In addition to writing many books and freelance stories about the hobby of hot-rodding, he was renown for his selection of vintage photos depicting unrestored, restored and in-the-midst machinery. His encyclopedic knowledge about vintage automobiles and drag racing led him to popularize the nostalgia drag racing
Ganahl's five-year tenure at HOT ROD in the 1980s represented a fairly small part of his lifelong involvement with cars and lengthy career writing thorough, knowledgeable, and deeply researched stories about hot rods, custom cars, and their history. He landed his first automotive writing job at Street Rodder magazine in 1973, joined the HOT ROD staff in 1983 (after a brief detour at Sunset magazine), and revived Rod & Custom magazine in 1988.
After leaving Petersen Publishing, he helped Steve Coonan in the early days of The Rodder's Journal, and would continue to write long-form historical articles until his "retirement." Even then, he couldn't stop sharing his tales of rodding history (as well as his voluminous collection of vintage photographs) so he started a website, "Pat Ganahl's Rod and Custom." While producing all those magazine articles, Ganahl found the time to write some 20 books on subjects that ranged from supercharging to Von Dutch.
On Friday Aug 19th, he blew through the lights at the end of Riverdale’s drag strip and never applied brakes. Probably had a heart or brain issue related to the thrill and acceleration.
you certainly can continue to be rewarded by his life's work at https://patganahl.com and https://www.instagram.com/patganahl
That's sad. I have been familiar with his great work since the 70's. rest well "too tall Ganahl"
ReplyDeleteOh man, that's terrible. But what a way to go. If only we could all be so lucky. An awful lot of oral history went with him. I loved his stories at his blog.
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