Hot Rods, 'Souping-up' and Wes Jones

During the Great Depression, young car enthusiasts wanted to show that money was not the only means to gain automotive status and they began customizing cars, known as ‘glow jobs’ or ‘soup-ups’. It was in the 1940s that the term ‘hot rod’ became popularized. The automobiles were known for their power and performance, but were also a social statement of self-reliance, ingenuity and independence. 

Hot rods were born in the dry lake region of Southern California. A cult of backyard mechanics working with junkyard parts created streamlined, no non-sense racing cars for competitions. The hot rods not only had to be well equipped to compete on the courses laid out on nearby desert sand flats, but also had to be functional for everyday transport.  Most early hot rods were Ford Model T or Model A roadsters as they were cheap, lightweight and readily available. These basic automobiles were stripped of all non-essential parts, including fenders, running boards, ornaments and even their windshields. This editing process allowed for maximum weight reductions and aerodynamics. Coupes and Sedans were eventually used, but needed further surgery as they were generally much heavier in weight. Hot rods were fitted with large front tires in order to achieve a higher gear ratio, and consequently higher available speeds. In contrast, the front tires were standard size or smaller, decreasing wind resistance. Louvres —rows of slots —were cut into the hood, body and rear deck lid to aid in engine cooling and the release of trapped air. If the enthusiast decided to go further, flat aluminum discs could be placed on tires for additional streamlining. 

In 1932, the Ford flathead V8 engines were introduced and became the most popular choice for use in hot rods. These engines were mass produced in the millions, therefore they were inexpensive and plentiful. The design of the V8 engine also allowed for easy and varied enhancements. Common adjustments included the removal of the muffler, straightening of the exhaust pipes, and the addition of multiple carburetors. 

World War II marked the end of early hot rodding. However, in 1945, as the war came to a close, hot rodding exploded in America and emerged as one of the most dominant post-war fads. Young men were returning home with money as well as mechanical and metal working knowledge gained from their time in the army. Young car enthusiast now found themselves with the resources to build their dream cars. Hot rodders and fans gathered in dry lakes in California, while dangerous street racing became prevalent in other parts of the country. These illegal races, coupled with late night gatherings of young hot rodders, led to a negative public view of the subculture. Hot rods, along with rock and roll, became symbolic of the darker side of American youth. 

To reverse negative connotations, the first hot rod exhibition was held during January of 1948. The event was held at the National Guard Armory in Los Angeles and attracted 10 000 spectators. The first issues of the successful Hot Rod Magazine, established by Robert E. Peterson, were sold at the exhibition. The establishment of the ‘Southern California Timing Association’ (SCTA), as well as the ‘National Hot Rod Association’ (NHRA) worked to further diffuse the unfavourable image, and led to a civic-mindedness and cooperative relationship with the police authorities. Racing was now limited to organized, straight-line courses, known as drag strips. Enthusiasts became increasingly serious and began building vehicles meant solely for racing, and ‘street rods’ as well as customs emerged as sub-sets of the automobile culture. By the end of the 1950s, competition was fierce and top cars were only taken out for races or exhibitions. The junkyard parts used during the movement’s infancy were no longer adequate, and as a consequence demographics of hot rodding adjusted to an older, wealthier population. 

The 1960s marked a rebellion against elegant hot rods and the emergence of ‘muscle cars’—plain automobiles with huge amounts of power. The gas shortage of the 1970s resulted in the smaller ‘pony cars’. However, hot rods reemerged once again in the 1980s. There were two dominant groups keeping the hot rod culture alive, those driven by nostalgia and the young, primarily latino, car enthusiasts. The hot rod culture has evolved dramatically from its birth in the junkyards or Southern California, but hot rodding remains popular today. 
Warde, John. "A Short History of Hot Rods ." MSN Autos. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. <http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=435974>.

The concept of “souping-up”, prevalent in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, has served as a central inspiration for Wes Jones in his approach to architecture. The primitive huts by Wes Jones and Peter Pfau are clear reflections of the deconstructive and additive processes present during the ‘souping-up’ of a basic car body (such as the Ford Model T). In the following clip Jones describes how his strategy in constructing the Stieglitz Residence is comparable to that of ‘souping-up’ an automobile. 

