‘Hot Rod Magazine‘ was a bible for car guys in the 60s.
They had legendary writers and a huge magazine full of various features designed for gearheads from every corner of the hobby.
That’s why choosing the best five features from the October 1963 edition of ‘Hot Rod Magazine’ was a tough assignment.
Jerry Sutherland
These five choices aren’t in any particular order—they’re random picks from a magazine that truly defined the car culture in 1963.
The first pick was a 200-mph 1963 Plymouth two-door hardtop.
These cars are basically rolling bricks, so I wanted to learn how they built one to crack 200 miles per hour. The first thing I learned was this Plymouth was built by a legendary driver named Norm Thatcher.
Norm was 66 years old at the time, but he was fearless in his pursuit of an insane speed behind the wheel of a flying shoebox. He did it by building a 470 cubic inch, supercharged monster out of a 426 wedge and running with a 2:76 rear end. The other thing—he added a 130-pound bar filled with cement under the front bumper to avoid being the first ’63 Plymouth in space.
The second pick was a short feature on a custom 1950 Ford convertible.
This car represented the essence of custom cars in 1963 because it had everything you would expect to see on a custom car in ’63. They used a bar grille, a split ’53 Pontiac bumper, and canted Lincoln lights at the front.
The rear end was a work of art. They re-contoured the trunk deck, smoothed the metal, split the rear bumper, added eight exhausts and turned this ’50 Ford shoebox into a show piece.
The third pick was the magazine’s look at the new 1964 car models.
‘Hot Rod Magazine’ treated the new lineup with a ton of respect and a very detailed technical analysis. If you want to learn more about 60s automotive history look no further than this issue of ‘Hot Rod Magazine’.
There were two things that stood out for me. One was the omission of the ’64 Mustang because it was technically a 1964 ½ model so it was introduced in April 1964.
The other was ‘Hot Rod Magazine’s assessment of the 1964 Corvette versus the ’63 Vette. This is how they saw the changes: “The one thing that bothered owners of ’63 Sting Ray coupes has been taken care of for ’64; the rear window center post is gone”. As I mentioned, they were tech guys first—there’s no way ‘Hot Rod Magazine’ could predict the incredible spike in value for split-window Vettes.
The fourth pick was an article about boosting horsepower on a 1963 Ford Falcon panel.
LeRoi Smith wrote this piece. It was an in-depth, step-by-step guide designed to inform readers on how to add 80 horses to a humble 260 Ford small-block. It was all bolt-on stuff that most backyard mechanics could do—that concept was the essence of ‘Hot Rod Magazine’.
The fifth pick was the one most obvious to veteran ‘Hot Rod Magazine’ readers.
It was the ‘Hot Rod Mart’ want ads section. This is where dreams were found because the prices—even adjusted for inflation were incredible. Try and find a ’32 Ford street rod with a Vette small-block for 675 bucks. That’s the kind of thing that keeps car guys awake at night in 2025.
This magazine was a snapshot of 1963—no wonder old car guys live in the past.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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