History "Hot Rod". What is the origin of the Term??

So my friend Wayne turns to me and says, "Where exactly does the term Hot Rod come from?"
I turn to him and say "Huh??? " and it occurs to me that I think I know, and I think I read it, but......??? I told him , "Somebody on the HAMB will know for sure!" Need a little help on this one!!

 

Gray Baskerville always used to say that it was a shortened version of "hot roadsters", according to some quotes of him in Hot Rod magazine. At that time, he said that they were more commonly referred to as "hop ups" or gow jobs".

 

Pre WWII they were also called HOT IRONS.

 

I always thought that before the war they called them hop ups and all, but that the term hot rod came from hot roadster.

 

I think it ws originally a Navy thing. On shore leave, the sailors would enter the bars with hot rods, and go back to the ship having had a gow job.

 

ass i was told it referfs to the fact that many early hot roders in a need for speed stroked their engines. meaning they used different conecting "rod's" in their motor. and thus the term hot rod was born. the term grew to be used for all custom cars of the day because they were the only ones using this engine mod. but the term became universal regardless of the type of engine. but then again what do i know?

 

x2
on the special (Hot) connecting rods (Rods) required for engine mods

 

My wife just asked me that today...

 

.... I think it's short for the ancient Greek phrase "Hotilicus Rodimicus" meaning, Bad Ass Chariot

 

You guys might be on to something there, with stroking. I remember an answer in one of the letters to the editor many moons ago, where someone asked how to increase their horsepower with the least amount of money.

The editor replied: look in the NHRA rule book (No Hot Rods Allowed), and do everything they say you can't do (stroke the motor).



I still have a copy of Hot Rod where Edelbrock was selling stroker kits with pistons for the Dodge 241 hemi in 1954.

 

That's what I've always been told.

 

But, this sounds a lot better.

 

Well as far as I know it all started with the early roadster races in Southern California. Only Roadsters were allowed to race and they were advertised as Hot Roadsters which evolved over time into Hot Rod. I was told that in 1955 and I guess its true, The Source was Hank from Hanks Speed Shop in Berwyn, Pa.

 

I have read pre and post war mags, letters to the editor , the cars were called ''gow jobs'', then later '' jobers'' after that ''hot jobs'' . I have also read that the term ''hot rod'' was coined by the press when reporting on auto accedents. It was said that it may have been a typo, of ''hot jobs''. Being called a ''hotrodder'' was like being called a hoodlum .

 

hahaha! yes, thats what ive always heard as well....

 

I think you have confused Latin with Greek.

 

.. by glittering torchlite shall the arrogant princes gallop insolent chariots....
They shall jostle each other ....
I heard it stemmed from overheating issues, but ...

 

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.

 

That is AWESOME!

 

NOPE.

"Hotilicus Rodimicus" is the latin name for the road runner. I saw that in a cartoon yesterday.

 

makes you wonder how things would be different if they named HOT ROD magazine GOW JOB instead.

I don't think I'd want to be known as a Gowjobber.

 

"gowjob" I hear that and all I can think of is dentures in a glass by the bed.

 

That is funny!

 

Gray Baskerville was right... RIP

 

... I always get those languages I can't speak all screwed up

 

... you know now that you said that, I saw that cartoon and that may be what they called him, was it exactly the same, that's wild.

 

I read somewhere (TRJ???) that the term "Hot Rod" was originally not a complimentary or welcome term. In fact, like "lead sled" was originally a dersive term for a builder that heaped on the filler rather than do quality bodywork, "Hot Rod" was kind of the "R** R**" phrase of it's day.

 

My Dad built his first hill climber in 1935, and was in the Hot Rod world hot and heavy untill his death 3 years ago. This is what he told me:

Hot Rod, was a term used because of the stroker motors being built

Gow job was a name used alot till after the war.

On a interesting side note, he said that Gow job was a slur of Go cat Go. All his old rodding buddies pronounced it that way as well (Gow as in Go). But lately I have heard it pronouned as Gow (as in Ow I smashed my finger)

After 45 years of Gow jobs, it will always be Gow(Go)-jobs for me, and Hot Rods are modified (stroked) motors.

And now with the new lic. plates I hear coming out in Texas, I guess my 55 Shoebox (chevy) will be a custom?????

 

When I first opened the Hotrodsonline.com website in 1993 I received a question about the origin of the name hotrod.

Where did the name hotrod come from?

When I was 13, I lived next door to a policeman in Dearborn Michigan. I asked him where the name came from. He said it was a police term used first to describe a firearm, later a souped up car., but it had it's origins in the early age of the firearm. When muskets were loaded and the powder was loaded with a ram rod. If the battle was fierce, the rod would become red hot to the touch. The person in battle was a called hotrodder, a person fiercely in battle, or ready to do battle.
As time went on and guns changed, it still was called a rod along with other names, but primarily called a rod. This is where the police part comes in. Police began to call the piece used in the commission of a crime, a hot rod. They also used the term Gat, which was short for Gatling gun, the first automatic weapon They also called the person using a gun in the commission of a crime, as using a hot rod. So it was a police terminology, or slang, for a hot gun or hot rod used quickly at the drop of a hat.
Now, I always believed this, but it was years later that I found proof.
I was watching an old movie made in the early forties, call "the devil hitches a ride", and in that movie a cop involved in a car chase, said over the radio that he was following a suspect and the guy was "packing a hot rod". There was the proof. So this is the most logical explanation that I have ever heard
When I heard that cop yell into the police radio, He's carrying a hot rod, i knew that what my old policeman friend had said was true.
So that i how I believe the name hotrod came about.

The term Gowjobs was simply used to describe a combination "show and go" rod

 

Ok, what does "Gow Job" mean ?