Hot
Rods (aka Street Rods) 
Canberra Hot Rod Association (CHRA)
This part of the website is dedicated to what is or
makes a Hot Rod (also known today as Street Rods) and where & how Hot
Rods began. I'm not going to delve deeply into this subject, just do a
brief summary as there are many other web sites already doing
this. This page contains links to some such web sites at the bottom -if
you want to know more.
What is a Hot Rod:
Click on the
thumbnails for a larger picture.
A Hot Rod is traditionally a pre-1960's car that had been modified for
linear speed. They were not modified for better cornering, comfort or
braking, but just for pure straight line speed.
Nobody knows for sure
the origin of the term "Hot Rod." One explanation is that the term is a
contraction of "hot roadster," meaning a roadster that was modified for
speed. If you asked 10 different people, chances are you would get 10
different answers. The Merriam-Webster definition reads “an automobile
rebuilt or modified for high speed and fast acceleration.” Encyclopedia
Britannica Online says a hot rod is a “privately designed and built
automobile constructed along individualistic lines to provide maximum
starting acceleration.” Another explaniation is "A car modified to run
faster, especially one based on a pre-1960s model" and another "An old car
customized with a newer drivetrain and any manner of body or interior
changes. Also called a 'street rod'".
Teenagers itching to tinker
with cars and make them go faster were racing Ford Model Ts on
California's dry lakes and street racing in Los Angeles, even in the
1920s. The four-cylinder Model Ts were a typical car of choice as they
were light, easy to work on, plentiful and best of all,
cheap to buy. They were stripped of all the 'unnecessary' parts to reduce
the weight and improve aerodynamics and thus go faster. Typical the
modifications were the removal of convertible tops, hood, bumpers,
windshields, and/or fenders, lowering the chassis, and modifying the
engine by tuning and/or replacing with a more powerful type. Wheels and
tires were changed for improved traction and handling at high speed. The
cars also responded to simple 'hop ups' like higher compression, ignition
and timing adjustments, additional carburetors, and more radical cam
grinds.
The original hot rods were old cars (most often Fords,
typically Model Ts, Model As 1928-31, 1932-34 Model Bs, or V-8s) and the
term 'Hot Rod' was also sometimes used in the 1950s as a derogatory term
for any car that did not fit into the 'mainstream'.
Today, with
the large after market for new and unique Hot Rod parts (plus the
owners individual idea of what wish want to create) you would be very hard
pressed to find any two Hot Rods alike, anywhere.
The Hot Rod
community today has been subdivided into two main groups: Hot Rodders and
Street Rodders. Hot Rodders build their cars using a lot of original, old
parts, and follow the styles that were popular from the 1940s through to
the 1960s. Street Rodders build their cars (or have them built for them)
using primarily new parts, however the term 'Hot Rod' is still widely
accepted to encumber both these styles, as well as other categories like
Rat Rods, Customs and the like.
Hot Rods today are different. The are better built than the original
Rods, they typically have Engineering certificates, much more
powerful V8 engines (i.e.: worked, blown, big block), they brake and
handle much better and they are even more comfortable to drive. Some have
CD players, power windows, remote door locks, EFI, GPS's and computer
controlled engine chips -That's a far cry from the traditional straight
line 'need for speed'.
They are today more of a 'work-of-art' seen at
car shows or gracing our streets on the weekends and leaving the
general public in a jaw dropping standstill as they go passed.
Brief history of Hot Rods:
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The term 'Hot Rod' seems to have first to have come about in the late
1930s in California, where people would race their modified cars on the
dry lake beds. Those were the days when speed records were set and broken
with extreme regularity.
The Ford flathead V-8 was born in 1932 and
with it a new opportunity to go fast. Though slow to be accepted by Hot
Rodders, more 65- and 85-horsepower flathead V-8s found their way into
junkyards as the '30s progressed and thus began the transformation from
four-bangers to flatheads. Also released in 1932 were the lightweight '32
Ford or 'Deuce' frame and roadster body. This combination was unbeatable
in terms of performance potential and looks. To this day, a
flathead-powered Deuce roadster is the 'quintessential Hot Rod'. That
engine and frame combination would also provide an excellent foundation
for many types of bodies, or sometimes hardly any body at all.
Hot Rodding in Australia first became semi-organised from 1956 with the formation of the Southern Hot Rod Club. That quickly spawned more clubs and drag strips followed as the Hot Rodders formed themselves into associations and looked for somewhere to legally race their cars. Organised shows followed with many of the same Hot Rodders involved in their promotion.
There is still a vibrant Hot Rod culture worldwide, especially here in
Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Sweden. Hot Rodders
themselves now also tend to be older than the original teenagers, so over
the years yes a lot has changed.
Nowadays the one thing that is common
with today's Hot Rodders is to make the Hot Rod noticeable: A Powerful
V-8, a gleaming paint job, cleaned and polished is typically the order of
the day. The traditional dry lake/street racing is kept to organised legal
drag meets and cruising on the weekend with friends and their Hot Rods are
more the order of the day.
Click
on the thumbnails for a larger picture.
Links to other sites about Hot Rods & their History:
Auto -How Stuff Works
Gregburch
Graffiti
Publications
The Rock It Roost
Rick
Shaws
Absolute Astronomy