Getting to Know Alex Taylor, the New Co-Host of HOT ROD Garage
How she started her racing and YouTube careers, and what the future holds for Alex Taylor Racing.
It’s old news by now that Alex Taylor has paired up with Lucky Costa as co-host ofHOT ROD Garage, but if all you know about her is that she’s joined the MotorTrend family, where have you been? Besides having nearly 100,000 subscribers on her YouTube Channel,
“Riding With Alex Taylor,” and starting her own business in college—Alex Taylor Racing—the 26-year-old drag racer has been involved with a number of MotorTrend Group events and shows for years.
She’s also the youngest driver ever to compete in HOT ROD Drag Week at age 16, driving her “Badmaro” 1968 Camaro to a 10.78 by the end of the week in 2013.
Currently, in addition to competing in the Hooptie World Championship
Currently, in addition to competing in the Hooptie World Championship and winning the 2021 MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge Hellcat Grudge Match.
Alex Taylor has been on a quest for a six-second quarter-mile pass in a 6.50-certified 1955 Chevy 210 she and her dad, Dennis Taylor, built together with off-the-shelf parts.
After a day of shooting HOT ROD Garage, we had a chance to sit down with Alex to talk about how she got her start in racing, her path to becoming a social media influencer, and what the future holds for this rising star.
Alex Taylor’s 25-Year Automotive Apprenticeship
“It’s just one of those things where it’s in your blood. It sounds cheesy, but it just is,” Alex told us when we asked about what sparked her interest in cars.
“I like to say I’ve been on a 25-year automotive apprenticeship.” With parents like Dennis and Debbie Taylor, it’s easy to see why. Dennis is the owner of Hot Rods by Dennis Taylor, a custom shop that does everything from engine and chassis building to paint, bodywork, and interiors, all from their shop in Booneville, Arkansas.
Debbie has been a part of the street machine and race car building operation from the start, too, laying fiberglass and ordering parts, and generally helping out wherever is necessary. “I was in the shop from literally a couple weeks old,” Alex says. “There’s pictures of little Alex with a tape measure doing whatever I could just to be hands-on. “
Alex tells us she was always asking questions, always curious about how things were done.
“Being in the shop when I was young wasn’t so much about cars itself, but it was about learning, and loving learning, and being in that setting,” she says.
Recalling a toy her dad had made when she was five, she tells us how she asked Dennis to explain how he made the toy, and his answer was a difficult concept for a 5-year-old to understand (indeed, one has to really know Dennis to understand his process), but Alex tells us her dad has always been a great teacher.
“I loved asking questions and I would slow them down because I just wanted to know,” she told us. “There were all these teaching moments.
I remember there was a car on a lift and we were underneath and I asked, ‘how do you do this?’ which turned into a lesson in how to find circumference and volume, pi, and all that. “
