Hot Rodding 101 types of Hot Rods

What is a hot rod? That is a question that cannot be easily answered even among the most hard core car guys. It’s use is very subjective and even its origin has not been clearly defined. Traditionally, hot rods are old American cars with big V-8 motors modified for speed. However, even the country of origin nowadays is no longer limited to America and the definition of modification has been completely changed. Technically speaking, every after market is a modification as they stopped making a 1957 Chevy for instance…well, in 1957. Datsuns and Anglias are stuffed with Chevy 350cis, and as difficult to swallow as it is, Mustangs are stuffed with Nissan motors (a.k.a. FF3 Tokyo Drift Mustang) … So to narrow it down to basic minus all the controversial cross-overs, and because hot rodding is an American culture, let’s just say a hot rod is an old American car that is personalized by the owner…and don’t ask about a cut-off age, as old in itself is way too relative.  So here are  my different  classification of hotrods

Stock numbers-matching car –  wait, if hotrodding is modification and personalization, then will stock be defined as a hotrod? Yes.  Ironically, it is harder to keep a 50 year old car to be stock, than to modify it. To keep everything factory original, you need 2 things….(1) passion (2) more money than brain.

Unrestored original – well, that should have been a subtype of stock that’s even harder to justify as a hot rod. But to be able to maintain a 40 year old car as an unrestored original, you need a big heart…and a big barn that goes with it.

 

 
Pro-Street – almost synonymous to hot rod and may have been the flagship of the hobby in the 80s. Cars are highly modified, tubbed, with large Mickey Thompsons in the rear, a wheelie bar that's completely optional of course, and some skinnies in front. These most of the time sport those Keystones, Cragars and the like. Engines are bigger than the car..so to speak, having those blowers large enough that sometimes you need to remove the entire hood. I love Pro-streets, however, with its design meant for straight line acceleration on the drag strip but unable to perform on twisty roads, it’s not the funnest car to be used as a daily driver

   

Pro-Touring – Because of the instability of Pro-street on the street and on road courses, a new breed of hotrodding came out, I guess in the 90s. Pro-Touring is simply defined as old car with a new technology. Not only does it have a big motor to carry the car to speed, it now has modern suspension making its handling on road course at par with newer sports cars. It uses larger than stock rims and lower profile tires, a lower suspension for a lower center of gravity for better handling. And yup, it stops better as well with those bigger 4 wheel disc brakes.

Gassers -  this is my favorite form of hotrod…yes, my heart jumps, the boy in me comes out whenever I see one. Non-car guys won’t get it. But for a traditional hot rodder like myself, ahhhhh, that's the coolest of them all. Started in the 50s and became big all the way to the 70s, these cars are stripped off with as much weight as possible and almost have that same setting as a Pro-Street with wide tires at the back and skinny ones in front but lifted high and uses a straight front axle usually coming from truck donors. They are so peculiar, even their glasses are changed to Plexiglas for weight purposes…and yup, it has to be tinted with some weird color…..My favorite gasser by the way is Steve Magnante’s altered wheelbase Wilshire Shaker Nova….way cool

 Traditional Hot rods – these are the basic period correct modification in a car.  These cars looks as if time had stopped when it was modified in its period.

 Rat Rods – they hate being called rat rods…but o well, over time, it was accepted as a label. Too broad to define, but let’s put it this way… It’s a rot rod, exaggerated versions of traditional hot rods. Rust issue? No problem….it’s a necessity for it.  Is it cool? You bet…could have been the coolest kind of car around…Is it fast? Maybe…is it safe? maybe not