Hot Rods For Debate: When Did Hotrodding Take Root?

When did Henry Ford get his first land speed record?

 

To paraphrase my post of almost a year ago, in a nutshell: it doesn't matter what it looks like, how it walks, or whether or not it quacks; if it didn't hatch out of a duck egg, it ain't a duck.

 

Count Zobrowski used a war surplus Maybach Zeppelin engine of 23 yes 23 liters. That is, 1414 cubic inches. He put it in the ch***is of a 1907 60HP Mercedes, the best car ch***is he could find for the purpose. This was one of the most powerful prewar cars with chain drive rear axle heavy duty transmission and ch***is.

He named it "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". There was a real Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in fact there were 3 of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitty_Bang_Bang

 

has any one Cloned that car yet?

 

All good POVs there, guys. When we get past that recurring question of the derivation of the term hot rod to the matter of increasing hp (especially on a low budget, pre-WWII), we always go back to the beginning: Where/when did rodding take root, before it had an official name?

E.g., about 1901, once Ford could get his first vehicle to go faster than 6 mph, he soon challenged Alex Winton to a race -- and won. (I heard, though, that Henry soaked his solid-rubber tires, poured some 100-proof in his tank AND had a wing that was a half-inch wider than spec! )

 

Seriously, though, we have shown that hopping up stock models goes back to the second car invented, and the term "hot rod" may well have been used (at least loosely) in far-flung locations as early as the '30s. BUT, if HOT RODDING had early roots ...

The hobby/sport got real TRACTION when Norm Grabowski came on the scene, employing his creativity publicly on the first well-recognized occasion. Folks, "Normie" p***ed away on Friday, and I thought it appropriate to mark his demise. He was, to many, the father of rodding -- given that he created the oroginal "Kookie Kar" T-bucket roadster, featured on TV in the series, "77 Sunset Strip."

Well, he surely helped galvanize the image of just WHAT was a hotrod in the minds of 1950s parents, educators, pastors AND cops! GOD BLESS Norm "Woo-Woo" Grabowski!

Bye for now, bro. We'll see you again, of course. But we'll never forget you.

 

I have enjoyed this thread. Lots of great ideas and information here. I agree that toward the end of WWII the term hotrod and hotrodding as we know it evolved. Yes, from those first rodders who invented the wheel up till the present time racing and modifying vehicles to go faster has existed.
The real questions are how are we gonna get the younger generation into our hobby and keep it going in the future? I was lucky enough to be here near the beginning of the real hotrod period, watching the many changes, also watching race tracks, shops, and our freedoms disappear along the way.

Will there be hotrodders tomorrow? Will they be able to buy fuel for those old engines and drive on America's highways? Us old farts need to do our part in keeping the hotrods and hotrodders of this world rolling.
Adding just a bit to the above comment, this world needs a lot more Norm Grabowski's!

 

As I've had occasion to mention many times before, the boundaries between development and manufacture; between maintenance, development, and modification; between "factory" and "modified"; were historically rather vague. In light of that it might make better sense to consider that hot rodding took root when (and as) a division of realms between the factory and the customer developed.

This did not happen all at once. It was both a gradual process in time and something that affected different parts of the motor industry at different rates. Ford had an early positive agenda more sharply to separate his role from that of his customers. The aim was ever to consign the customer to the most p***ive role possible. Citroën were doing much the same thing in France at the time, but whereas Ford had enough market share effectively to define the subsequent shape of the US motor industry, Citroën had a much smaller position (and much more precarious financial situation). Morris was another would-be imitator of Ford who did not really have the means to push their agenda quite as far as Ford could in the USA. For that reason the small, customer-participant company lingered much longer in Europe than in the USA.

Therefore we might say that hot rodding first occurred when there was first reason to oppose one's delegation to a p***ive role by interacting with the product in ways that are in essence subversive to the manufacturer's agenda. In the USA this would suggest c.1935-40; though for various reasons this would experience a sudden jump after WWII.

 

Well said, Dawie. I always appreciate your informed, ****ytical approach.

I might add that, given what we know about extra-factory hop-up efforts between the two wars, it would seem (to me, anyway) that some huge post-WWII factors helping to spawn the explosion in 'rodding may have including the tight money of the depression being in the past, jobs and disposable income being more readily available, plus technology and leisure time in this era.