What's the future of rodding?

Has anyone seen the latest HOT ROD mag? It has a '57 chevy running a LS1 with 8 turbos! Putting out a whopping 730 hp and 710 lb-ft. What a waste. Don't get me wrong the engining is incredible. It's just useless. Let's not forget about the 18 inch blinb bling version of the cl***ic torq-thrust.

I hope this isn't the future of hot rodding. This thing is about as useful as the pro-street pontiac J2000 hatchback some guy built in the 80's with turbo and a blower. Maybe we could bring back my favorite prostreet mod the cl***ic hollowed out 8-71 with a holley 650 in the middle and the fake pair of 750 double pumpers on top.

 

Mutt,
I understand what you got in the above reply. But wouldn't you agree that there are still evolutionary elements going on in "traditional" rods today? Look at the things we learn from salt racing, guys with MSD ignitions instead of points, paint techniques, TIG, etc.

I'm in no way trying to get the menbers of this traditional rod forum pissed at me, I'm just asking an open question. One day 60s camaros might be "traditional". I guess the word "traditional" will itself change, so who knows what it will turn into. In the meantime, I do honestly appreciate these older rods.

I just wonder what the rods of the future will evolve into. For now, however, unless you're making more cash than I am, you're not able to afford that $30,000 dollar 3-window deuce for sale with the '47 flathead in it. Hopefully it will return to resourcefulness and affordability, not a set of parts that is commonly accepted.

 

LP powered rod

A traditional Ford body will always be a hot-rod.

My Model A is 75 years old and I'm sure it will live another 75 years because it's a piece of history. History doesn't change.

However, the way hot-rods are powered sure as hell will. I can guaranty traditional rods will soon start popping up with hybrid engines or alternative fuels.

A hopped up Honda civic is never going to be a hot-rod...ever.

But It wouldn't surprise me to see high tech 4 poppers finding their way into traditional rods very soon.


Taurus SHO powered AC cobra pictured above. 3.0litre V6 putting out 220 hp.

 

I grew up in upstate NY. It's an area w/ lots of hills, twisty roads, and few police officers.

The whole idea of a rod w/ really good rubber (16 or 17 inch Z-rated stuff), really good suspension, seats w/ great bolsters, and a high-reving motor always seemed like the perfect car to me. Something you could really carve corners with.

I love going fast in a straight line, but in terms of the fun factor, it doesn't hold a candle to a four wheel drift through a tight corner.

A Z-Tec in a T Roadster w/ hood and some 16 or 17 inch AR salt flats sounds like one hell of a lot of fun.

 

This is actually much more difficult to do than one would think (at least at home). I can pull 180 proof w/ my still, but getting that extra 20 proof is very, very difficult to do.

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Seriously, there will one day come a time when refineries will not be producing enough gasoline to stay open. Nothing lasts forever. I suppose it's anyone's guess as to when that time may come.

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I say we build Alcohol Cars fire up the still and forget about gas use GOOD corn liquor and if ya break down siphon the tank and forget about it!

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I agree that the term "traditional" will/is evolve(ing). AT one time it was traditional to use a horse and buggy. A 2 horsepower buggy was a display of wealth, power and speed. A hotrod of the time. Move on to the 50's and dropped axles, flattys and fenderless rides. Traditional right? That flavor has carried on but each decade since has added something which is now "traditional". Like it or not some things which now aren't considered so will be if for no other reason than numbers. Any practice that is repeated often enough becomes traditional. That said Corvair boxes, MII and Camaro subframes will be traditional. The 350/350 combo will be traditional. (This next statement is most distasteful to the author) Billet will be traditional. I wouldn't be surprised if one day GPS navigation became traditional.

 

180 will burn and quite nicely.start buying Everclear by the 55gal. drum.......lol

[ QUOTE ]
This is actually much more difficult to do than one would think (at least at home). I can pull 180 proof w/ my still, but getting that extra 20 proof is very, very difficult to do.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Seriously, there will one day come a time when refineries will not be producing enough gasoline to stay open. Nothing lasts forever. I suppose it's anyone's guess as to when that time may come.

[/ QUOTE ]
I say we build Alcohol Cars fire up the still and forget about gas use GOOD corn liquor and if ya break down siphon the tank and forget about it!

