Today’s “Case of the Mondays” is a great throw back for all you history buffs. “A ‘hot rod,’ also called a ‘hot iron’ or a ‘hop-up’ or ‘gow-job,’ is an automobile stripped for speed and pepped up for power until it can travel from 90 to 125 mph.” So begins the article on El Mirage lake bed racing in postwar California in the November 5, 1945 issue ofLIFE magazine. The Mohave Desert had played host to fast cars since the 1920’s, but as four long years of war and rationing came to an end and GI’s returned to civilian life, the hobby of modifying and racing street cars exploded, with the epicenter just East of Los Angeles.

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A mere three pages captures the spirit of the day, and despite the dated jargon, LIFE manages to capture the technical details of how these young men (boys, in some cases – two pictured in the photos are just 15) were modifying their cars for speed. “The owner may mill the cylinder head for more compression, widen the intake and exhaust ports, add dual carburetion and dual manifolds for better distribution of the fuel.” Just try to imagine a general interest magazine today getting that right.

Sixty five years later, the Southern California Timing Association continues the tradition of land speed racing at El Mirage with six meets a year. While many of the cars and motorcycles racing today might look unfamiliar to those 15 year olds transported forward in time, they’d be right at home there on the dry lake bed just like they were at that moment in time captured by LIFE’s photographer back in 1945.