One of the perks of this job is that I sometimes get cool schwag directed my way.

A few months ago a book titled Merchants of Speed: The Men Who Built American’s Performance Industry showed up in my mailbox. It looked like a nice book but I read loads of magazines and don’t often have the time to sit and enjoy a good book.

A few weeks ago I decided to put the book on the kitchen table in the hopes I would read it while eating breakfast. Well, all it took was opening the front cover and now I’m hooked.

Written by Canadian author Paul D. Smith and published by Motorbooks and Quayside Publishing Group, this 240 page coffee table book tells the tale of 24 pioneers of hot rod speed equipment manufacturing from Lou Senter’s Ansen Automotive to Phil Weiand’s Weiand Power and Racing and everybody in between.

The book is written in small, bite sized segments, perfect for reading while you’re gulping down your morning Cheerios, or whatever your preferred morning feast is. More than 200 photos, many borrowed from the icons of speed’s personal archives, accompany the stories and would be enough to make be buy the book.

I just started reading the section on Ed Iskenderian, who remembers hitching rides to Muroc Dry Lakes in the cockpit of Johnny Junkin’s modified roadster. “He said I could ride in the race car if I wanted to, and in case it came loose on the tow bar, I could steer it,” says the man who would become know as The Cam Father. This is a great book and it retails for $49.99 Canadian. Great suggestion for a Christmas gift if anybody’s asking you what you’d like from Santa.

Speaking of Christmas, let me be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas, as the next issue after this one won’t be shipped until late December. We appreciate the support of all our readers and advertisers and the more of both we get. Hope you have a great Christmas season and you get all the car parts you asked for. Of course, if you don’t have a subscription yet, it would make a great stocking stuffer for friends, family or even you favourite customer who just happens to love hot rods, too. Just a reminder that you must subscribe before midnight November 30 to be eligible for the GM Performance Long Block crate engine one lucky subscriber will win on Dec. 1

If that wasn’t a shameless enough plug for you, turn to page 11 and take a look at the CHR schwag you could also ask Santa for this Christmas.

****

Since I seem to be on a bit of a promotional roll I’d like to thank the current (and future) sponsors for getting on board with our Project ’57 Ford Ranch Wagon drag car. As you can see below, in exchange for promotional considerations Edelbrock Corporation has come on board with a set of heads, intake and cam for our stroker 460. Gearstar Performance Transmissions out Akron, OH is going to build us a killer C6 transmission to go behind it and I already bought a diff, gear set and 9” rear end at the Portland Swap Meet in April. Check out this issue’s Sketchpad for Daryle Sorenson’s killer concept. It may not have everything in the pic, at least not right away, but it’ll be close.

Now, while we have had some luck with sponsors, sacrifices will be made. After a lot of sleepless nights and back and forth, I’ve decided I’ll probably have to sell my ’57 Ford Courier Delivery to make this happen. Now, you may ask “Why not ditch the wagon and keep the Delivery?” and if they were both worth the same amount of money that’s absolutely what I’d be doing. But that’s not the case. I have a ’63 Rambler wagon that has to be done, a kitchen I’d like to remodel for my wife (whose given up more than her fair share during this crazy publishing endeavour) and a drag car I’d like to build.

We’ve all been there and something has to give. Check out the classified section for some details on the car and give me a call if you’re looking for one of Ford’s lowest production vehicles of 1957. I’m not really interested in dickering on price so only call if you’re going to make a decent offer.

Finally, we’re very close to beginning construction on our new website. Hopefully we’ll start in the next few weeks. Until then, our original site is still up and running, though we won’t be updating it anymore.