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.
