Ya, I'm a motorhead and I love Hot Rods...
The hot rod
For any car guy that grew up prior to the 1980's, the term Hot Rod will definitely bring up certain images of the 60's and early 70's muscle cars and the earlier open wheel roadsters that were the most popular cars to hot rod back in the 50's and earlier. T buckets, Dueces, '57 Chevy, 'Vettes, etc. were common sights on the boulevard in any city in America. Nice collection of vintage rods and muscle cars
Hot Rods in the Beginning
Hot rodding got it's start as early as the 1930's but really gained in popularity after WWII. Most popular were the Ford Model T's and later A models which were turned into the open wheel roadsters that you'll see at any hot rod show anywhere in the country.When guys first started tinkering with the intent to make their car faster, they made them lighter by removing fenders, running boards, bumpers, hood, roof and sometimes windshields, resulting in stripped down, odd looking cars that somewhere along the way got termed "Hot Rod." They also performed modifications to the engine any way they could to make them run better and put out more horsepower. More extensive modifications were sometimes performed called "chopping" and "channeling" which entails cutting sections out of the body to lower the height which changes the look and also improves aerodynamics.
Naturally, guys being guys, they had to prove their car was the fastest so they started racing them, first on the dry lake beds near Los Angeles California, then after the war on old abandoned airfields or wherever they could at the time. This gave birth to the sport of drag racing that we know today. As it grew in popularity, there became a need some semblance of organization and the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) was formed by Wally Parks in 1951.
New YouTube vids
HOT RODS ACROSS AMERICA
HOT RODS ACROSS AMERICA trailor from the film. The dvd can be purchased at our site at www.TimeMaxCinema.com . With Paul Le Mat who played John Milner in American Graffiti and drove the famous '32 yellow deuce coupe. Paul Le Mat is seen many times in the film and also narrates. It is a reality / documentary about hot rods across america.
Runtime: 115
82305 views
22 Comments:
curated content from YouTube
Muscle Cars
Pretty soon, the American car companies started to realize that they could capitalize on the popularity of hot rods and started offering high performance cars in their showrooms that anyone could buy. They were popular because even someone without mechanical knowledge or ability could get a higher performance car just by walking into a showroom and plunking down some cash, no modifications required.From about the mid 1950's on you could get high performance options on cars but starting in the early 60's, it really took off with purpose built high performance cars known as "muscle cars". Names like Camaro, Chevelle, Corvette, Mustang, T-Bird, Torino, Charger, Duster, Barracuda, etc. ruled the streets all through the 60's and early 70's.
Frontier Canyon Gas Art Print
Hot NOT
Then, in response to the first gas crunch along about 1973, the car companies moved away from the high horsepower, performance oriented cars and concentrated on MPG, turning out lackluster econo-boxes and blasé family sedans. Their first attempts at fuel efficient cars produced underpowered, underperforming, milktoast automobiles that no real car guy wanted to drive so that gave rise to the hot rod movement once again. If Detroit wasn't producing performance, it was up to the hotrodder to do it. Hot Rod Stuff
Art of the Hot Rod
Amazon Price: $26.40 (as of 01/02/2010) 
Hot Rods, Rat Rods: Back from Dead
Amazon Price: $7.95 (as of 01/02/2010)
Hot Rod
Amazon Price: $14.00 (as of 01/02/2010)
Hot Rod Pin-Ups II: Gearhead Girls and Dragstrip Dolls
Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 01/02/2010)
Hot Rods Reborn - Street Rods
Along about this time though, the term "Street Rod" originated and while it's sometimes used interchangeably with hot rod, it really denotes a car more street friendly for everyday use and not as much built just for speed and racing. There was more emphasis on making the car look good as well as perform well.Today, this street rod movement has evolved into producing cars built more for show than go with many only driven occasionally or not at all. These "trailer queens" only come out of the garage to be transported to a show or competition in an enclosed car trailer. Owners are sometimes obsessed with keeping their "show car" immaculate and driving the car on the street isn't conducive to maintaining it in "showroom" condition. There are still plenty of die hard hotrodders out there though with many people using there rod as a daily driver.
Nowadays, if you're an aspiring hotrodder, the old muscle cars and early Fords are somewhat rare and hard to find. Fortunately, demand has given rise to companies that specialize in building replica parts including steel or fiberglass bodies, frames and even complete kits to build a great looking rod from the ground up. You can find parts available to build any of the most popular classic hot rod models and kits available to just about any builder skill level.
Street Rods & Hot Rods
MSRA Minnesota Street Rod Association Hot Rod Classic 2008 www.dirtdesignsgraphic.com
http://www.dirtdesignsgraphic.com DirtDesignsGraphic attends MSRA's Back to the fifties weekend to check out the hot paint jobs on custom cars, ed roth, ratfink, von dutch, trucks, classic street rods, hot rodders in St. Paul Minnesota on June 21-23rd. Lots of chevys, bel airs, cadillacs, studebakers, hudsons, corvettes, thunderbirds, impalas, el caminos, buicks, roadmasters, rat rods, lead sleds, mercury chopped, t-buckets, rails, gassers, panel vans, model-ts, pick-ups, candy pearl paint, pearl metal flake
Runtime: 318
23750 views
22 Comments:
curated content from YouTube
These are HOT!
