Hot Rods What is a "real" hotrod?

Bricks, lol..

 

I didn't read the entire thread so I hope I am not repeating. But Don Garlits said..."A hot rod has a flathead up front with a tool box in the trunk, a street rod has a SBC up front with a can of wax in the trunk." I always thought that was funny.

 

Isn't there something about: getting old you learn 1. Never trust a fart! 2. Never pass a toilet!! 3. Don't ever waste an good erection!!!

And that Hot rods vs street rod, was funny!

 

Webster's:
Full Definition of HOT ROD
: an automobile rebuilt or modified for high speed and fast acceleration
Many Different styles and I think there is room for all of them. Build what you like don't be defined by anyone else's expectations. Well except for them Donks, I hate them things!

 

I belong to aV8 S10 forum, a chevy II forum, a Ford FE forum, a falcon forum, and I frequent a gen III small block forum.
On most of those forums upwards of 60% of the active members run their street cars at the track on the weekend, and almost all of them post their time slips. I frequent the gen III forum because I can read posts by guys that run OD automatics on the street AND on the track, and I can read in depth discussions on which converters work well on the street and at the track.
On the S10 forum, the ratio of guys who run their street cars at the track is closer to 75%, and on the lame-ass poser Gen III forum, its more like 90%, probably the highest ratio of the lot.
just sayin'...

 

Truer words from a true hot rodder. Dick M

 

Ha Jim, thanks for starting this thread! So much to choose from! A Tammy Sibley was a classmate out on the hill south of Spokane, UCA was the high school. Yes she was a really NICE lady! She must be your relative? Correct?

 

How is this topic being derailed by hens pecking over PC BS? That comment 'call it WHAT ever you want to,it's YOUR car. Hot Rod? See pix.

 

Don't care if your OT ride runs 9'0's on pump gas. See pix? Hot Rod. Old car web site. Comprehend the intent of the criteria.

 

I think that is the coolest truck ever!

 

Battling for first with HRP,s that he sold recently. [emoji41]

And @Dennis Lacy got a good one in the making!

 

Just to keep this tread alive. To me, and I underscore, To me, a genuine hot rod is a 34 and down, buildt as they did back in the 30s-40s- 50s, no fenders, a souped up engine. AND a manual trans.
And then you can ask "How about a 1940 Willys Gasser with Hemi" "how about a mean 32 with fenders" Yes. very nice, but I guess Im just a square head he he.
Aaaand if Im picky, it should be a roadster body..or at least a coupe, so per definition, my Tudor is not a hot rod. Then comes the question, if my Flathead powered, fenderless Tudor is not a hot rod, what is it then???? Ö0Ö

 

LOL the tudor is a car.Duh'Oh

Its funny we as a whole have a need to pigeon hole things. We really don't have a problem deciding what is a hot rod, souped up, '30s, fenderless, although some prefer to leave the fenders on their fenderless cars. So where does that leave the rest of the cars that are souped up like say a '57 Ford with a 430 MEL or name one?

 

This is the perfect hot rod in my book

 

YUP!

 

1934 and down, fenderless, larger engine than stock and more concern about how it runs than how it looks...

 

Up until the early 60's, IIRC there was really only three definitions for modified cars; hot rod, custom, and race car. You possibly could make a case for a fourth type (show car) but those were usually just a ultra-nice version of one of the three basic types. But the lines were always blurry between them, and in the 50's cars like the Fordillac and Studillac weren't called 'street machines', they were hot rods. To me, 'hot rod' is much more a verb than a noun.

And demanding that a 'Hot Rod' can only be fenderless does a disservice to those cars built 'back in the day' when fender laws were being enforced or to a lot of our 'down-under' brothers who are still required to run fenders. The current practice of narrowly defining what's what smacks of attempts to elevate one segment over another, which does nothing for inclusiveness.

As was stated early in this thread, I can't define what a hot rod is, but I know one when I see it.... LOL.

 

How about this:



I've learned that putting a 32 grill on a rod, makes it a hot rod. But what is the general consensus about running a older grill then the rest of the car?
I like the pictures I posted
But I've been wondering what other hambers think.

And regarding fenders, I like them, but I have the same love for stock fenders that tucks the tires, as I do for fenderless or bike fenders.
And since I live in a "enforced fender country ", I got a special place in my hard for cars running bike fenders and neef bars.

 

As much as I know about and have been exposed to since a toddler, I have to say a hot rod is anything modded for more (fill in the blank) with the exception to style. To stylize you do things custom. I think any drag car could be called a hot rod. The whole gig started on the dry lakes and moved to strips a wee bit later and reduced to 2 furlongs as a standard distance (1/4 mi).

