A New Book About Hot Rod History HARRELL ENGINES & RACING EQUIPMENT: Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell

A Thirty Year Journey Through Hot Rodding

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 HARRELL ENGINES & RACING EQUIPMENT: Jim (White) Harrell & Nick Harrell  takes the reader on a thirty year journey from dry lake racing in the 1930s to drag racing during the 1960s. The first 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 following 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

    Table of Photographs  5

List of Tables  6

Preface  7

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

The War Years: 1942-1945  59

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

The “Red Hot Roadster”  114

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

Index  152

 


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A Customer Review of:

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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If you would like more information about or care to purchase this book, you are invited to click on the amazon.com image below.

 

                    

 

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

www.Autobooks-Aerobooks.com 

 

 

 

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     For more information about Jim & Nick Harrell's racing activities, click on the "Harrell Engines' Race Cars," "Harrell Racing Equipment" and "Harrell-Borsch Roadster & Altered 1956-1966," tabs (pages) in this web site.

    

 Jim (White) Harrell (on the left) and Nick Harrell in 1953

 

 

     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:

 

http://www.hotrodhotline.com/feature/guestcolumnists/richardscorner/09harrell/