[/ QUOTE ]

[/ QUOTE ]

 

Yes, techniques and parts will continue to evolve. But i think traditional hot-rods will stay the same..your hot-rod should use the essential elements to run the car..
body, frame, front end ***embly, rear-end, tires, wheels, brakes, and an engine and ******. Theres no need for a gps system, or high tech four bangers...theres plenty of vintage engines out there that no one has experimented with..for example..a kaiser vigilante motor...that willys and kaiser built in the 60's..its a 327 that puts out 250 horsepower and im sure with a little twaeking, you could that motor well above 300 horsepower...i havent seen any of those in a rod before..its up to the true rodders to use the parts that have been proven to work for the past 70 years...

 

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New cars have affordability going for them, in and odd way. A young person with fairly low income and no savings can easily buy a 20 or 30 thousand dollar new car, because if he has a job and an address he can get one with very little up front and endless credit pushed by every car dealer. He cannot possibly come up with 10 or 20 thou in actual real money to buy a nice old Ford and do some rodding, and of course building a trad rod is a SEPARATE expense from actual transportation, whereas his credit fueled Honda can actually get him to work while he hops it.
Traditional cheap rodding for the young requires available cars that run, roles filled in different parts of the past by Model A's, '55 Chevies, '69 Camaros, and now by Hondas. It takes extra money and lots of commitment to build a long-term project that won't be able to take you to work for 10 years, and that's just plain hard to get into if you're young and poor.
Real low dollar rods have always been drivers from the local dealer or used car lot.


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I just had to jump in here. I am 23. Close to Broke. College/work. If I want to buy a car to work on that is "cheap" for me that I can still "rod" around in to and fro school and work... I am looking for 80's camaros and mustangs from a private owner who wants to help a "poor college kid." Maybe throw some pointiac in there.

However, I like nostalgia and what I consider "vintage" and most younger people consider cool old stuff (search cool t-shirts for sale on ebay for proof) starts in the early 60's on into early 70's. Ever heard of "That Seventies Show" - with that Ashton Kutcher... whatever the hell that guy's name is. The guy sleeping with Demi Moore? That garbage dominates MTV; which if you all have been living under a rock dominates most every teen's life through highschool. That and reality TV shows... BLAH!

The point to all that is that Honda's are not filling a role like their predecessors, they are filling the "I have to be cool like that movie with the ****s hanging all over the guy with the honda in it." It's not about speed, it's about trickyness now. Clear tailights add more horsepower, didn't you know? So do those muffler tips that sound like a homelight WAL-MART weedeater on crack.


Sooo, the answer is that rodding will remain for older cars. The new hot rods are called ricers or steet racers. basically anything that is older and remains carburated and cool in some way could be called a cl***ic "hot rod" - if it's a older car with TPI or something, it is just a modern hot rod... at least that is how many people I talk to view it. Those young people who are know-it-all's.

Don't even get me started on credit. I got a letter to cash out my home equity the other day and I have no house! I have umpteen credit cards mailed to me every month. That is why our economy ****s ***... the credit card companies preying on the young that have no clue what is up.

 

Good for You! My thoughts--and I went through all the same years ago.
Buy a small chunk of tradition you can afford--a Model A frame would be a good choice, even a really nice one is cheap. You can even hide it under your bed in a rented apartment...
Straighten, clean, paint--very little money here. When done, start scouting cheap axles...they're out there. Cleanemup, paint the chunks, rebuild as you find bits. Hide them in the closet until you get a real place. Keep doing this stuff--you will soon have stashed away the bits of a roller for very little money, and if you've kept s****ing and rattlecanning instead of watching TV, what you have will be ready to ***emble. Your spare change and time can make a major first step, preparing you for when you have a garage and a few more bucks and can start hunting a body...
The middle aged runners--I had what automotive fun I could flogging the elderly Novas we drove when young, poor, and with children--good. They absorbed resources that could've gone to stashing more early Ford bits on my pitiful car budget--bad. Would I have been better off driving unroddable import junk? Maybe. But at least I learned a lot about extracting more and keeping cars with 330,000 miles moving and ahead of the emissions inspection...

 

Let's just boil this down to its essence. A Hot Rod needs the following:

-Frame
-Motor/Trans.
-Axles, wheels/tires
-Etc.

I think the Hot Rods we know and love (traditional) are going to head in a very kit-oriented direction. You'll be able to buy repop. everything to build your A...but it will be incredibly expensive. This, in turn, will spur the "new" Hot Rod. The "new" Hot Rod could be taking a V-8 unibody car, removing all sheetmetal and the p***enger's compartment, and fabbing some ******* tub. that goes in place of the p***enger's compartment.

The possibilites are endless.

All that **** above said, this is why I love choppers and bobbers. If it doesn't make it go or stop, you don't need it.