Do We See Wheelie Bars On Hot Rods These Days?

Hardly ever almost never.

 

Just my opine, but I'm not so sure they aren't more "street rods" than hot rods.

Roger

 

I don't recall many wheelie bars on traditional themed cars. I have seen them on a lot of 80s street rods and race car themed rods.

 

1. trip hazard
2. the number of cars that can wheelie on the street, not a prepped track is pretty low
3. serious enough car will have serious suspension, you have to be putting out Very Serious HP to require them
4. most stuff on the street (hot rod, not drag car) that had them were rocking fake injector scoops and other gimmicks. Those have fallen out of fashion.

Note on 'hot rod'. It may be called the National Hot Rod ***ociation, but a hot rod in my mind is street driven. It may go to the track, but track only cars are drag cars, not hot rods.

 

Potato in the pants syndrome, for the most part.

 

If the car is serious enough to need them then why not, to think a car that needs them isn't a hot rod but rather a street rod is pretty ludicrous.

 

Honest Answers From Those With Experience....Not All Posts Are Well Received...... Thanks...

 

To complete the look a parachute is also a must have for a street car.

 

See quite a few on big engine T Buckets, I would say more for show than actually needed.

 

When I bought my dune buggy it had a wing on the back, fat tires and yes, wheelie bars. @Pist-n-Broke told me if those wheelie bars were still on it next time he saw it, he’d remove em. They brought $150 at the swap meet that year.

On the right car? I have no complaint. But if you can’t drag em, **** em.

 

Wheelie bars came around Mid 60s ,
As racers under stood how suspension works physics of, Not as common But still a Tool , depends on how you set your car up. Not all set up are for 2-4 foot wheels is the Air !
In my area many cars with hight Torque
The launch of 5k plus Converters, side step of clutch on street / Strip ,
So many only know what was seen in mags , Not what was happing in UnderGround of Racing All across USA,
After 11pm in to wee Hours of Am ,
One time in early 90s , 2 Pro stocks
Sitting on Street 1 IHRA mountain Motor NC ,Other NHRA VA legal 500 cid , both Lencos.
This Still Happen to this Day

 

some street cars go racing, but there are a lot more newer cars that can pull the wheels, than there are old hot rods that can. And most of them don't need bars, you have to be in the mid 8s or quicker to really need them.

Wheelie bars on slow street cars is a fad that's thankfully over.

 

Another use! Saw a T Bucket driving down street at a multi day car show with two folding chairs bungee corded to the wheelie bars.

 

Wheelie bars, parachutes, and even roll cages all fall into the same category to me. If you NEED them, run them. If you just want them, it's a pretend racer, not a real race car. The desire to appear fast led the import world to being called ricers. The acronym RICE (race inspired cosmetic equipment) still causes bad thoughts for many. Fake wings, ground effects, wheelie bars, parachutes, and all the pretend to be a race car stuff is annoying. Way back when, we used to intentionally try to not have things showing that made the car look like it raced. I set out to not have any of that stuff on my hot rod project. Didn't mean I didn't want to take it to the track, it meant I didn't want people to in any way think that I was pretending to drive a race car. I have had to replan the car to accommodate some of the racing safety devices I was originally trying to avoid. If your car isn't at risk of lifting and carrying the front tires, why would you put wheelie bars on it? And the same holds true of all of the RICE bolt-Ons people stick on their cars. If it's cosmetic only (read that as no way you need it), what is the point of having it on there?

 

There are plenty of S/SS cars running in the 10’s without them and some are getting 3 feet or more air. I don’t think there even legal in stock eliminator.

 

Don't need a wing either, but damn, you can't argue with the way it looks!

 

Yeah this guy obviously doesn't need them

https://www.tbucketplans.com/frank-and-linda-mazis-10-second-street-driven-t-bucket/

 

Or this guy with a street legal 8 second bucket

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/wheelie-pics-anybody.509919/

.

 

What's Slow ?
& what Era ?
My self young punk teen kid in 91
3,400 ish pound car , L60s BFG
Mid 10s ,DD under 408 cid ,
On pump gas 6,300 1&2 gear with 3:55 gear , never experiment with a 3:20 ish or 3:00
No traction ,I could make it Smoke ,
Or just Haze /black trac tires out past 400 foot ,
6:40s @ 107 No cage nor shoot 35 years ago
Looking back that was Fast then ,& still now, with those parts & combo ,
In conversations we have had your
Pase II combo with 427 parts hard to beat SB or BB , they are good working combos for a Chevy ,
My 91 combo was like your 427 combo
20 cid smaller in Sb No slick ,taller gear & little heaver , mods on rear leaf spring Dee arched , drag shock on front stock 12 bolt ,
Then 10 years later over 200 in a ride I had No business strapping in ,
I say this because going from
6 sec 1/8 to 6 in 1/4 is Big Jump ,
Young then Did & Do just for Thrill ,
Just seen Fastest Speed set in Street Legal @ NHRA in 5:70s 1/4 , faster then
Pro Mod Record .
Technology !

 

LOL I built wheelie bars for my old '40/37 Ford pickup, 302/C6...never needed them.
Only took it to the track twice...too short of a wheelbase, too squirrely, wouldn't hook up...managed to scare the **** outta me though.

 

Like you mentioned,
Most all the Hard Core S Rer try to make look like a Sleeper G G

 

Yes ,
Short W B can put White in the face
Until you learn the characteristics of.
When ever I drive or experiment with a new combo , I go to a big wide paved area & test to see how it will react .

 

Yes siree, When I first built it (before I chopped it) I planned on a dual purpose street/track build...ended up that "single purpose" was much better for my underwear. LOL.

 

My wheelie bar story -
The first roadster I built (Car Craft Magazine project car) had wheelie bars on a '55 Chevy 10-bolt rear axle. I twisted the axle housing on the drag strip, so I replaced the rear end with a stronger 12-bolt. But I did not have enough time to make new wheelie bars for the 12-bolt before my next race so I raced without them.
As luck would have it I made it to the finals that weekend. Ahead of me in staging was the Funny Car finals and they rolled 'em out and the crew sprinkles powdered rosin on the starting line.
It was a perfect storm of What-Could-Go-Wrong?
Tree came down.
I dumped the clutch.
And stood the car straight up in the air! So high it started to tip over sideways! I did a rookie mistake and lifted, which slammed the car back down off the track and bent the front axle.

Full disclosure: I do use a parachute pack on my hot rod Willys even tho it would not run fast enough to use a 'chute even if you pushed it down a mineshaft. But a Willys just needs a 'chute.
And a weight bar.
RICEy? Yup.

 

Built 454 BBC in an Anglia ! Wheelie bars came on the car when he bought it.
He took those "tacky things" off as soon as he got home.
As soon as he 'got-into-it at a stop sign'..........he went home and put them back on !
6sally6

 

I have never seen wheelie bars on a Hot Rod, I have seen them on Pro-Street cars, or Street rods/Tech-No Rods.

 

Oh goody. My Attic Anglia build will be the first.

 

With my Henry J revamp to a higher sitting straight axle and more power I added wheelie bars just to be safe.
It did a decent job of pulling the wheels every p*** with the stock front suspension and old small block, better safe than sorry.