The Origins of Hot Rod Magazine

Hot Rod magazine — the great granddaddy of all mainstream hot rod enthusiast publications — saw its first issue hit the stands on January 1948. The inaugural issue was 24 pages and featured charter advertisers such as Smithys, Weber Tool Company, 100 M.P.H. Garage out of Los Angeles, Barris Custom Shop, and oddly enough, Puritan Homemade Candies. Classified ads could be had for 25 cents a line if you were selling cars or parts. Compare 25 cents a line with today’s advertising costs, which can climb into the four, five, and sometimes six figure mark. The cover price back in 1948 was 25 cents, and a subscription could be had for 3 bucks. Although Hot Rod magazine was not the first hot rod or custom car enthusiast publication to be published, it was the first to cover all aspects of the industry, from street to strip, with a nationwide distribution. The magazines also went a long way toward legitimizing the hot rod image from hooligans in jalopies to a hobby that everyday people enjoyed.The first issues of Hot Rod magazine are now valuable collectibles and routinely sell for many times the original cover price. For the budget conscious rodder, the entire collection of the first twelve issues is available in a compilation “Hot Rod Magazine: The First 12 Issues” from the editors of Hot Rod magazine and published by MBI.

The Publisher
Robert E. Peterson was working as a publicist for Hollywood Publicity Associates before Hot Rod magazine was formed. While working on the Hot Rod Exposition account, which was to be held at the Los Angles Armory, Peterson saw an opportunity and took action. Peterson collaborated with a man named Bob Lindsay to create a high-quality, focused, hot rod magazine with a wide distribution. When Hot Rod magazine rolled off the press and onto the hot rod scene, little did the publisher know the magazine - and the publisher himself — would quickly become long-lived institutions. The magazine grew and developed over the years to become the leading enthusiast publication for the hot rod industry and is widely considered to have helped in the growth of the aftermarket industry. For the first time, hot rodders had the opportunity to advertise their wares and services nationwide to a receptive audience. Petersen would later go on to establish the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los
Angeles and grow the Petersen Publishing empire into one of the largest specialty publishing houses in the world. Hot Rod magazine is now owned by PRIMEDIA, however, recently it was announced that PRIMEDIA was shopping the enthusiast group to prospective buyers.