Fordism: Automobiles and Architecture

The mass-production process which emerged due to the production of Ford’s Model T transformed the order and sensibilities of society; what was produced became secondary to the actual method of production. Ford designed an unchanging and standardized car model, allowing them to manufacture the automobiles cheaply and efficiently with the use of specialized machines and unskilled labour. The invention of the assembly line provided workers with the bare minimum amount of time allotted to the completion of their specified task. The rapid nature of the assembly process resulted in the removal of all curvature and specialized varnishes. The appearance of the Model Ts were dictated by efficiency as opposed to aesthetics. As a consequence, the Model Ts allowed little time for detail work—the fragmented exteriors displayed abrupt transitions and joints. By 1924, 16 years after the introduction of the Model T, Ford flooded the world with 10 million copies of the black, squared, undecorated, fragmented car―comprising half of the worlds existing automobiles. The Model Ts imposing presence, as well as the newfound popularity of mass-produced consumer goods, made a substantial impact on the American landscape. 

Model T

"Showroom of Automotive History: The Model T." The Henry Ford. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. <http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1908/model.t.html>.

The look of mass production was in direct parallel to the aesthetics of modernity― standardization, repetition, rectilinearity and lack of ornamentation with a visual order of efficiency and instrumentalism. This strict visual order of instrumentalism was not limited to consumer goods, and its influence became prominent in the built environment. Mass-production and mass-consumption presented the need for new factories, new stores, and new roads for the transport of goods. Many of these places themselves were mass-producesd. Kahn played a large role in the development of this new architecture in his work for the Ford Motor Company. His designs for the Highland Park Plant and the River Rouge Plant displayed an architecture with the sole purpose of supporting production and eventual profit. He expressed no regard for aesthetics, human accommodation, or the natural landscape. 

Highland Park Plant

Babiasz, Joe. "Ford Highland Park Plant." AutoTraderClassics.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. <http://www.autotraderclassics.com/car-article/Old+Factories%3A+Ford+Highland+Park+Plant-74957.xhtml>.

The American factories and mass produced machines inspired the European architects of the interwar period to create a new architecture―a modern architecture for a modern age. The European architects were attracted to the aesthetic of a future they had yet to attain, while the Americans dreamed of a past they had surpassed. As a result, American architects chose to conceal the mass-production building techniques they pioneered while the Europeans chose to consciously exhibit them. 

During the Great Depression mass-production through Fordism, along with modern architecture, lost its allure. The retreat during the 1930s and early 19040s eventually ended with the reemergence of Fordism in the 19050s due to the postwar state demand management. Up until the 1950s, American architecture hasd rejected the modernism of European avant-garde architecture. The 1950s, however, demonstrated a rapid and near instantaneous conversion in United States’ architecture to the machine aesthetic. Working Americans became more willing to accept modern architecture as they began to migrate from urban city-centers to the suburbs, which resulted in the mass-production of single family homes. The epitome of post-war suburban housing for the working class is the Levittown development, a low-cost, single-family grouping of homes in Long Island, New York by Abraham Levitt and Sons. 

Levittown

" Levittown Through the Years." The New York Times . N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/12/nyregion/20071013_LEVITTOWN_SLIDESHOW_index.html>.

Other architectural styles such as expressionism, art deco, streamline, moderne etc. claimed to be part of the modernist movement, but by the 1950s advocates of the machine aesthetic had managed to monopolize the label and modernism became known to directly mimic the appearance of mass-production. 

The empty frameworks of standardized and rectilinear proportions was not new or foreign to the American landscape. In 19th century America, there was an ambition to turn land and space into a standardized commodity and the entire Western wilderness was broken up into a uniform grid of land sections. A blatant disregard for the variation present in the land’s topography allowed for this new system of commodification. The methodical approach of land division was carried into the American city on a smaller scale as a grid of right-angled streets and standardized lots were established. This system in the division of land, as exemplified on Manhattan Island, was meant to aid in the buying, selling and improvement of real-estate. 

