Pat Ganahl
Influential author and journalist Pat Ganahl died while drag racing.
One of the most influential hot rod writers we’ll ever know has died. Pat ‘Too Tall’ Ganahl got his nickname because he was 6ft 8in tall. Born June 2, 1947 in Bakersfield, California, Pat grew up around Glendale, California and built his first hot rod at age 14. Changing his college major from chemical engineering to a master’s degree in English literature set him on a career as a writer although Ganahl tried teaching first, then freelanced for Sports Illustrated and Guitar Player. He penned a couple of books on Ford engines and nitrous oxide but also wrote about what he really loved; the hot rod and customised cars he grew up around.
Ganahl was one of the first staffers on Street Rodder magazine in late 1973, going on to become associate editor then technical editor, although he was – in his words – ‘essentially doing the whole magazine with the help of freelancer Frank Oddo’. In November 1974 Pat put out the first ‘chopped Merc’ themed issue, featuring customised Mercury lead sleds and bravely bucking the trend since custom cars were very out of fashion then.
Pat continued to do an annual custom cars issue and was influential in reviving the nostalgic movement in that decade and throughout the 1980s. “There were no other magazines featuring custom cars at this time,” wrote Pat in his 2001 book The American Custom Car.
Ganahl joined Hot Rod magazine in 1983, spending five years there, including a nine-month stint as editor. He wrote numerous now classic features, including the ‘Caddy Hack’ where he gradually stripped non-essentials from a Cadillac and reported on the resultant performance improvements to illustrate the importance of weight saving. Ganahl also devised a swimsuit issue that sold 100,000 more copies than usual.
Ganahl revived Rod & Custom magazine in 1988, famously working for more than two years without a day off. He soon revealed how he wrote features in the magazine under pseudonyms; once readers realised they began to send him pen names of their own.
Pat was a big advocate of nostalgia cars and featured a lot of period photos and stories, much to the delight of readers. At a time when hot rods were becoming expensive, highly polished creations machined out of billet aluminium, Pat was championing vehicles built at home on an affordable budget.
He regularly ran features on $5000 cars and included four-door cars, wagons and vehicles that could be built cheaply and driven for fun. Pat didn’t care about makes or years of certain models being unpopular, often stating: “They’re all just old cars.”
After leaving Rod & Custom, Ganahl helped fellow journalist Steve Coonan establish the Rodder’s Journal, one of the highest quality automotive publications ever printed. An excellent writer and photographer with a vast collection of period photos, Ganahl built custom Volkswagens, drag cars and hot rods, including a Cadillac-engined Deuce roadster. He was renowned for driving his grandfather’s 1948 Chevy fourdoor – inherited at age 15 – going through 14 transmissions, six engines and four rear axles. And long before so-called fat-fendered cars were popular hot-rodding material. Ganahl never owned a new car, stating: “I build all my own cars and I’ve always driven hot rods.” He championed hot rod and custom car culture, built and wrote about numerous model cars with authority and was regarded as a highly knowledgeable hot rod historian. Along the way he produced 20 books on hot rod and custom car history and technology.
I never spoke directly with Pat Ganahl, but I eagerly read his work and admired his skill in conveying a lot of important information in a tiny amount of words. He had a fantastic ability to anticipate a reader’s thoughts and questions, then provide the answers there on the page.
Although officially retired Pat still wrote blogs on his website, https://patganahl.com
On August 19, 2022 Pat Ganahl died while racing his Iacono frontengined dragster on the eighth-mile Riverdale Raceway near Toutle, Washington at a nostalgia race event. Pat had restored the July 1959 Hot Rod cover car several years before. Witnesses say he didn’t lift at the end of the dragstrip but continued through a fence into a parked camper van. He could not be revived so, at the time of writing, it’s speculated Pat may have had some form of medical issue. He was 75 years old. Our thoughts are with his wife Anna and son Bill.