Hot Rods What came first...The Hotrod or Race Car

Hot rodding took a quantum leap following WWII. Soldiers came home, a few with some $$ in their pockets. New cars were not available yet, older cars were going for big bucks. Even new tires were in short supply.

What to do? Piece together a new ride from what was around. Scrap steel drives ate up things like discarded fenders and bumpers. Military surplus also spawned the low-rider movement, other parts like fasteners (Dzus) filtered down into the civilian world.

 

Hotrod or Racer/Thundering Race Car...



Going nowhere...T - raffic jam...pushing the Motometer to the limit...
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https://www.motortrend.com/features/americas-beautiful-roadsterthen-now/

Hotrod and Racers intermingling 1936...overseas...the mix...the Hotrod seeds were everywhere...coming on strong...I see if I can verify location...

Australia...no wonder fenderless is so desired...

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https://www.motortrend.com/features/americas-beautiful-roadsterthen-now/

Racer turns Hotrod...Roaring Roadster to Hotrod and Showcar...still with us today...as @bobss396 said after the war Hotrod was growing beyond the Track with the beginning of The Judged and Trophy events and other forces by the need for go fast...


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Words and expressions mean what people mean by them. There isn't any arcane "real meaning" which is discoverable by any amount of analysis, certainly not by digging in the dictionary. That is not to say that using this word to denote that thing doesn't have consequences: it's fine and well to use the term dog kennel to describe a mattress, even consistently, even popularly; until the morning you wake up with a backache and ascribe it to the dogs in your mattress being restless. The language of politics is particularly vulnerable to that. But I digress.

What we mean by hot rod is fairly specific, hence the "know it when you see it" thing. The problem comes when we try to distil a fixed definition without taking in all the subtleties, and then try to apply that definition beyond the limits of its context. Like, "not stock" is a definite part of the idea, but it's harder to pin down than it might seem at first. A hot rod is a dialectical response to a design proposition on the part of an established manufacturer, understood as having some kind of authority to define types which the rest of us don't have. A hot rod consists in an answer to something — which often includes that authority, implicitly or explicitly. Henry Ford says, "1930 Model A shall be so," to which the hot rodder answers, "no; 1930 Model A shall be so." This implies that we understand manufacturer as being a different kind of thing as hot rodder. The question is, does the term hot rod mean anything when we can't make that distinction?

The distinction was a lot vaguer in 1908 than it was in 1988 (I submit that the long process of separation contained a sort of knee point around 1933-34, after which the industry establishment's programme of self-deification accelerated drastically.) We're on solid enough ground in 1950. Could the same be said in 1903?

 

Dad when was the first car race?when the second car was finished

 

I enjoy your deep reflections Ned...they do challenge my level of understanding but yes I believe I was just thinking Hotrod even if understood as something else is way older than one would imagine.

The fact that Henry made the one of a kind Racers before he was a Manufacturer aka Ford Motor Company is interesting as it really represents brilliant minds fabricating go fast using numerous materials much like Hotrodders later in the evolution...

I guess one big difference is the later periods namely the later 30s and the 40s had a plethora of Manufactured Auto to use as bases for aftermarket go fast Modification...aka Hotrod and of course Race Cars...but we must remember fabricators didn't always use an automobile as a base for Race car or Hotrod...

Henry lacked automotive base material but they scratch built go fast...I also imagine he had a Goliath Auto Empire evolving in his mind beyond the Racers but it's obvious as it played out that he never forgot his Racing roots that were oozing so many elements of Hotrod...

 

Credit to Photographer, Owner
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https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/gow-job.34415/

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-birth-of-the-gow.953753/

https://www.classicspeedsters.com/b...s-revisited-gow-jobs-and-homebuilt-speedsters

Related Threads...​

 

The Hotrod or the Racecar

Just on a side note just behind this Highboy/Fenderless Racer is a pretty wild Custom Pickup...I cant recall but Frank Kurtis may have had a hand in it...



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The pickup appears to be one of the Southern California Plating 32/34 Ford roadster pickups used to deliver chrome parts and as a "push truck" at LA race tracks. Designed by George DuVall and worked on by Frank Curtis. Pre-dated the famous 1935 Ford phaeton.

 

That's the one...great info V8

 

https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/4492/rec/16

...a link to Mines Field racing hit play and fullscreen and enjoy...truly incredible footage of Racers before Highboy was a term...maybe not, maybe it originated then...one thing for sure the connection to Hotrod is pretty evident...

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https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/6897/rec/19

...Ninety Mile Beach NZ

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https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/MVTN/id/6553/rec/41

...Dry Lakes Speed Runs 1930...Light and powerful=Faster

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...off to the races jolly ho!!

Fill up the water and check the gas eh!





...Giver...

There is such a close connection really...

Credit to Photographer, Owner
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