Thread: Who took the "hot" out of hot rod?

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It's all relative to your age, testosterone level, past and current technology as well as the price of gas! One of my favorite books is "Speed and Power Handbook (Special High Mileage Library Edition)" from Newhouse Automotove Industries, copyrighted 1952. Unfortunately my copy has lost it's cover but it is still a prized posession. On page 121 there is a picture of a '41 Ford convertible with a chopped top and rippled bumpers with the caption "...Engine reworked to deliver over 200 H.P. This is a very HOT rod." On page 15 there is a picture of a dual carb setup on a flathead with finned heads and a beehive oil cleaner on the firewall described as a "FULL HOUSE MERCURY". Then on page 22 there is a picture of what was nostalgic in 1952 as what looks like a Cragar setup on a Model B 4 cyl complete with dual carbs and a 4-into-1 header. Today, "HOT" probably means a tubbed musclecar with close to 500 H.P. but it can only run on the weekends due to the price of gas. Maybe "American Graffitti" was the high point of the hobby? Today the trend is toward turbocharged 4 cyls and smaller bodies, so on it goes. For a typical time-boundary (paradigm shift!) imagine it is 1954 and then take a look at

http://www.oogabooga.ca/oogaboogapag40.htm

Yet only a year later you could buy a '55 Chevie with a 265 OHV soon to be followed by a 283, 327 and then 350. The hot rod philosophy is simply interest in what can be modified, tweaked and improved on autos, with emphasis on speed. Just a rambling answer to a vauge question. '

In edit mode I want to mention that I really miss the Barris era smoothie customs based mainly on '41-'51 Fords and Mercurys. Once they were plentiful but I suppose the body work was much more difficult to chop the compound curves than the straight coupes and roadsters of the early '30s models. Still for me the "neatest" cars are/were carson-topped '40 converts and '41-'48 coupes that have been chopped and smoothed out.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder