When did they start painting flames on the fronts of cars?

After the the end of World War Two, in California, in the late 1940's , the age of early hot rod car building began. One of the "looks " was to imitate the kind of "nose art " tnat had been painted on WW2 fighter and bomber aircraft, including sharks's teeth and flames and girl friends names.

Most of the early hot rod or custom car builders were young single and had been in the military where they learned to repair things such as trucks and jeeps, so they had skills that they used to improve their cars performance and looks. By reducing the weight of a car and increasing the engine horsepower, they wre able to go faster and faster, and by the mid 50's they had cars that could go over 140 mph on a quarter mile drag strip run. The ideal then was a car that could be " steet legal" with the high performance of a race car. By removing the street tires and putting on " cheater slicks " , and disconnecting the muffler system, they could get good times on the strip.

In those days, racers did their own engine work, from shaving the cylinder heads to get higher compression to regrinding their own camshafts and crankshafts, and installing "fuelie valves " to get bigger intake and exhaust openings in the cylinders heads. Drilling parts to lighten them was also very popular, so brackets and frames were spider cut to take out weight. Mixing exotic fuels was also a trend and alcohol and nitro benzine were used with some spectacular blow ups, if the mix was too powerful for the engine to stand up to it.

Hot rods evolved to full out race cars that were only for the strip, and the beginnings of the NHRA was born, to set rules and promote safety in drag racing. By the early 60's some racers were making a living at it, week after week. By then the flame job was a standard thing on cars that had been modified in some way.

First answer by ID2857113506. Last edit by Buntingj. Contributor trust: 704 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 39 [recommend question]