I'd just like to point out that all of those cars, while chopped and channeled still have 3-4" of ground clearance. I think the cars that stir the pot today have a 1/2" of clearance with the tires taller than the deck lid. I remember the days when a pack of Lucky's (standing) was the benchmark of really being low. It would be hard to roll a Lucky Strike under some of the cartoon cars. Others drool over them. I think they look stupid and useless. To each his own.
I"d go buy a pack of Lucky's and roll that strike under this one any day. Sometimes they hit the mark on flow and lines.
Hot rodding has always been about pushing the envelope and experementing/improvizing. That is Traditional Rodding... They wouldn't have said "this is a hot rod and that isn't" the would have looked at all cars that were modified for performance as "Hot Rods." There was no FORMULA! Nothing irritates me more than a bunch of Monday Morning Hot Rodders talking about how they WOULDN'T HAVE done it back in the day. They would have done whatever it takes to make the car faster/more aggresive. Lower was faster so lower was better. They would have made it as low as they dared for the roads they drove. There would have done whatever they could to make it as safe as possible. Some didn't know how to do it right and didn't let that stop them but if they did something really stupid the other rodders would have lifted them by their underware wasteband (to paraphrase The Gooch) and told them how it should be and probably helped them make it right. Today's rat-rods are an anomoly that wouldn't have been appreciated then. Channeling a car 12 inches and leaving the floor out would have been ridiculed then. Probably quite agrily. Those cars might not be as safe as they could be, but I garuntee you the owners did whatever they could to try and make them safe. That's the difference between "Rat Rod/Death Rod" and Hot Rod... The owner of a Hot Rod TRIES to make his car as safe as possible.
Some people built Model T's that looked like these. Does that mean it should be a Newstalgia "TRAD" trend for all Model T's today? Gawd, I hope not!
Kilroy....well said,...my point was, that they DID build radically chopped and channeled cars back then, that's all,
I wasn't directing my ire at you G***y.. It's pointed at those that would use cars like that as a justification for building a POS "Rat Rod" and consider driving such a turd a badge of greaser honor.
Haha, no problem, I knew what you meant buddy. 1960: Chopped 5", channeled 7", front and rear each Z'd 5",...AND FINISHED!
the only thing i dont like about the new trend is the fact that there left dirty,and rusty!! i mean it would only take afew hours to d/a the car down and prime it, and CLEAN the friggin tires... instead of purposely makin it look like a ****box
[ QUOTE ] the only thing i dont like about the new trend is the fact that there left dirty,and rusty!! i mean it would only take afew hours to d/a the car down and prime it, and CLEAN the friggin tires... instead of purposely makin it look like a ****box [/ QUOTE ] i've wanted to say that for soo long. Thank you.
Don't wanna debate, but please, please don't refer to the Williams 5W coupe as a "death rod"! That is my all-time favorite '32 coupe, period. John LaBelle's restoration is simply awesome, too.
How are the hood sides handled on that car? What I mean is...frame rail is obviously peeking out from under the sides in front of the tire but at some point before the firewall it has to transition to disappear behind the side. Can't make it out in the profile shot.
I dont know Grimlok, I have never seen the car in person, but I have lusted after it since I was a teenager... I saw it the first time in a English magazine, as a drawing a artist had done.
I think most of the early street rod trends started on race cars. Chopping, channeling and lowering was done to salt flat cars to make them more sleek as a purpose. Then in the later 50s the drag influence came. By the mid to late 60s every high school kid was jacking up his car because it was cool and maybe didn't even really realize it was an influence from the drag strip. Fast foreward to the present and it is still being done. The kids driving slammed, winged ricers mostly do it because everyone else is but the concepts came from race cars.
bad *** pics... cant wait to get my 31 death rod on the road... doin a 100 mph, 3 inches from the ground!
My take on this: In the day things were changed for a purpose. ie. channeling and chopping to lower wind resistance. And I'm sure they put floors in them because it had a damn floor before it was cut out! Today that look has been taken to fashion statement level. Many cars being built to actually out preform in the "Look" department. BEing cool is more important than actually going faster on the salt or the drag strip. And as far as the street vs strip debate, I will add that was the real birth of street rodding as we now know it. IT's do***ented many times in different publications. That the Rods in the mid to late sixties fellout of favor on the strip and guys turned them into strickly street cars. Well the rest is history and probably a whole new topic. You make a good point here Randy. Cars were certianly built low, chopped, and finished in primer, back in the day, the old pics don't lie.
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