By the 1970s, the Fordist regime of mass-production and consumption had lost much of its dominance. There was an increasing demand by customers for a more diverse variety of goods and the cost of production was increasing while overall labour productivity was decreasing. The dire economic climate of the 1970s also brought the building industry to a crippling halt and the mass-produced construction techniques utilized in the past were no longer feasible. With Ronald Reagan’s neoliberal policies in the 1980s, the building industry experienced a resurgence. The acceleration in construction stimulated tough competition and little time was left for artistic expression. As a result, the architect’s role was largely reduced to exterior finishes and frill. The time of Post-Fordism produced an architecture which contradicted many of the principles previously established by the period of modern architecture and mass-production. 

Amin, Ash. Post-Fordism: a reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994. Print.

"Showroom of Automotive History: The Model T." The Henry Ford. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2012. <http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/showroom/1908/model.t.html>.

The primitive huts by Peter Pfau and Wes Jones embraced the concept of mass-produced housing, characteristic of Fordism is the 1950s, in their use of standardized and rectilinear shipping containers. However, they simultaneously favoured the idea of customization, which was prominent in the Post-Fordism era of the 1970s and 80s. The later works by Jones, Partners: Architecture embodies the aesthetics of 'machine architecture' with exaggerated joints and connections between materials. His choices in both construction methods and materials demonstrate Jones' effort to present the building as mechanical and technological, rather than trying to conceal its innards with facades and unnecessary ornamentation. 

The Birth of Mass Production

Mass production is a way of manufacturing for the masses, a process which ultimately takes the power of choice in terms of product design and quality out of the consumer’s hands and into the manufacturer’s. This producer-consumer relationship has changed greatly since the introduction of mass production methods. Previous to this time, producers made things to order, rather than producing things to be sold at a later date. Shops were not filled with goods, but rather craftsman waiting to receive orders. In the modern era of mass production, there are no orders in advance, the worry of selling the goods only presents itself much later in the process.

Mass production is based on  the principles of specialization and division of labour as first described by Adam Smith in “The Wealth of Nations” in 1776 and it was first practiced in places like Eli Whitney’s gun factory in America in the 1790s. The division of labour is strategic as the highly skilled labour is used to design products and setup production systems, while highly unskilled labour is used to produce standardized components and assemble them with the help of specialized machinery.The early businesses which utilized mass production methods took workers directly from the agricultural labour force, and finding workers did not require much out-sourcing.

The parts used in mass production are often manufactured elsewhere and then put together on a moving production facility, commonly known as the assembly line. The resulting products were generally lacking in variety, mediocre in quality, but low in cost and price. The low-skilled, repetitive work done by factory employees was considered a variable cost, and as a result the workers would be hired and laid off based on the current needs of the company and demands of the market.

The production of the Model T automobile was a major event in the history of mass production. Harry Ford called it the “Universal Car”, and its popularity became so prominent that by the end of 1913, Ford was making half the cars produced in the United States.

Ford’s record of the event and strategy regarding mass production is as follows: 

[The company] initiated mass production in the factory. Mr. Ford reasoned that with each worker remaining in one assigned place, with one specific task to do, the automobile would take shape more quickly as it moved from section to section and countless man hours would be saved. To test the theory, a chassis was dragged by rope and windlass along the floor of the Highland Park, Michigan, plant in the summer of 1913. Modern mass production was born. Eventually, Model Ts were rolling off the assembly lines at the rate of one every 10 seconds of each working day. 

The assembly line established through the production of Ford’s Model T sparked an industrial revolution. Within the first 19 years after Model T was introduced, 15 million cars were produced and sold in the United States alone. 

"The evolution of mass production ." Ford UK . N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Dec. 2012.

 <http://www.ford.co.uk/experience-ford/Heritage/EvolutionOfMassProduction>.

Theodore Levitt presented an alternate theory regarding Ford’s success, which he expressed in Innovation in Marketing: 

[Henry Ford’s real genius] was marketing. We think he was able to cut his selling price and therefore sell millions of $500 cars because his invention of the assembly line had reduced the costs. Actually he invented the assembly line because he had concluded that at $500 he could sell millions of cars. Mass production was the result, not the cause of his low prices. 

"Idea: Mass production." The Economist . http://www.economist.com/node/14299820 (accessed December 4, 2012).