Gang, I was wondering if anyone had ever tried to put together a family tree of American hot rod / racing styles, going back to day one? Please correct me ifn I'm wrong, but I've always assumed the first racers, like Henry's 999 and the speedsters of the turn of the century, are at the roots of it all. That some rich dude with the first car in the county would eventually have to strip it down and race it against another rich dude in the next county to see who had the best car around. Mechanized horse racing. But from there..? When did the basic speedster start mutating into either a board racer, short track dirt racer, a road racer, an Indy car, a land speed racer, hot rod, drag car, show car, frat boy run-about or el-cheapo beater? Why is it hard to tell a double-duty traditional roadster driven on the street and occassionally at the drags or salt flats from a sports car? How do you tell a lakes modified from an oval modified? Do all modifieds need to be bed or deck-less? No bed or just a shorter version of the stock part? Is anything (roadster, cut-down coupe, or pickup) with a clipped rear (exposed diff and perhaps a gas tank) a modified? But why is a close cab pickup built the same way called a bobber and not a modified coupe? And speaking of modified coupes, were they drag cars or oval racers? Does a fad T with a long bed become a RPU? Ok, I'm getting silly here... What years did these various forms an functions evolve? Are there particular vehicles that establish well defined categories? Too big a task? Are the overlaps in form and function just too numerous to classify well? The cross-breeding in form and function just too pervasive classify well? Just wondering, Gary PS So... what is this little scoot? I see some salt, a bobber, a hot rod, some drag car.... and I appologize in advance for not knowing the builder of this neat little truck... Gary
Here's some cool stuff. I also have a link to Vandebilt III history and speed trial racing on Osmond Beach and Daytona Beach in 1904. This link contains actual photos of street race courses on the streets of Long Island dating back to 1907. You might even call them the first street rodders. LOL. I'm not up to cropping, cutting, pasting, hosting and posting each one at the moment. Enjoy. http://www.longislandgenealogy.com/stockcar.html
As far as my family, My gramps and great uncle both had stripped T chassis that they would use to hunt rabbits. A similar rig is described in "In Cold Blood" one of the Clutter boys had a modified T for hunting. My dad came of age in the late 50's, me in the dark ages of the 70's etc. I think it may have been different all over, with racing and bootlegging and stuff. And it all just mashed together later, everybody has a different story.
I think one of these posters, modified with hot rods on it instead of animals would be pretty cool. "The Evolution of Hot Rodding" would go straight up on my wall. ~Jason
There ya go! Perhaps even below the lowest forms / first autos would be the first internal combustion engines? The wheel? Gears? Fuels? Lubricants (non-Trojan kind) or rubber? LOL Gary
Yeah - something like an evolution poster could be taken a lot of directions - from wheels and oil cans climbing out of the primordial ooze, to Model Ts, to flamed '40s, to Firebird Funny cars... you could start and end wherever you wanted on the chart, and only show what you wanted. A guy could make a million bucks off suck a design... Hell, a poster like that, but with Ed Roth characters could be pretty cool, too. Maybe some artist will hop on and make us one! ~Jason
The Jalopy Journal
