Interesting question Don... some of the “luxury” cars of the ‘30s were absolute knock-outs, and would make beautiful cars today. I’m going to guess that the reason you mainly see the low cost, light weight cars being built as street rods today is the same reason they were originally used as hot rods. In a word – speed. The weight to horsepower ratio gives most folks what they’re looking for, an edge in speed / acceleration. I also think that most guys would prefer to identify with the nostalgia of a “hot rodder” than the aristocrats that originally owned the Packards, Cords, Rolls Royces, etc.

Maybe some of the guys have done a build-up on one of these “heavy” cars and can “show and tell” about it.

Dan J