21 Reasons Why I Love Hot Rods & Customs

The August issue of Road & Track features an article on 51 reasons that they love cars. It’s a great exercise. Sit down and list out everything you dig about our old cars. They aren’t as practical as a Prius or cheap as a Civic, so there must be reasons why we gravitate to 50 year old vehicles that we’ve then modified, often reducing the practicality and increasing the cost even more! Honestly, I think 51 reasons are just a start to a long list, but it’s still perhaps too much to fit in this space. Here’s an attempt to cut that list a bit but get some of the good ones in there….

1. Style: I get more thumbs up and big smiles when I’m out in my ’57 Pontiac Safari than I would in any Lamborghini or Ferrari.

2. Substance: Old cars are built to last. Vintage chrome, steel, and stainless trump Modern plastic, vinyl, and foam.

3. Sound: Flathead dual exhaust ran through glass packs. Stovebolt 6 with split headers. Old V-8s with a lumpy idle, cracking on deceleration. Best sound in the world.

4. Seating position: When I close the door with a ‘thunk’. Slide across a bench seat, and just hang my arm out of a cranker-down window, peering over the metal dash into the world outside.

5. Car Friends: Hot rod people are the best people in the world. There to help when you need it, maybe ride shotgun, or meet you on the road. They are the glue that keeps our community together and get new people involved in what we love.

6. Certain gatherings: Paso was one. Hot Rod Revolution is another. Going to a show that actually inspires you to make your car better. Not about a fashion scene or the band on stage… About the passion, the real cars and people who build them.

7. Certain races: Bonneville, El Mirage. Gatherings in remote places that look identical to the pictures we’ve seen from 60 years ago. The hallowed ground where it all happened.

8. Impracticality: Bias Ply tires, Generators, Stromberg carburetors, buggy springs, chopped tops. It doesn’t make any sense on paper and I like it that way. Stick to you gut cause you know it looks and feels right. It worked back then, and it still works now.

9. Burning fossil fuels: Yes, we are running out of gas someday, but I’d rather get 15 miles per gallon in my Merc than getting 45 in a boring hybrid.

10. Sound part II: Straight cut gear whining in a Halibrand QC. Streamliners running wide open on the Salt. Exhaust pipes cooling down on a hot summer night.

11. Smell: A rich mixture. Original Mohair interior. Fresh Lacquer paint. Old car smells in general.

12. The Find: A barn, a garage, eve the HAMB Classifieds. It’s hard to explain the heart-racing excitement of digging up gold. When you find the sweetest deal on the coolest car. Love it.

13. The guys who were there: Meeting Wally Parks, Alex Xydias, Gene Winfield, Ed Iskenderian, George Barris, Ed Roth, Norm Grabowski, Joaquin Arnett, Bill Hines, Tom Medley, and many more. So approachable and so much to learn from them!

14. Roadsters: Something about being in a car with no top, no side glass, and usually no hood or fenders. Driving a real hot rod stripped down to the bare minimum puts you back in touch with everything.

15. Pre-War Customs: 1936- 1941 cars are just plain cool. They deserve their own category of greatness.

16. Kustoms: I like em mild, usually. The best ones require a trained eye to spot all the subtle modifications.

17. Chopped tops: Remove 4″ from the A pillar = Instant evil. If your car is boring, it’s a great solution.

18. Manual transmissions: They are dying in the modern car world, but three pedals and a floor shift will live on forever in ours.

19. Cruising: Just driving around. No particular place to go. That’s the point.

20. Building it yourself. Even just working on your own car. There is pride in knowing everything about your car because you’ve been under it enough times to fix it blindfolded.

21. The HAMB: This place means so much to me, and most of you. It inspires and educates me every single time I’m on here.