One of the deepest communities in the motoring world is that of the hot rod. At least, in the United States. In the good ol’ US of A, the hot rod is really its own culture, it’s not just a community, it’s a way of life – truly. Hot rod fanatics span far and wide and come from various walks of life. The history of hot rodding is rich and varied and full of grey areas where no one seems to know for sure – or at least, for every one story, there may well be an alternate. This argument begins with the name, hot rod.
Where did the term hot rod come from?
Some people believe ‘hot’ derived from the term ‘hotting up an engine,’ or ‘hotting up a car.’ The bottom line was making it a faster, hotter performance machine. The ‘rod’ part of the term most likely has to do with the rod connecting the crankshaft and the piston, but there are some who feel the word is a kind of derivative of the word roadster, which was normally a description of a smaller, lighter-weight vehicle with few frills. Because of their lightweight nature, it was easier to get them to move much faster than average. Interestingly though, in the earliest of the hot-rodding days, these high-performance cars were often called gow jobs – like saying cow, but with a ‘g.’ They were also known as hopped up, or hop ups. The story goes something like this: back in the 1800s, to make a horse go faster, the trainer would give it drugs – nothing new here, a practice that’s illegal, but continues to taint the horse racing industry today. But, back in the day, the horses were given drugs known as gow – gow up the horse. The drugs made the horses run much faster than they should. This, of course, led to the natural phrasing that the horse was ‘hopped up,’ much like people get hopped up on drugs and alcohol. Now, as interesting as this is, and possibly true – there’s another equine relationship that’s a little more believable. Neil Gow.
Neil Gow was the name of a British champion horse that won seven out of 10 races in one season, making him one of the fastest horses ever seen. He was retired around 1910, but his popularity among horse racing enthusiasts stretched along well past his death in 1919. There’s a thought that somehow the name made its way to the USA and was used to describe a modified car. Neil Gow was well known for his ill-tempered behavior as well; he was very hard to control and very strong headed. He also made quite a lot of noise, if we can believe all the tales surrounding him. All of this can easily match a description of a hot rod.
Now, that said – horses aside, there’s the very strong thought that gow was an acronym. That it stood for get out of the way. Afterall, these cars were quick, but didn’t normally stop or turn well. They were also largely held together by bailing wire and prayers. So, if you saw one, you’d better – get out of the way.
All part of the mystique of hot rodding.
What is a hot rod?
In general terms, a hot rod was a car put together with parts from other cars. Normally, hot rodders would literally go to a junkyard and buy a discarded car and go to making it something Detroit never thought of. Hot rodders usually used Fords because there were so many of them built – they were hugely inexpensive. Once someone bought the car, they needed and engine and transmission – again, this normally came from a wrecking yard, and instead of a 4-cylinder engine that might have come from the factory, they would select something like a V-8 or even a V-12, if they could find one and afford it. Sometimes, they would rebuild the engine and transmission, and sometimes they would just drop it in and hope for the best. Another reason so many chose Fords was that in many cases they came from the factory with a V-8 engine and could already put out a lovely power band.
Very often, hot rodders would install specialized heads, multiple carburetors, custom crankshafts, special pistons, and much more all to gain more power to gain more speed. Like those racing horses, they were hopped up.
In the beginning, and still often today, most hot rodders didn’t care too much about the aesthetics of the car – they simply wanted to race them at the open areas where timing took place to see how fast they could make the car. As time rolled on, more and more people began cleaning up the look of the car with new paint, special upholstery, and so on, giving the car a very nice, one-of-a-kind look. In many cases, the cars became true works of art.
What’s the point of a hot rod?
While it might seem silly and juvenile, and in many cases, it is – hot rodding is more than just being a speed freak. It has to do with creating something out of nothing. It has to do with taking something discarded and making it good again, and maybe even better. On top of this, hot rodding fed the beast. Many hot rodders proved their skills so well that they launched their own businesses to help others go fast and build a more durable car. Another large sector of the builders would find themselves going to work for motor companies like GM, Ford, Chrysler, Hudson, and so on, helping them make faster, more robust vehicles for their customers. Hot rodding spawned what would become a multi-billion-dollar industry that spanned the test of time.
Why do people love hot rods?
Depends on who you ask – however, when you look at the history, it’s rich and vast and interesting. When you examine the cars and the work that went into them, it’s astonishing in many cases. This attracts people. The amount of effort bestowed on a car to make it something much better than it ever was. People respect that and appreciate it and are inspired by it. So, often times, even if it’s not ‘your thing,’ you can appreciate what’s been spent over a car – and it’s not all about money. It’s the time and labor, it’s the thought processes that went into building the car. In many cases people will buy a hot rod that’s already done, and improve on that in whatever way they can. Fresh paint, a new engine, a new interior – interestingly, hot rods that were ‘finished,’ with paint and interiors, and detailing, created a new subset of the hot rod genre, the rat rod. This, of course, would he the original form of a hot rod – a car pulled from a junk yard and fitted with a more powerful engine and transmission, but not much by way of looks. The rusty body remained, the grease-stained everything remained – but it could go fast. It was the epitome of a budget build – a car that was built to go fast, not look great.
Does a hot rod have to be a car from the 1920s or ’30s?
Not at all – that’s just tradition as the majority of the hot rods began taking the streets in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s and ’60s. But, hot rodders are a fairly traditional bunch. But, to the bare definition – a hopped-up car… basically anything can be a hot rod.
Interestingly, Porsche was founded because Ferdinand Porsche built a Volkswagen engine with a specialized crankshaft, ported heads, and dual carburetors with larger jetting, ultimately creating a hot rod Volkswagen Type 1, or Beetle as they’re better known. This quick little Beetle was a blast to drive, and Ferdinand knew people would buy them – he knew people wanted to have fun behind the wheel, and that creating a car that moved more swiftly was one way to make them more fun. So, in a way, Ferdinand Porsche created a hot rod Volkswagen – and haven’t we all seen hopped up VWs from time to time? While the idea of a hot rod Volkswagen wasn’t in the cards (at the moment) for VW, Ferdinand would take this formula and create the Porsche sportscar company – the original production Porsche was the 356, which was largely based on the Type 1, with much of the formula he used in building the hot rod Volkswagen.
Photo by Wade Lambert