When did the term "Hot Rod" get coined? Was going thru some of my Dad's old mag.'s & found copy of Mechanix Ill. from 1951 w/ article on hot rods. What do ya think? Uglymailman
ugly mail man??????ahahahha....love that name dude!!!!!! my male ladie up here in MO is actually a nice lookin gal, so i know your not her!!!
I believe this question came up in speed & sport news a few years back . Its thought to date to the early indy cars when the bodys were trimed down and the rails were exposed hence rods pre 20s .sorry i no longer have the copy for details .c
I remember a line in one of Hank Williams songs... "Got a Hotrod Ford and a two dollar bill..." Think it was called "Hey Good Lookin". Am I right?
...the history of the term "hot rod" is no different that "who was the first to put flames on a car?". No one knows and thats it.....probably best stay that way. If anyone says that they know for a fact the answer to either of those questions, ya gotta say BS
*THIS IS JUST MY OPINION When I first opened the Hotrodsonline.com website in 1993 I received a question about the origin of the name hotrod. I typed out the following and mailed it to myself and registered it, so I would have a record. Where did the name hotrod come from. When I was 13, I lived next door to a policeman in Dearborn Michigan. I asked him where the name came from. He said it was a police term, but it had it's origins in the early age of the firearm. When muskets were loaded and the powder was loaded with a ram rod. If the battle was fierce, the rod would become red hot to the touch. The person in battle was a hotrodder, a person fiercely in battle, or ready to do battle. As time went on and guns changed, it still was called a rod along with other names, but primarily called a rod. This is where the police part comes in. Police began to call the piece used in the commission of a crime, a hot rod. They also used the term Gat, which was short for Gatling gun, the first automatic weapon They also called the person using a gun in the commission of a crime, a hot rod. So it was a police terminology, or slang, for a hot gun or hot rod used quickly at the drop of a hat. Now, I always believed this, but it was years later that I found proof. I was watching an old movie made in the early forties, call "the devil hitches a ride", and in that movie a cop involved in a car chase, said over the radio that he was following a suspect and the guy was "packing a hot rod". There was the proof. So this is the most logical explanation that I have ever heard When I heard that cop yell into the police radio, He's carrying a hot rod, i knew that what my old policeman friend had said was true. So that i how I believe the name hotrod came about.
well hot rod magazine used it for thier masthead and it started in 48, and I,m sure it was way before that time,
So, where did that term "coin a phrase" come from?? I'm with CW, steam locos were the first hot rods to go a mile a minute!
AHHH,,know this is the old HAMB i rember,,,, we had the VON DUTCH thread yesterday,,tonight,,the "were did the term HOT ROD come from",,tommorow "WHAT IS TRADITIONAL?" if we are lucky,thursday we will have "what is your DREAM CAR",,then friday will be "HOW did you get started in HOT RODDING?" j/k..thought it had to be said!
Did anyone ever ask Wally Parks (RIP)? It would be interestihg to hear what he has said in the past on that topic.
Hot Rod.......Over reving an underoiled crank. Von Dutch...Over cranking an underoiled rev. Tweaker......On crank and over reving. Traditional....HAMB.
Yeah Bad Bob, it was Hank Williams (Sr.) with that line "I got a hot rod Ford and a two dollar bill, and I know a spot right over the hill....."
NAW,-------All this tech BS about "hot rods" could be slang in those earlier years,-----But what most of us "old timers" remember about that term is right after WWII & guys were coming home after learning many different mechanical skills in all branches of the service, put their knowledge to test by experimenting milling heads, grinding cams, carburation set ups, hotter spark, etc.----So,wanting to test all this new stuff out,(without going to the lakes), they took to the streets, mostly at night to keep a low profile, but word always gets around about who had the "hottest" cars in town,----Now, since I am an Inglewood, Ca. native & this part of So.Cal. was always known to be the "Hot bed" area in racing back then, I remember that the cops were constantly watching for ANY modified looking cars, especially loud ones! Tickets were issued by the hundreds for anything that was questionable---Twin pipes--rear end too low---headlights out of adjustment--no fenders---spotlights that were operable----baby booties hanging from the rear view mirror--etc. Eventually,there were some bad accidents & some loss of life due to these street races, so the lawmen all over the L.A. area teamed up with the media--L.A. Times--Hearld/Examiner--Daily News--Herald Express--etc. to try & squash this new uprising, & that was when they coined the phrase"Hot Rod"---Seems as though every modified car pulled over was known as a "Hot Rod". Of course the media ate it up(sold more papers), TV was just getting started back then (1947), & the newspapers were the primary source of all news. It worked, all the guys started hitting the dry lakes a lot more often from that point!---Not to say that the "hot dogs" stopped all the street racing, they didn't, they were just a lot more cautious about "When & Where".-----AAHH yes, then there was pink slip racing------But, thats another story!!!!---------------Don
Coldwar, I like your railroad termanolgy, were "Balls Out" and "Balls to the wall" carried over from stage coach days? Somewere I have a late 1930's magazine with a Dry Lakes racing article and the cars were refered to as "Hot IRONS"
"Balls Out" refers to the old governors on steam engines. When the balls were all the way out on the rotating shaft, the engine was at it top speed. "Hot Rod" is a corruption of the slang term "Rodney"...what Cool guys in the thirties called their cars. From an OLD Hot Rodney guy (my Dad)...and I'm 65...FWIW
Being an ol guy meself, I agree with the time frame, however, I don,t know that it was used before WW2, from prewar rodder articles it seems that they used different terms.Yeh I remember the papers were writing that stuff, and I recall the Hot Rods runnin around my neighbor hood near Slauson and Vermont In L. A. Must,v been some rodders or shops around there. My Dad used to try an race them in our old 39' Pontiac straight 8 coupe. They usually blew our doors off, but it was exciting to me
The term "hot rod" came about when guys first put modified, or high performance cams in their engines. When they did they referred to the car as having a "hot rod (cam)" in it, later, the car was called that.As everyone knows, in time performance cams was called,and still are, "hot cams." Kind of a flip-flop deal.
I think it all Started back in the Time frame when the First Black Smith was making a Sword & he had it in the Fire & was Red Hot Rod so called a Hot-Rod just my 3 cents
I don't know, but it's way over used. I'm going to start saying "cold sheet" instead. Wait, I think taking a "cold sheet" it what Eskimos do in the bathroom.
In a fighter airplane, where the Propeller control handle, the mixture control handle and the throttle handle were all pushed to the wall , max power; (full increase rpm, full rich, full throttle, forward to the wall.)
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