Wheels of Change

Wheels of Change: From Zero to 600 M.P.H., The Amazing Story of California and the Automobile, by Kevin Nelson, is now available. Published by Heyday Books and the California Historical Society Press, it can be ordered through this website, your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other outlets.

Full of the romance and adventure and freedom and history of cars, Wheels of Change tells the extraordinary story of automobiles in California from the late 1890s to the mid-1960s. But it is far more than just a history of cars in California. It is about young people and the passions of youth and how these passions find expression through cars.

As Kevin Nelson writes in the Introduction (excerpted below), "Save for electricity and possibly the computer, no modern invention has changed our lives so fully as the automobile. Cars were new technology at the birth of the 20th century and as is so often the case with new technology, teenagers embraced it."

Wheels of Change features the stories of some of the most colorful and influential people in the history of automobiles, many of whom began their world-changing ways when they were in their teens or early twenties. They include:

• Craig Breedlove, the first to break the 600 m.p.h. speed barrier in his Spirit of America jet car; 
• Steve McQueen, who raced sports cars in real life and drove in the greatest automobile chase sequence in movie history in "Bullitt"; 
• Gary Cooper and Clark Gable, two more great Hollywood stars who loved cars and drove them fast;
• Phil Hill, the Santa Monica resident who was the first American Formula One champion and one of the finest Grand Prix drivers ever;
• Robert Petersen, publisher of Hot Rod magazine and a leading exporter of the born-in-California hot rod lifestyle to the rest of the world;
• Wally Parks, Petersen's good friend and the founder of the National Hot Rod Association;
• Harley Earl, the California born-and raised designer for General Motors who created the Corvette, tail fins on Cadillacs and many other remarkable automobile innovations;
• George Barris, the King of the Kustomizers, one of many southern California custom hot rod designers whose customs in the movies and television influenced the look of automobiles around the world;
• James Dean, the ill-fated star of "Rebel Without A Cause" and another authentic sports car driver who died in a car crash near San Luis Obispo on his way to a race (excerpt on Dean is below);
• Barney Oldfield, the glamorous and charismatic race driver who became a household name when he became the first to break 60 miles per hour on a racetrack in the early 1900s.

What all these remarkable people have in common are a passion for automobiles and deep California ties. They and others have helped make California the center of new car trends and American culture: road songs, drive-in restaurants, drive-in movies, shopping malls, and on and on. The story of all this, and more, is told in Kevin Nelson's exciting new book.

Wheels of Change is 400 pages and includes 50 photographs. Published by Heyday Books and the California Historical Society Press. ISBN 1-978-1-59714-113-0. 24.95.

Here are two excerpts from the book:

From The Introduction

The Last Days of James Dean