What is a Hot Rod ?

We’ve previously discussed some of the generic used terms in today’s modern hot rod culture in order to build a common bond of lingo within the culture. In some cases, defining terms like hot rod, which has been used to describe anything that has been “souped-up,” is simply a Sisyphean task.

It has a mean attitude and screams the words “Hot Rod.” No cream puffs!           – Goodguys criteria

When famed writer Tom Wolfe attempted to accomplish the almost impossible task of describing a hot rod, he ended up with the novel The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, which never clearly identified what a hot rod actually was.
The novel was simply 22 essays that pushed the rock up to the top of the hill, only to have it slide back down, time and time again. This is the same novel that produced the essay “The Last American Hero,” a profile of NASCAR star Junior Johnson, a man that certainly knew a thing or two about hot rods.

Etymology, Word Origin, Our Expert And The Definition
We picked up the challenge and enlisted the help of a subject matter expert, John Drummond, editor of the Goodguys Goodtimes Gazette. “That’s the million-dollar question,” he responded. “I can give you a couple of answers.”
The buttoned down, corporate definition that is used in the Goodguys award criteria for the Hot Rod of the Year award states: A hot rod is a 1948 and earlier American car – It makes noise, it is regularly street-driven, has a mean attitude and screams the words “hot rod.” No cream puffs!

Goodguys 2015 Hot Rod Of The Year

• Keith Hill’s “Federale Coupe”
• ’33 Ford 3-window created by Pinkee’s Rod Shop
• 4-inch chop
• Laid-back windshield
• Kicked-up frame
• Halibrand inspired wheels
• 1937 Ford truck grille and inner fender panels
• 354ci Chrysler Hemi
• Tremec 5-speed
• Winter’s quick change rearend
• Schroeder steering box
• Handmade steering arms
• Dago dropped axle
• Early Ford spindles
• Pinkee’s backing plates
• 1940 Lincoln drum brakes
• Custom PPG paint

Like many of the great words of the industrial era, no one truly knows where the term “hot rod” came from. It has been suggested that early performance mechanics would change out camshafts to improve speed and horsepower of cars. Camshafts were referred to as “rods,” and the higher performance camshafts were “hot rods.” Gow jobs often occurred at the same time as mechanics stripped down the extra weight by removing fenders, running boards and anything not really needed. Gow has been defined as intoxicated or drunk (go home little car, you’re drunk).
Colloquial terms like gow job, hot rod and souped up, were simply part of the lifestyle and language of those searching for speed. As time has passed on, these terms have either dropped from the vocabulary (gow job), lessened in usage (souped up), or overused and expanded to everyday usage (hot rod). These days, if you put on a new set of rubber on your wheels, you can claim to have hot-rodded your car. The term “hot rod” has come to mean any upgrade to almost any item. For example, a musician changes guitar strings from round wire to flat wire, he can tell his friends that he “hot-rodded” his guitar.
A Souped Up Definition From Hot Rod Experts
The hot rod community has now been subdivided into two main groups with street rodders and hot rodders. We recently dissected the definition of street rod with the experts at the National Street Rod Association in the article What Is A Street Rod? This helped shore up one side of the community. As for the hot rodders looking for a more general definition of the word hot rod, Drummond assisted by saying, “A hot rod is a car that has been radically modified for extreme performance, regardless of year or brand.”

Drummond’s general definition meshes perfectly with the Internet’s dictionary.com hot rod definition: An automobile specially-built or altered for fast acceleration and increased speed.
The term hot rod most likely generated in the 1930s in Southern California with dry lake racers. These racers created a whole new jargon around modifying the Ford Model T and Model A to go faster. Some of the typical modifications performed then are are still commonplace today.

Its sole purpose is to rule the road and look good doing it.                  – John Drummond

Removal of tops, hoods, bumpers, fenders, and even windshields were done. Doing a body drop by lowering the frame and refastening it higher on the body for lower ground clearance helped with airflow. This channeling procedure is still popular with today’s hot rodders. Obviously, the most popular modifications involve the engine and tuning or replacing the engine with a larger and more powerful power plant.