Thread: What's A RatRod

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53 Willys -- You are right on with the best trophy is "Can I take a picture?" When I was pulling out of a gas station one person said nice mustang. That meant more to me than any award.

Bonehead -- You are right on with "Fun To Build and Drive". This is at the core of the hobby.

Hot Rod Paint -- You are right on with "The vehicle is a Personal Expression/Statement" of the owner. The choice of vehicle is the statement

It is clear that there are no rules that everyone will agree on. And as posted way back when that the term is sometimes Grossly Misused. If you like what you got that is all that matters. You gotta like it to drive it cause you may spend a lot of time in it. Otherwise choose something else.

Len Trimlett

I agree with the last five post. It's all about having fun with cars.
Hodrodpaint said "I don't remember a single show ever being judged on the total of their cash receipts!" It's funny you say this because I have seen many try to win a show by dropping names and the $$$$$$$$ they spent.
I have judged the Detroit Autorama since the 80s and it's amazing that the level of craftsmanship and dollars spent keeps going up.
As Dave said there's much more expectation from the owners and more pressure on the judges when the guy spends 350,000.00 trying to win a trophy.
Check this out for what I would consider some fine Ratrods and other Hotrods.
http://www.cruisin-usa.com/det07/index.html

Originally Posted by smogrfg

Bonehead -- You are right on with "Fun To Build and Drive". This is at the core of the hobby.


It is clear that there are no rules that everyone will agree on. And as posted way back when that the term is sometimes Grossly Misused. If you like what you got that is all that matters. You gotta like it to drive it cause you may spend a lot of time in it. Otherwise choose something else.

Len Trimlett

Well, now another point of disagreement. Not every Hot Rod gets driven daily.... Some of us choose to not have our cars pounded on by all the ding bat drivers out on the road, or ran into in some parking lot. A lot of shows I attend our far enough away, or 2 to 3 day shows. Most of the time it works out far better for me (and I would imagine a lot of others) to put it in the trailer and tow it. Yes, I've done the long road trips, too. It's very nice to have the car in the trailer while traveling, prevents a lot of damage from road trash and lots of room to carry all the other "essentials" such as lawn chairs, coolers, barbeque grilles, canopies, parts, etc, etc...... I also don't like the idea of having my pride in joy sitting in the parking lot and at the mercy of all the vandals and thieves who seem to take great pleasure in messing with a guys ride while I'm in the motel room at night..... I can usually find a light pole, fence, or other obstruction to back the trailer up to that makes getting the car out of there a time consuming and noisy task that will (hopefully) draw enough attention to get the cops to show up.

As for agreeing on what everything is called and classified as I think all that is a bunch of trivial BS bet left for those who think it's important to "belong" to some certain faction of hot rodding. My opinion has always been that if I like it on the car, then it must be "correct" and doesn't really matter what anyone thinks of the car.... "Tribute" cars I doubt really express the owner's personal ideas of what a car should look like. I guess around here we call them copy-cats!!!!!