What's the difference between a Street Rod and a HotRod?

So, what makes a "Street Rod" a Street Rod?

What makes a "Hot Rod" a HotRod?

Is it Fuel Injected engines?

Is it Air Conditioning?

Is it over-drive trannys?

Is it steelies vs billet?

Is it paint vs "flatend-paint" vs rust?

Is it traditional?

What is traditional?

Was HotRodding born by putting newer, more powerful engines
in older cars?

There are no rules, right ?

 

Attitude!!!!
Clark

 

Bad Ass Attitude...

 

Street Rods have a license plate and registration, because they're driven on the street. Hotrods don't necessarily have to.

 

Semantics...

I prefer rat rawd

Neal

 

A hot rod gets floored.A street rod doesn't.

floored=the accelerator pushed all the way to the floor.

 

Hot Rods are strictly about performance.
Horse power,and power to weight ratio,are more important than sound insolation,AC,and a smooth ride.

Street Rods place a higher premium on passenger comfort,style,fit and finish,and driveability.

Of course,there are plenty of cars that cross over between both camps,
so it's not an absolute definition.

 

Somebody on here said some months (years?) ago that a Hot Rod has a tool box in the trunk - a Street Rod has a can of wax in the trunk.

 

A HOT ROD is built for Race , ... A Street Rod is made for Cruzin`.. , Soo , If I`m right, I guess that makes my flathead roadster a Street Rod
( I prefeer to call it a traditional "Street Roadster" . Sounds a bit cooler , doesnt it .. )

 

A hot rodder washes his hands BEFORE he pees...

A street rodder washes his hands AFTER he pees...



.....and I don't know what the hell I am, cause I have 3 fingers burnt to a crisp and taped up with guaze and bandages.

I've had to learn to wipe with my left hand for the last 2 days..

 

[ QUOTE ]
A hot rodder washes his hands BEFORE he pees...

A street rodder washes his hands AFTER he pees...



.....and I don't know what the hell I am, cause I have 3 fingers burnt to a crisp and taped up with guaze and bandages.

I've had to learn to wipe with my left hand for the last 2 days..



[/ QUOTE ]
that is great Von Tingler...I love that

 

haven't we beat this subject to death yet? maybe we should talk about rat rods rat rods rat rods some more,so when the moron contingent types "RAT ROD" into his GOOGLE search the H.A.M.B. will be the first thing that comes up

 

By Samiyamacarbuildinman...

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Oooooo, here we go....


The argument Street Rod vs. Hot Rod is a long debated issue that is usually avoided by most rodders on the net due to the "can't we all get along" syndrome that plagues our ranks. I shouldn't use the word "plagues" that's a little harsh, insert: prevents us from having a good debate/ discussion.


Anyway, most of us know one when we see one, and in a sea of 12,000 they stand out like a diamond in a goats ass. They are well known by most, driven by few and down right challenging to build. What we're talking about here skippy is the great American legend known as the HOT ROD.


Hot Rods were born long before the term "hot rod" came about and decades before it was o.k. to use the term around your mother. In short, Hot Rods were birthed out of some greasy haired youngsters' need for speed.


HOT ROD Magazine would define a Hot Rod as "any production vehicle modified for improved performance" or something like that. So installing a K&N air filter in my Chevy truck makes it a Hot Rod? No. (As a side note guys, beware of people who self appoint names to themselves.) A Hot Rod is much more complicated than that. Hot Rods are created not bought. Take Bruce Meyer for instance. That guy owns more famous Hot Rods than anyone on the planet but not one (of the famous cars that is) is know as "the Bruce Meyer '32" or '34 or whatever. Even Pete Chapouris who lays claim to restoring these beuties can't even call one of them his own. The cars are known as "the Doane Spencer highboy" or "the Pierson Brothers Coupe" and the list goes on and on.