I read somewhere long ago that the term hot rod was a colloquialism derived from hot roadster because roadsters were the preferred body for speed. Someone may have said that already and I didn't read every reply. Soon enough they all became hot rods. This "...34 and older..." thing leaves out too much good stuff. I guess a hopped up 40 Willys isn't a hot rod in that case, yet it's the quintessential gasser/drag car, and drag cars are and always will be HOT RODs, no? My 72 Camaro bracket racer was as hot rod as it got for a whole car being used (no tube chassis). I don't think the term should be boxed into a single era. We're here because we have a fondness for the era spoken by most in the topics, but we are not now nor ever will be the whole. I might tend to leave tuners out in my game but even those...?

 

I like the grille the came with, unless it's a custom...

 

Consider this a good example of a hot rod. Simple open-wheeled, flathead and nominal chrome. Enjoy, Dick M

 

This. I from a guy who doesn't like RPU as much, but loves this one:

I like this one too:

 

Had a conversation with a fellow HAMB'r who had a different opinion that has stuck with me.
He thought hot rodding was taking a old vehicle or even a new car and adding modern products to make it go faster.
Take a Model A,drop in a flathead,add speed equipment and make the car go faster.
That is what the early hot rodders did and the formula worked for any 20's-30's cars and trucks.
Hot Rodders moved on from the flathead when the OHV was a proven more horsepower vs cost option.
Hot Rodding in the 50's was taking,lets say a '55 Chevy and dropping in a new fuel injected 283 and making the car go faster. He went on to say that the tuner guys were doing more "hot rodding" than what goes on here.
He stated that most cars on here were "recreations"...trying to look like cars that were built 50-70 years ago.
A copy of a style.
This is a traditional hot rod forum but to the OP's question,for THIS forum a hot rod is what most have stated.A coupe or roadster with flattie power and 3 pedals.Away from here the definition of a "hot rod" can depend on your point of view.Is a '32 Ford roadster at Bonneville looking to use modern technology to set new records by going faster a hot rod or does that only apply to a '32 Ford roadster trying to go faster using a flathead?
Blasphemy or food for thought?

 

So then the question becomes can a sedan be a hot rod or??? if it isn't a hot rod but it was built to go fast what then is it?

it is just a question.

 

You can believe it Beaner,
A guy back in the late '40's early '50's
who had a wife who wanted to be with him, and a kid or 2
would have kept on hot rodding with a sedan.
Ha wasn't worried if his friends would still accept him
if he didn't have a roadster!
Another thing.... The term "Hot Rodder" early on denoted
some form of rebelious teen age rowdies.
Some of us are still those rowdie delinquents from the '40's and 50's.
We keep the old values, respect the history, and don't really
give a damn what the lable is.
Drive on!

 

Some of the guys just built what they had. A few years ago there was a deuce tudor in the Rodders Journal that was a survivor. it had an old motor for a while then later it got a blown 312 in it. it had belonged to a college kid and then it changed hands for a few decades but remained the same. In my mind it was a hot rod, maybe it wasn't? What is most important is what is in my mind anyway, I have been a legend in there for a long time.

 

Another SWEET Hilton build...!

 

A legend in his own mind..Beaner, are you sure?

 

Parts Dawg, Tony Martino and Porknbeaner all got it right ! I think the definition of Hot Rod probably depends primarily depends on when you first became interested in cars, when you were born, what types of cars your friends and family drove and what types of cars were available when you were young. Available means in part, how much you could spend on a car and what cars were available in that price range. Also, the magazines you read also influenced your choice of a car or cars. I believe all of this is still true but we are kind of "locked into" what we always liked best!
I remember the first car magazine that got me hooked. At about age 11 a college choir came to our small town to put on a concert in one of our local churches. My parents agreed to host several of the choir members for the one night they would be in our community. One of those young men forgot what I will call a "Little Pages" hot rod magazine. I literally fell in love with 28 and 29 Ford roadsters!
It took a number of years but in 1968 my father in law discovered the remains of a '29 A roadster at his uncles farm. It turned out it had some other family connections as well. It took a long time to complete but I still have it and it will stay in the family.
Just so you know, it is a full fendered roadster with a minimal interior, flat black paint (before it became popular again), a warmed up 289 with OMG, a C-4 tranny, and a Mustang II 8 inch rearend.
Remember, this stuff I already had and made use of, just like hotrodders of 40, 50, 60 or more years ago did. Oh, and before the 289, there was a 265 Chevy, a 1939 Ford tranny and a 1941 Ford rearend and shortened torque tube assembly in the car.

Back in the 60's I also had a 37 Lincoln Zephyr coupe. It had a first generation flathead v8 when I got it, changed that to a second gen flathead and later to a hopped up 265 Chevy and 39 tranny, the same stuff that later ended up in the A. The 37 looked like a gasser at first but later I lowered the front using a 42 to 48 ford front end and added Early Volkswagon tai lights. So was it then a Custom or a Hot Rod?

Call them what you want, to me they were and are, HOT RODS!!