Los Angeles Car Culture
Originally published in Lonely Planet Los Angeles
Detroit may have given birth to the automobile, but it was only after that 1000-mile cruise down Route 66 that Los Angeles added the culture. From hot rods to lowriders, the City of Angels has seen style and steel come together in a flashy contribution to America’s artistic heritage.
It all began in the Roaring ‘20s, when Henry’s innovative Model T Fords, or “T-buckets,’ were adapted by speed demons for Los Angeles’ unusually wide, straight boulevards. Despite the Great Depression, young people continued to modify their favorite ’32 Fords, or “Little Deuce Coups,” to go ever faster, tearing out the sears, fenders and even removing the roofs entirely to satisfy that need for speed. Detroit designers, taking note of the innovation, responded by building the first stock convertibles, but the original modified “hot rods,” as the style became known, remain LA’s favorite example of American ingenuity.
America’s booming post-WWII economy came on strong in Los Angeles, and more young people were able to purchase cars, most of them used, than ever before. Hot rodding became so popular that it began to diversify, its practitioners splitting into two groups: The speed demons, who preferred to shoot across the salt flats of Utah in their sleek Lake Bonneville racers, reaching such dizzying speeds that their cars were made illegal on public highways; and the more urban, style-conscious boulevard cruisers, who remained partial to piling into their slightly tamer “street rods” for leisurely jaunts down Van Nuys Boulevard and Wilshire’s “Miracle Mile.”
Newspapers decried these car-crazed youths as delinquents, a public menace, fueling the most mobile generation gap in history. Meanwhile, enterprising “bad boys” Willie Parks and Jim Peterson got to work institutionalizing the trend, founding the National Hot Rod Association and Hot Rod magazine, still two of the strongest automotive organizations in America.
A new aesthetic was born in 1949, when a young George Barris bought a brand-new Mercury and, with welder in hand, transformed it into a work of art. He “chopped” the car’s top for a speedy low look, “raked” the windshield backward and shortened the side columns. He also altered the body by welding and reshaping the Mercury’s boxy nose for a sleeker profile, then stripped and filed the chrome from fender to fender for a look as smooth as silk.
Calling his outrageous new ride a “custom,” Barris snared automotive artisans Gil Ayala and “Big Daddy” Roth into his colorful camp. Custom cars were far more stylish than hot rods, with less emphasis on the engine and more on the interior, always popular with the ladies. Their streamlined shapes and chopped tops created the illusion of speed, even as their chassis dropped so low that the scraped over speed bumps. Reshaped bodies were enhanced with paint jobs featuring flames and contour conscious murals.
Soon, Barris’ Mercs were racing through movies like Rebel Without A Cause, redefining American cool. An entire industry of drive-through restaurants, drive-in movies and “speed shops” for those aftermarket extras made the 1950s fun and Southern California Car Culture a big business.
Detroit attempted to cater to custom tastes with bigger engines and bolder shapes, from the fabulously finned 1957 Chevy to the muscle cars of the 1960s and 1970s – but Angelenos always found ways to improve on the Big Three’s best efforts. Long, low Chevrolets soon filed down thoroughfares like Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles, sparkling with chrome veneers and glittering, translucent paint, all dropped to street scraping levels on the tiniest tires available.
When police protested that these “lowriders” were simply too low for safety, clever cruisers began salvaging hydraulics from junked WWII airplanes and semi-truck gates that were able to lift a car to legal heights at a moments’ notice, frustrating the law’s attempt to crack down on the primarily Latino drivers. Targeted by police for their fine rides, South Central youths soon adopted the technology, improving it to the point where hydraulics could make their Crenshaw Boulevard cruisers hop and dance, even lifting 3500 pounds of Detroit steel entirely off the ground.
Today, hot rods and lowriders cruise Los Angeles’ streets along side Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, SUVs and Hummers beloved by the upper classes, as well as monster trucks, art cars and all manner of custom cruisers created by each new generation of automotive aficionado. Los Angeles’ prolific gearheads won’t rest as long as steel, gasoline (or fiberglass and electricity) come together on the wide open roads so seamlessly.
Curse the freeways and smog if you must, but LA’s automotive enthusiasts combine form and function like no other art form save architecture. And, when you’re stuck in traffic – the quintessential LA experience – look around. Just a glimpse of that gleaming 1959 Cadillac or souped-up 1962 Corvette can transform your stressful situation into a moment of transcendental beauty.