At the end of the day, the aim of any proper hot rod should be to inch as close to a race car as you can—without sacrificing its street manners entirely. That balance requires compromise. You give up a bit of comfort, maybe a bit of practicality, in exchange for purity and performance. For me, traditional hot rods are the best canvas for that effort. There’s a clarity to them—a simplicity that makes the whole dance more honest. That said, I’ve also got a deep, long-standing love for sports cars. Old ones, especially. And what I love most about them is the same thing I love about hot rods: when done right, they’re focused, unfiltered machines—no frills, no fluff, no compromises unless absolutely necessary. My 911ST is a good example. It’s more race car than street car in a lot of ways, but I drive it on the street more than I do the track. Still, it feels like a race car should—tight, aggressive, and unapologetic. Anyway, I tripped over this video the other day. I’ve always had a soft spot for the BMW 2002... This guy’s build—focused on agility, lightness, and balance over brute power or comfort—really speaks to me. It’s exactly the kind of ethos I chase in all sorts of aspects of life...
I feel the same way about our modified MGBs. The MGB chassis and brakes are great as is, but the car is severely underpowered. Adding more power usually involves a few compromises, though. In our case, we had to lose the heater and defrost, but for us, that was ok. Florida. Also, things like lowering the car makes the ride stiffer and not quite as smooth, and the engine likes premium fuel. It's really easy to cross that "race car" like and if not careful you end up with a car that's no fun to drive except on the track.
Well stated Ryan, making a street car perform closer to a race car has always been what I think a hot rod is. An old sports car, old American roadster whatever you have with just the basic no frill’s stuff, enhanced engine and suspension modification take the driver of said car into a world of pure joy - becoming one with the car. A zen type of experience for me any way. My OT project is a 64 Austin Healey Sprite. Very basic No roll up windows, lowered suspension , warmed up engine. Hell the directional lights are operated with a toggle switch, it does have heat and windshield defroster but to operate a manual valve under the hood (bonnet) have to be opened to feed the heater core. Not super fast but goes around corners like it’s on rails. Thanks for giving us a place to post our off topic Hot Rods Dan
I am currently working on a ‘72 Fiat Spider Sport. Tried to get a “sports car” thread here in the “off-topic” forum but got no takers…
My Factory Five Cobra kind of fits in to that category. Friends call it the Swiss Army knife of racecars. with a change of wheels it can be a drag car, Autocross car, track car, street car or show car. It also somehow won a second place trophy at a corvette car show
Pretty amazing modifications to this MGB. Enjoy from Dennis. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/who-knows-this-289-mgb.1335996/
I once had the chance to testdrive a 2002 tii turbo, not a built hot rod like this beautiful thing in the video, just a restored original. I wasn´t thinking 170 hp could surprise me much, but man did this thing haul ass, weighing around 1000kg in factory form. Unfortunately the owner didn´t state what his carbon and fibreglass version weighs, but my wild guess would be around 750kg .... Imagine that! Hahahha
It weighs right at 1,800 pounds according to the builder... Stocker weighs around 2,300 pounds. I've only driven an early (1971) 2002. Bone stock. Like 100hp. Still fun as hell to drive. Not fast at all, but quick and twitchy. My 911 weighs 1,997 pounds with me and a half tank of gas on board. It makes 327hp. It's "pretty" fast, but more than anything, it's quick as hell - in all directions. It's also very, very uncomfortable... and that makes it even more fun for some reason.
I will say that my Fiat is comfortable. I’m a big guy, and still had to move the seat forward a little…
Here’s a Spitfire that I had a few years ago. Bought it as a “roller”, set up for a small block, and installed a 327/th350 combo that I had sitting under the bench. Scary fast…
I like the road feel of the BMWs when I was stationed in Germany (1883-86). After I sold my highly tweaked 80 corvette, I started playing with Euro cars. The one that most closely resembled a track car was the 914 I found. I went to a shop to buy 914-6 fenders for it and was going to change the engine. The shop said they wouldn’t sell them to me. Then the meister saw my car with American military plates and he asked if I was American. When I said yes and switched to English, suddenly I could buy anything I wanted. He even suggested a few things I hadn’t dreamed of. As long as he could come to the MWR shop to help me build it, I was allowed to do things to that car that Germans could never do at that time. That car was pure fun. And the meister loved driving it almost as much as I did. They were very strict about locals modifying cars back then.
Unfortunately they are still very strict here when modify a car besides usual modifications like lowering and wheels/ tires. Not impossible , but it takes lots of effort and money to pass ….
I just watched that Honey Badger vid last night. Absolutely food for thought. I was eyeing up the BMW E9 in the background too.
I always have to laugh bitterly whenever I watch one of the usual US YouTube suspects doing a "will it start and drive", proudly stating how a car you could not even bring to an inspection station here in Austria "was now street legal". And as for modifications, my engineer quoted €2000 minimum to get a front disc conversion and two OMP seats approved. Re 2002s, I had a friend who used to restore them for living so am familiar with how good they are, but boy oh boy can they rust - not quite as bad as the 3.0 CSi (but then not much rusts worse than those...) but still.
My pal had a 2002 in his yard that that had been to the blasters. You know when someone says it's just patches on patches and you think... "yeah, but how bad can it be?". Well, it was worse. The complete inner arches were just hammered in bits of flat plate, stitched together. Of the original panels, there was not a trace. Nothing left anywhere to call a datum point to even start welding new metal onto. This was Germany too, where they're supposed to be strict on that stuff. The E9 coupes were built by Karmann, which explains a lot.
Sounds familiar. At least you can get most body parts nowadays but better be good with the grinder and the welder...
Man I’d nearly forgotten about that YouTube channel! On a related bug eye note I was sniffing out old cars and found this shop full of full race sprites this fucker sounded nothing like any inline id ever heard and it smelled like race fuel he of course had a t coupe on 32 rails with a flathead and quick change in the next garage.
Cole built a nice little 2002 several years back, was fun to see the process. EDIT: His is a '72 CS, not a 2002. That sums up my knowledge of German cars. Anyway, still cool.
This is like meth to me... I've had 2002's, Fiat Spiders, Spitfires, a Volvo 1800, MG B's and midgets, even a Renault R10 and two Cortinas, and now my Morris Minor..... amongst my Galaxies, Falcons, Shoeboxes.... all of them gone now.
I really wouldn't call the 190 SL /\ a hot rod. They look great, but that was all they had to do. I wish these BMW 327s weren't mega bucks. They're beautiful, but out of everyones reach now.
I had a GT6 for a while. If I could find one in decent enough shape, I bet it would be tons of fun with a turbo LS and 6 spd in it. It was fun to toss around with minor suspension tweaks and a mild factory engine. With a dry sump it should fit under the hood.
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