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In the Rockets' Red Glare: The past and future of hot-rodding in America

The past and future of hot-rodding in America

Each machine was surrounded by a crew in matching uniforms—this was the Top Fuel finals, and the teams that get this far tend to be well organized and at least semi-sponsored, such as the Champion Speed Shop car, an arresting slingshot-style dragster, black with gold lettering and a closed driver compartment cantilevered behind its rear wheels. They work for Grubhub or Uber Eats, and are waiting to deliver orders to someone who is also scrolling on a phone, driving a leased car, wearing sweatpants, someone who might be a little, or even significantly, above them in social class, an office worker, a corporate lawyer, who streams a lot of stuff and has access to a “wealth” of information, but they share alienation in essential ways. It was a symbol visited upon us from “real” life, whose thinnest, cheapest, and most disposable conditions were usually suspended at the drag strip, where people live in a moment-by-moment relay with the material world, seizing upon what can be not only truly owned, but even better, possessed: machines that are taken apart, studied, learned, repaired, and most importantly, modified for a new use.

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