Art & Inspiration The iconic hot rod of all hot rods!

Quit bragging.

 

ScottyT has a gorgeous mopar

 

You mean a gray lump of a Plymouth

 

Gray Baskerville's '32 roadster just says "Hot Rod" to me.

 

I have respect for so many different cars,,,I can’t see how I could pick just one.
I am a Mopar guy,,,,but not a lot of old Mopars are around.
Maybe because Ford had the market cornered on producing cars.
Chevy made a lot of cars,,,Mopar made several,,,but Ford produced millions of them.
Millions,,and millions of them,,,kind of hard not to see a lot of them.

I remember reading many years ago,,,that even in chevys biggest year,,1957,,,,Ford out sold them,,,,although I don’t remember seeing a lot of 57 fords,,,go figure.
Because,,if your daddy bought a ford and your granddaddy bought a ford,,,it is a pretty good chance that you will buy a ford,,just the way it works.

My favorite is probably the California kid,,,,,kind of the direction I’m gonna go in.
Just because I can probably find a body,,(glass ),,,that I can build.
My Flathead will look good in it.

I always get tickled when I hear that nothing can be a hot rod but a pre 49,,,,,sure thing .
Why not,,,,,it is a rule made up by a group that wants to control the legend,,,,also,,since these cars are only getting older,,,it only makes theirs worth more,,,right ?
Always follow the money,,,it will tell the real story .

Tommy

 

A lot of the old Dodges etc were underdogs but Ive saw some outstanding ones like this delivery that was at somernitescruise in Somerset Ky this past summer., These could be one of the best looking deliveries out there in my opinion after taking notice of this one

 

I guess I'm in the wrong, i call every old car a hot rod if it's modified, especially speed equipment. Except for the ever popular muscle car lol. But maybe I'm just mistaken

 

Roadsters!
34's, 33's, 32s, AV8's...
bangers, too.
I love 'em.

But for me, there's something about a TV8... a 1926 1927 roadster on a Model A chassis.



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They're small. But at 5'8" 150lbs, I could squeeze in there.

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Yeah I'm 6'4"and 300lbs, I've reach that point in my life where i figured out that i don't fit well in the chopped and channeled stuff anymore lol

 

Hopefully I don't catch a bunch of crap since the build was actually a couple years after the HAMB cut-off. But, in my opinion, there are very few cars that could ever be as bad-ass as the Two Lane Blacktop '55. Although, I'm kind of biased toward tri-5 Chevys anyway.

 

I think you're right. Hot rod is what you want it to be. You want a hot rod, put headers on it. There...Now I have a hot rod.

 

Or Jack Stewart’s


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Derived from hot rodding, or vice versa lol

 

I grew up wanting a model T coupe, after a lot of muscle cars I bought an original 30 model A. The wife Thought it was to nice to hot rod, so we parted ways( the car). Now I've got a hot rod T sedan and my hot rod T coupe.
But if I had the green I would own a 32 ford coupe 3 or 5 window.
Always dreaming!!

 

Any car modified for performance, handling and areo dynamics {chop tops, sectioning and channeling is hot rodded]. The same modifications also make a custom, or both! The fact is all my personal cars have always ben Custom Rodded! The pre 49 rule was established 50 years ago by the NSRA, the NATIONAL STREET ROD ASSOCIATION! not the NHRA, the NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION! Do we really want to get into how many body styles, makes and years that sanctioning body covers!! And as far as the most iconic hot rod , in my opinion it was the Doyle Grammel 32 coupe that was on the cover of Rod and Custom in 1963 . It is not traditional , its Timeless! Because at any time in the last 57 years it would have been considered cool by anyone that saw it. Bob Bauder restored it to much the way it was then for Bruce Meyer and was again featured in the Rodders Journal. Hot rodding and customizing is what a car guy does no matter what year or model. Larry

 

It’s kind of ironic isn’t it .
The street rod association made a rule,,,but,,,aren’t street rods looked down upon by hot rodders ?

Tommy

 

I thought the question was...
What is the most iconic hot rod?
Not...
What is your definition of a hot rod?

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Kind of depends on the circle of people you hang with and your view of the world.
I've been to events where some of the most highly regarded "old school" cars were and I wouldn't drive one in a parking lot, and puked at some of the highest caliber of "street rods" that with a different set of wheels, would completely transform it.
Everyone uses a different filter when looking at things.

 

A Hot Rod and a Street Rod are basically the same thing. In the late '60s, Tex Smith coined the phrase Street Rod in an attempt to help dispel 20 years of negative publicity the general public had shoved down their throats about Hot Rods and hoodlum hot rodders.

 

We all have a type of car that rings true to us - whatever that is. It doesn’t really matter what the year of it is, or the style of it. For me it was my first trip to Bonneville that made me have to build a car. A fender less 30s car was it for me, but hell, I know folks that have just as much fun with a 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or whatever rings their bell. The thread was started about “hot rods”; that has a definition as others have mentioned.

Twisting the thread a bit, if allowed, what do y’all think a “hot rodder” is?

 

Don't you have to sort of define what a Hot Rod is before you can pick an iconic one ?

My Picks for Iconics
'32 Fords
'33/'34 Fords
'35/'36 Fords
'39/'40 Fords
'26-'31 Fords
See a pattern here ?

 

Pete&Jakes Coupes, The Doane Spencer '32, Niekamp's, the Pierson Bros. Coupe, and Frank Mack's. Every one of those cars is pure Hot Rod with no gimmicks. There's been many since but few pull off pure Hot Rod as these do.

- Tim

 

We haven't had this thread come up since last decade, glad to see we are still in agreement.

 

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this is as bad as arguing if blonds, brunettes or redheads are hotter and better looking than the others.
The Roadster in post 15 and Norm's T are both iconic in their own right and both have had countless cars built with the same basic Profile for the past 60 and 70 years. There were countless deuce roadsters with the profile of the car in post 16 at Deuce days last July. Different wheels, different paint but if you took same size photos of all of them from the same distance and cut them out you could stack the cutouts one on top of the other and not have a lot of rough edges in the stack.
Norm's T started a whole T bucket industry when it showed up on TV plus who knows how many guys dug T roadster bodies out of the weeds to build their version.

 

Iconic or what ? Always thought the Tom McMullen '32 was the best of the "60s triple threat Hot Rods...Show, Go and Street driven

 

Iconic? In order...
'32 Hiboy Roadster
A V-8 Hiboy Roadster
'32 3 window
'32 Tudor
'32 Sedan Delivery
'31 Model A coupe
'35-'36 Three window
'39-'40 coupe
In my opinion, the rest are just hot rods!

Edit: Sorry, I forgot about the T V8. It probably goes right next to the A V8 in the list!

 

credit to original photographer,

 

Bud Bryan