Check out this priceless home-movie footage from the California Dry Lakes scene in 1940—before hot rods were called hot rods. 

This amazing home movie (8 mm film converted to newfangled digital video) was originally made by pioneer hot rodder Tommy Lorbeer, “uncle” (beloved family friend, in truth) to Dave Welles, co-owner of Seabright Hot Rods in Santa Cruz, California. All the footage was shot, according to Dave, at Harper Dry Lake on the Mojave Desert 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles in 1940. The five-minute film is a priceless snapshot of the hot rod movement before World War II and every second is awesome, but we would direct you to a few special moments:

+   At around the 2:30 mark, here’s a genuine T35 straight-eight Grand Prix Bugatti—worth a king’s ransom today, but apparently just an old used race car then.

+   At the 10-second mark and in several other scenes, a Model T roadster with what appears to be a Maxi overhead-valve conversion for the Ford V8, the same setup made famous on Ed Iskenderian’s classic hot rod.

+   At around 2:20, a 1935 Miller-Ford Indy racer. Only 10 of these race cars were produced by Harry Miller and Preston Tucker for the Ford Motor Company’s ill-timed attack on the Indy 500 in 1935. How the racer ended up at Harper Dry Lake must be a heck of a story.

But as we say, every moment of the movie is special. This is before the term “hot rod” came into common use, when the souped-up jalopies were known as “gow jobs” and “hop-ups.” Enjoy the video.