typical" cars.  It captures the spirit of the times--what it must've been like to have been a rodder during those two decades.

Chapters on: Hollywood Folks, Wrecks, Behemoths, Streamlining, Timing, Organizational Activities, Souping the Four Barrel, the V-8 and more.

Read a Sample passage.

Soft bound, 206 pages, 300 black and white photographs. Signed copy...$19.95 (Out of Print!)