People have been modifying and customizing their rides since the 1930s when bootleggers had to move mass quantities of moonshine. Moving loads of white lightning from country stills where it was brewed to the waiting customers demanded cars that could outrun the cops and drivers that could take it to the limit. Treasury officers just couldn’t keep up. “I called the cars the government gave us 'mechanical miscarriages’” said Joe Carter, an alcohol tax unit (ATU) agent.

The moonshine era modifieds gave birth to modern stock car racing, like NASCAR, but the cars on the track couldn’t hold a flame to the ones carrying that white lightning. Junior Johnson won 50 NASCAR races but that was small-time next to the years he spent as a moonshiner in North Carolina. On the track, there are rules and limits to mods but on the street, they could do anything. 40s fords with Flathead V-8s ruled supreme into the 1950s. Wanting more power under the hood, moonshiners started replacing the V-8s with the biggest Cadillac engines they could find--ambulance engines. They added superchargers, turbos, and Hemis. Their handiwork kept them out running cops at speeds close to 200 miles per hour. In the end, prohibition was repealed and bootlegging slowed and tapered off, but a legacy lives on in America today.

The American pastime pioneered by the moonshiners in the 1930s is the heart and soul of American Speed. We are a nationwide community, with local chapters, where car enthusiasts can come together and share their passion for automobiles. The bootleggers are the fathers of modern car mods, customization, and good old American Speed.

A word from the president