Hot Rods Why do hot rods have louvers on the trunk lids?

Because HOT ROD!
.............in case you couldn't tell.

 

Damn cheese graters!

 

If they look good on the hood, then they look good on the trunk. Then they gotta look good on the roof. Where else can we put them, hhmmm- oh, lets louver the license plates. And the glove box.

 

According to my Mom----- to make little boys like you ask dumb questions.

Ben

 

We have a louvered truck lid on our land speed roadster, and the reason for them was to move air from the trunk out the lid and down to aid in down force, the trunk lid is a big wing and the rear wants to lift when you get over 150 mph.
But, the louvers are now illegal for street roadsters as they are an aero aid,, so we have to have a layer of metal under the louvers to stop the air flow.
But boy do they look hot rod.

 

Always just figured it started at the dry lakes sometime in the 20' or 30's to release "drag" when running, and it looked cool to some so it just naturally migrated to the streets. Pretty sure I right with this.

 

I have them on my dashboard to let all that under dash heat escape.

 

Thank you all ! I'm putting them on my aluminum trunk lid regardless but wanted a reason for doing so, now I have several ! !

"Well, my Italian buddy's said it had to do with letting the smell out of the trunk !"

Speaking of which, I was on my friend's grandfather's second story apartment "porch" overlooking the funeral home driveway when the trunk was popped on one of Whitey Bulger's body dumps. Nothing but black liquid and whole bones and a stench that clung to the little hairs in our noses and took a whole lot of time and a whole lot of VICKS to over come.

 

It is a trend that took hold in the mid 50s for roadsters & coupes running at Bonneville, as has been said it was to let trapped air escape, really important for roadsters. There were instances where the trunks would fly up, this was happening as cars were going over 150 heading to 200mph. The earliest louvered trunk lid I can think of is Don Waite's rear engined roadster (1949-50) and that was done for cooling purposes. My pet peeve is seeing a louvered trunk on a perfect 40s style roadster and partly why I despise them on anything but a race car.

 

Gosh, I loved this car. This is an awesome picture of it too.