Hot Rods have an attitude that reeks of speed, but they don't neccisarily have to be fast by todays standards. Hell, one of my favorite Hot Rods is a buddies' 'banger powered A-bone that was built in the late 40' by his dad. This little car, with its CRAGAR powered Model B motor couldn't keep up with 90% of todays Japanese built four fryers. However, when it was built it was state of the art go fast and wasted many a flathead powered gow job at Kingdon Drag Strip in Lodi, CA. My point is that Hot Rods are more than a bunch of parts thrown together to build a car, Hot Rods have to have those parts carefully assembled to give the car attitude. To define attitude one has to have a little bit of knowlege about Roddings' rich history. The short story would read "form follows function". The long version would tell the tale of rodders attaining higher speeds with larger than stock tires in the rear, cheating the wind a little better after chopping the top and removing the fenders and maybe even increasing the flatmotors horsepower by adding a carburetor or two.


When we see a Hot Rod and exclaim "NOW THAT'S A HOT ROD!!" we are getting a rare glimpse into our past, a glimpse that reveals many of the styling cues that were born on the drag strips, dry lakes and streets of Southern California.

Styling Cues, now that's a funny term. Actually it's just a way to describe the little things that make ya' go "yea baby, that's a Hot Rod" .


Like those little polished scoops that are painted red inside. I couldn't tell you who invented them nor when they were invented, but I can tell you that six of them perched proudly on a half' dozen Stromberg 97's sends chills down my spine and brings to mind images from the 50's and 60's when sex was safe and Hot Rods were dangerous. Now it's not enought to plop a sextuplet of Strongbergs on your Gibbon's bodied '34, the whole package has to have continuity for the right effect. True, some Hot Rods may have a little blurp that aint copesetic with the rest of the package, but it's usually an exception to the rule. Here are a few Hot Rod axioms:


Hot Rods are driven. But just driving your car doesn't make it a Hot Rod.
Hot Rods are trailered... to the drags...if they run quicker than 12.50's.
Hot Rods are fast, or were fast in the particular point in time which they were built in or trying to replicate.
Hot Rods have attitude that evokes a sense of nostalgia.
Hot Rods are primered.
Hot Rods are painted.
Hot Rods are steel.
Hot Rods can be built from fiberglass.
Hot Rods have more parts built by their owners than they have parts bought out of a magazine.
Hot rods are built with a lot of help from your friends.
Hot Rods are not always welcome.
Hot Rods don't have WWW tires (just kidding, just kidding!!)
Hot Rods are built using wrecking yard parts.
Hot Rods stand out at car shows.
Hot Rods are built from old cars.
Hot Rods have billet aluminum parts... built by their owners.

Now for the good stuff,
Hot Rods and Street Rods- whats' the diff?
On a Hot Rod, the focal point is usually the engine. On a Street Rod, the engine may be detailed to the max, but it's there to be a reliable mode of motivation and nothing else. True, a SBC crate motor has about eight fold of an original Model A four banger's horse power, but it just doesn't have the balls that a home built 283 or 327 has. Sure you can buy those adaptors to screw a set of seven fins on those center bolt heads, and it helps, but it's not the same.


Street Rods encorporate all the creature comforts of a modern passenger car, i.e. A/C, P/W, P/S, PDB and the like. You're considered a high rankin' Oakie in my neighborhood if your Hot Rod has a radio.


Street Rods are meant to get you there in style, Hot Rods are meant to get you there in one piece.


Hot Rods steal that line from Richard Preyor, you know the one, "Uh, huh, we bad, that's right, we bad, don't take nooo shit" Street Rods are more likely to steal a line from Higgins on Magnum P.I. Street Rods got the girls in High School. Hot Rods were more concerned with how they ranked with the locals at the local "dragway".


As far as Street Rod being a dirty word around here, I just think you're among those who are tired of the Street Rod Majority dictating what is cool and what is not. Tired of the percieved snobbish attitudes and the "paint it or plate it" guys and all those f---in' cry baby dolls leaning against billet wheels. If your woman wants to join in the fun have her stitch up a seat cover or something, save the stuffed animals and the cry baby dolls in the craft store will ya'.


