Mid-1930s
Mid-1940s
Mid-1960s
Mid-1950s
HARRELL ENGINES & RACING EQUIPMENT
Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell take the reader on a thirty year journey from dry lake racing in the 1930s to drag racing during the 1960s. In addition to this web site, we have a book that describes the racing activities of the Harrell brothers. The following image is the book's front cover showing Jim (White) Harrell's straight eight Hudson powered modified on a record breaking run at Muroc dry lake in 1941.
The next image is the back cover of the book showing Jim (on the right) and Nick Harrell at the Harrell Engines shop with the Harrell Special around 1950.
The Book's Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: Who Was Jim White/Harrell ? 11
ONE: Jim’s Speed Shop and Jim’s Auto Parts 15
Friends, Racing Club (1937) 25
1939-1941: Move to Eight Cylinder Engines 27
Jim White/Harrell’s First 8-Cylinder Engines 32
TWO: Outstanding Individuals Make Great Teams 35
Friends and Close Associates: Tony Capanna 35
Jim White/Harrell and His Modifieds 42
Friends and Close Associates: Bob Noble 43
Friends and Close Associates: Bob Knapton 47
Jim White/Harrell’s Hudson 8 in 1941 52
Pre-War Summary of The Albata Club 57
THREE: “Ladies & Gentlemen, Start Your Engines” 61
Nick Harrell Joins Harrell Engines 62
Post-war Southern California Timing Association & The Albatas 63
Albata Struggles To Sustain Itself In The New Era 65
Focusing On Other Forms of Racing and Business Interests 71
Jim Harrell’s First Post-war Roadster and Racing Equipment 78
FOUR: The Harrell Brothers, Mainly Drag Racing 87
The Harrell Engines Shop & Its Community 89
Friends and Close Associates: Pat & Tony Berardini 93
Harrell Specials at The Drags 99
Who Was Don Bell? Many Remember 100
Mid-1953-1954—Harrell Engines Gets Back On Track 104
FIVE: The “Red Hot Roadster” & Beyond 109
The “New” 1929 Roadster with Flathead, 1955 109
The Chrysler OHV Engine In The Harrell 1929 Roadster 112
1961-1966: The “Altered Roadster” To The “Flying Wing” 125
SIX: Harrell Engines: The Legacy 137
Old School Hot Rodders and Harrell Racing Equipment 139
Appendix: Photo Gallery of Jim and Nick Harrell 147
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Review by Ken Gross
in the December 10, 2009 issue of:
Old Cars, Weekly News & Market Place
"Harrell Engines & Racing Equipment:
Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell"
"Jim and Nick Harrell were active Los Angeles hot rodders for more than 30 years. Innovative intake manifolds and finned high-compression heads from Harrell Engines were used by a number of record-setters. Beginning in the ’30s, Jim Harrell raced everything from four-bangers to flatheads, and with his brother Nick, he advanced to Chrysler Hemi engines. Jim’s first speed shop opened on San Pedro Street in 1933. The Harrells were Albata Club founding members and they helped and competed with all the historic names: Tony Capanna; Vic Edelbrock, Sr.; Bob Rufi; Bob Noble; “Wild Willie” Borsch; and a slew of others pioneers. The rare, faded black-and-white photos in this book are a treat. Many were simply taken as snapshots at the dry lakes, but they depict historic cars and give readers a sense of a simpler time, when you drove or flat-towed your roadster up to the dry lakes, stripped it of any remaining non-essentials and ran the clocks. This book tells it the way it was."
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or order ISBN 9781439225752
The book is also available at:
http://www.booksurge.com/Harrell-Engines-Racing-Equipment-Jim-White/A/1439225753.htm
&
AUTOBOOKS-AEROBOOKS
3524 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505
818.845.0707
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For more information about Jim & Nick Harrell's racing activities, click on the "Harrell Engines' Race Cars," "Harrell Racing Equipment," "Harrell-Borsch Roadster & Altered 1956-1966," and "Albata Racing Club" tabs (pages) in this web site.
Jim (White) Harrell (on the left) and Nick Harrell in 1953
Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell
A Journey Spanning Four Decades of Hot Rodding
For an on-line biography of Jim and Nick Harrell's activities in the world of land speed racing you are also invited to check out:
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If you would like more information about or care to puschase this book, you are invited to click on the amazon.com button below.
Double-click to edit text, or drag to move.
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Hemmings eWeekly, 05/21/2009
Review by Daniel Strohl
STREET RODS and HOT RODS
New biography chronicles careers of hot rodding pioneers Jim and Nick Harrell
The early dry lakes racing that gave birth to American hot rodding involved hundreds of industrious, innovative and daring young men and women, only a fraction of whom have ever been recognized for their efforts and for their achievements. Not as if these racers knew that someday they’d be lauded; all they wanted was to open up the throttle and see what their cars could do.
But many more deserve to have their stories told than the few who already have, and that’s what Roger Harrell, Richard Harrell and Alec Harrell Carlson set out to do with their recently published book, Harrell Engines & Racing Equipment: Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell. (Roger and Richard are nephews of the two subjects of the book, while Alec is a great-grandnephew.)
As one of the founding members of the Albata hot rod club (and thus of the SCTA), Jim Harrell — also occasionally known as Jim White — was a pioneer hot rodder who owned a speed shop in L.A., built many a Ford and Chevrolet four-cylinder before helping to introduce straight-eights and later V-8s to hot rodding. Nick, Jim’s brother, joined him after the war to run the shop and help expand his business and interests into producing aftermarket speed parts, into circle-track racing and into drag racing. Through research and interviews from a variety of sources, Roger, Richard and Alec Harrell are able to compose a nearly complete portrait of two lesser-known, but still important, figures in hot-rodding history.
Amazon.com Customer Reviews:
Harrell Engines & Racing Equipment: Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell, posted on amazon.com by B. "SoCal Woodworker"
(Southern California), June 15, 2009.
A Nostalgic Look Back
“The Harrell Engines book is a nostalgic look back on the pioneers of the sport of racing. This book starts with the "roots" of racing and how drag racing grew. The book explains the connection between the Harrell brothers and the young racers. The magic came with their engine building. The "need for speed" was the mantra of every racer that "hung out" at the Harrell shop where the exchange of ideas and experiments would take place. In so many words this shop-talk was the meeting of the "hot rod" minds. The book gave me a blizzard of memories. The Harrell brothers were in a sense true alchemists when it came to racing engines. They like so many of the drag racing pioneers, took the dream of drag racing to a whole new level and made the sport of drag racing the spectacle it is today. I highly recommend this book!”
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A look back in Speed Equipment History.
Oct 10, 2011
By aussierodder
This book has been well written in that it states only facts backed up by pictures, it is obvious from reading this book that the Harrell brothers were mainly into Salt Flat Racing for the sport. It was more for the love of the sport rather than for the money.