What is a Hot Rod?

In the world of Hot Rodding it is the oldest question; what is a Hot Rod? What makes Hot Rods, well Hot Rods? To hot Rodders it is asking them the question they can’t answer like how big the Universe? Where’s Ringo?, How old is Eddie the Head?, Are people really eaten at a GWAR show? And of course Who is John Galt? If you went to Hot Rod Magazine and asked everyone there what is a Hot Rod I guarantee that Freiburger will have a different answer from Finnegan, if you went to a Nostalgia Drag Racing even Don Garlits would have a different answer from Don Prudhome, or if you went to the Rumblers Car Show, Roger Miret and the others would have different answers. So why did I write this article? To tell you how no one knows what I Hot Rod is? NO! I wrote this article because I like all of the different answers everyone has about what is a Hot Rod I went to the Hot Rodders, the HAMB and a few other places to get my answers and here is what I got.

Now the most basic answer of what is a Hot Rod that has been used since at least the late 40s, though some say the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) has been using it since the 30s is; Any car that has been modified for Performance. Some still say this is what a Hot Rod is others say that this is too broad because then Le Mans Ferraris and Porches’ as well as Rock Crawlers and Prerunners would be considered Hot Rods.

In the 50s a the almost exact same definition was used just using Hot Rod Slang; Any car that is Hopped Up. The reason for this was in the 50s the term Hot Rod was mainly a very American Term that was only used in America and when Hot Rodders showed off there cars probably 98% of them were American Cars expect for the very rarely seen Angelia, Morris Minor or Pre War Fiat that one kid would have. So kids would just call each others cars Hot Rods because they were American cars.

In the 60s one of the common terms of a Hot Rod was still the 50s one, just now that the Gassers, the new Sedans, the Super Stockers, the Sling Shots, and the new Muscle Cars are also Hot Rods.

Some say by the late 70s the car world became much more complex with more Foreign cars more common such as European Exotics and the early Japanese cars that there need to be more definitions so some of the definitions you might have heard are this

Hot Rods are any modified American Car from 1948 and earlier (they can be only modified in appearance too)

Any American car from 1949 to 1963 is a Street Machine.

Any American car from 1964 to 1974 is a Muscle Car.

Anything Foreign who cares.

Now by this time you can see things started to get complicated, a lot of people said that Muscle Cars are 2 Mid Size cars so by this definition that would make a 65 Cadillac Deville a Full Size Luxary car a Muscle Car (though it does have a Big Block V8) or it would make a 1966 Chevy Corvair a Muscle Car. So you can see this is where things get complicated.

For at least over 20 years the definition of a Street Machine has been any modified American car from 1949 till today. Pro Street, Street and Strip and Pro Touring all fall into the Street Machine Category.

For a while in the late 70s and 80s when Street Machines, Pro Street, Muscle Cars, Low Riders and everything else came along that many people start saying a Hot Rod is 48 or older only and everything else is everything else.

Today there is a similar definition to the one above but instead of 48 and older it is 1965 and older is a Hot Rod and everything else is everything else.

The last common definition that you will see at several car shows, to several Magazines like Hot Rod is any Modified American Car or American Powered Car is a Hot Rod. Everything from a HEMI powered 32 Ford to a Chevy Big Block Powered 55 Chevy, to a 68 Plymouth Roadrunner with a modified 440, to a Pro Street Nova to Don Garlits Swamp Rats, to Tom McEwen’s Funny Cars to Rick Dobbertin’s Pontiac J2000 to Altered’s, to even a Rat Rod (yes I said it) is a Hot Rod.

I happen to say that is my definition of what a Hot Rod is. Now what I would really like to know is what you think is a Hot Rod? There is no right or wrong answer I just want to know what you think is a Hot Rod.