I think I speak for a lot of us younger rodders when I say that I really don't feel welcomed around most older rodders. Granted, there are a lot of them that I call my friends and who knew more about me before they knew how old I was. It's the enlightened ones who are willing to talk, and to listen, to the opinions of us younger guys.


Above all, I think the day is coming when the Tree Huggers will try to take all our rods away, both Hot and Street. So we need each other kind of like the ying and the wang... or was that yang?

 

Nothing really, it's just a name assigned by guys who have nothing better to do. I drive a flathead powered '35 Ford pickup, nothing hot about it unless your driving it during the summer. Of course, I do drive it on the street most of the time. Hmmmmmmm, I guess she could be called a hot street rod after all. Na, I prefer just old pickup truck.

 

Wow, now that is saying alot.

 

I always thought it was the like the fiddle and the violin,it all depends on whos playing it.

 

[ QUOTE ]
I think a street rod is a female hot rod..

probbly all warm and squishy inside.

like a vagina

ROTFLMAO
JR

Paul


[/ QUOTE ]

 

[ QUOTE ]
I always thought it was the like the fiddle and the violin,it all depends on whos playing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

That is exactly right.Street rod, hot rod, rat rod, traditional rod- whatever. Just drive the fuckin' thing & let the pussies label it whatever the Hell they want.

My Stude will be powered by a Y block w/ an Offy 3 duece intake, Offy valve covers, etc- pure hot rod. Its gonna have an automatic tranny & A/C- pure street rod. It'll be primered 'til I can afford to paint it right- pure traditional rod. Its gonna have painted steelies & dog dish caps- dare I say it? Pure rat rod....

So what is it to me? Its my damned attempt at building a cool truck for no one else but myself. And that is all that matters to me.

 

At least $30K

 

The difference is only in someone's mind that has time to worry about it.

 

Someone famous in the fuel delivery business told me "A street rod is a neutered hot rod".....FP...correct me if I misquoted you.

 

And in the end..... Saving old car's from the crusher. And finding productive mean's for 'killing time' rather than debate, what is and what should never be.

 

to me,street rod is supposed to be a spin on the term hot rod..when it came around,it was assuming the term hot rod meant a rod that you could only use on the strip,but a STREET rod you could drive on the street..basically like pro-street OR just an old car that you could see on the street and they had no other category to stick on it,so they call it a street rod ,like a 40s or 30s car with no real flavor or style to it,no beefy engine or classy look,but it's still an old car,so it's a nice term for just an old car.now,by this definition,a street rod is a term that really has no meaning because a hot rod presumably couldnt have been driven on the street,which is incorrect because the old hot rodders in the 40s and 50s couldnt afford to build a separate car to drive on the strip and one for the street.their hot rods WERE street rods,so there was really no need for the watered down term,other than just meaning some old car
Creepy

 

oh,and i also forgot to mention that a street rod also has AC,MAYBE fuel injection,billet and all the bolt on parts to make the car "better" but really dont cut it,dont give it any personality and make it look cookie cutter
Creepy

 

i agree with the toolbox vs. can of wax qoute.

 

The quote from Mr. Offenhauser is:

"A STREETROD has a small block chevy in the front and a can of wax in the trunk, a HOTROD has a FLATHEAD in the front and a toolbox in the trunk."

 

[ QUOTE ]
haven't we beat this subject to death yet? maybe we should talk about rat rods rat rods rat rods some more,so when the moron contingent types "RAT ROD" into his GOOGLE search the H.A.M.B. will be the first thing that comes up

[/ QUOTE ]
Thought I'd check, and I'm a moron, but keep it up, we're in second place on google for "rat rod". hahaha

 

If You were blind and deaf and was lead into three different cars and taken for a ride, a street rod, a hot rod and a modern car, i'm sure You would feeeeel into the bones wich one is the the hot rod.
That feeling that makes Your hart pump.

 

Thor has the right idea.

I always thought that if you have to ask, you just don't get it.

 

I keep kicking and kicking, but this horse is STILL dead...