Keep on Roddin'
You might think that if gas prices soar to high levels again, people will give up on building Hot Rods but I don't believe that will happen. We are a mobile country and whatever the future holds for cars, no matter what type of powerplant it has, people will find ways to customize them to their taste and performance desires. For instance, you can build an electric vehicle to have mild performance and long range to be a practical commuter car but a hotrodder can take that car and modify it to expend it's electrical energy over the course of accelerating through a quarter mile drag race and rival speeds of any internal combustion engine driven car.As long as we use cars, hotrodders will find ways to modify them and it's not just cars. There are also many other "gearhead" movements that people are involved in such as, dune buggies, off road and 4WD, rock crawling, drifting, custom motorcycles or choppers, etc. and now, modifying cars for extreme economy. People are building cars to see how many MPG they can get. They're experimenting with alternative fuel vehicles such as alcohol, bio-diesel, plug in hybrids, fuel cell, even compressed air to attain record mileage numbers, so if you're into cars in any way, there's something out there for you.
Gentlemen, start your engines!
Classic Hot Rod Tin Sign
Nostalgia Drag Racing
NICE!
Hot Rod Shirts
100% Hot Rod Dark T-Shirt
Price: 24.99
Torque Brothers 008 Men's Fitted T-Shirt (dark)
Price: 27.99
Dark T-Shirt
Price: 21.99
Hot Rod White T-Shirt
Price: 16.99
Say Hello
-
Reply
- Tipi Tipi Dec 11, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
- Oh what a fine hot rodding lens. I see that you love making lenses about cars!
Blessed by a Squid Angel! ~ Happy Holidays!
-
Reply
- Millertime Millertime Dec 7, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
- I am honored that this lens got LOTD and I really appreciate all your wonderful comments. It's very gratifying to know people like my lens. Thank you very much.
-
Reply
- Pastiche Pastiche Dec 7, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
- Hey, motorhead LOTD - YAY! My cousins were into their hot rods big time in the early-to-mid sixties - I loved riding to and from home in their souped up old machines. Later, I even had a ragtop '57 Chevy ... still would like one of those again. Congrats, and thanks for the memories.
-
Reply
- OhMe OhMe Dec 6, 2009 @ 1:23 pm
- Congrats on LotD, I enjoyed seeing all these Hot Rods
-
Reply
- Wysiwigs Wysiwigs Dec 6, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
- I lLove looking at all those cool cars! Congratulations on being chosen LOTD :o)
-
Reply
- foovay foovay Dec 6, 2009 @ 11:03 am
- Great lens! I'm a bit of a muscle car fan myself. I love the mention of the electric cars - I've seen some pretty souped up versions of those!
-
Reply
- charlino charlino Dec 6, 2009 @ 11:03 am
- Life size match-box cars have always charmed me. I love hot rods, muscle cars, and art cars. Great work with this beautifully informative page.
-
Reply
- stacy_mcdaniel stacy_mcdaniel Dec 6, 2009 @ 10:09 am
- Congratulation! Awesome Lens! I love looking at the old hot rods.
-
Reply
- Michey Michey Dec 6, 2009 @ 9:46 am
- I really enjoy the pictures, as I like old cars. You gave a great lens, very well done,
Congratulation for LOTD.
Michey
-
Reply
- Susan52 Susan52 Dec 6, 2009 @ 9:11 am
- Fun lens! Congratulations on your lens of the day award!
-
Reply
- GrowWear GrowWear Dec 6, 2009 @ 8:39 am
- Congratulations for LOTD for Hot Rods and Hot Rodding!
-
Reply
- Joan4 Joan4 Dec 6, 2009 @ 7:18 am
- Congratulations on Lens of the Day!
-
Reply
- Sivia Lin Sivia Lin Dec 6, 2009 @ 6:24 am
- cool? great cars. my younger brother love cars very much.
-
Reply
- Stazjia Stazjia Dec 6, 2009 @ 6:14 am
- Congratulations on making LOTD.
- Load More
Check out my other gearhead lenses
-
The Sport of Tractor Pulling
-
There are lots of different types of motor sports out there but one of the lesser known ones is tractor pulling. As a youngster growing up in a rural area of Michigan, I remember going to the county fairs every year. Of course they had all the normal...
-
Great Off Road Gear
-
If you have an off-roader, 4WD, dune buggy, quad rider, etc. in the family, nothing would make them happier than getting gifts related to their sport. Many times family members that don't know much about the sport have no idea what would make a good...
-
T Bucket Roadsters
-
As a car guy and motorhead, this hot rod has always been one of my favorites. To get an actual steel bodied original car is almost impossible nowadays but there are plenty of aftermarket bodies and parts available to build one of these sweet cars. Le...
-
Choppers and Custom Motorcycles
-
Nowadays, everybody knows what a chopper is. A few years back they were only in the realm of hardcore bikers but today, with TV shows like American Chopper and Motorcycle Mania, they have come into the mainstream. Ask anybody and they'll tell you cho...
-
Old Farm Tractors
-
I grew up on a small farm in Michigan and we had a couple of old tractors from the 1950's that I remember fondly. I basically learned how to drive at a very young age on those old machines and used to spend a lot of time on them, working the fields i...
Evolution of American Muscle Cars Poster
by Millertime
Explore related pages
1963 Corvette Grand Sport- Breaking news- the #002 of the two original ROADSTERS is going on the auction bl...
Cool Desert Nights | Classic and Anique Car Show | Richland Washington- Cool Desert Nights, (this lens) brought to you by real estate agents, Joe and Co...
Hot Rods and Hot Babes- A production car that has been modified by the owner in the attempt to increase...
T Bucket Roadsters- As a car guy and motorhead, this hot rod has always been one of my favorites. To...
Hot Rods, Relics & Customs-Chop-Shop Customs-Woburn MA- Hi there. I am Lenny Schaeffer, owner of Chop-Shop Customs in Woburn, MA. There...
Disturbingly Kool Hot Rod and Graphic Design- As a professional graphic designer and illustrator, I create renderings for hot...
