I'd imagine it's like a lot of slang. It started out as one thing and due to communication and "The Telephone Game' type of way slang moves over the populace, it could mean similar or a bit different in different places. I wasn't there early but when I was exposed to it, it meant what Billy said. The car, modified to go.
I've read in more than one of the Hot Rod/dry lakes books that discuss the rivalry between the banger guys and the then new V8 guys that there was a term used by the banger guys "4 for gow, 8 for plow". Don't know if gow was a play on the word 'go'? The V8 was not immediately accepted in the way I figured it would have been in the 30's. And when you think about it, for over 2 decades the aftermarket and speed equipment industry was almost entirely built around the T banger and then the A.
Allot of the early racing jobs were inline 4, I'm thinking about the high-end cars, I wonder if this factored into it as well? "4 cyl's is how we have always gone fast"?
The engine is all done and in. Just going over details like exhaust and fuel and getting some power to the distributor. Once running it will be just down to details and body work. Pretty good progress this year.
And drop it down over the frame rails about 3" or so. Easy at this point as you have only the sheet metal to tweak and no structure to modify.
Hi, I'm Dave's friend and neighbor. I'm also 6'1" and would like to ride in it when it's done, so I vote no channel. Plus, channeled T's look like T-buckets, IMO.