Hot Rod terms that are no longer in common usage

My father (and others of his generation) here in GA always called an accelerator pedal a "foot feed." This was due to Model T's having a lever on the steering column for the throttle. When Model A's came out with a foot operated gas pedal, it got dubbed a "foot feed." To this day, I have never "depressed an accelerator." I have often "mashed the foot feed" when I wanted to go faster. No self-respecting southerner ever "pressed" a button or "depressed" a pedal. We mash 'em.

 

"Cross-country chingo." Damn, I miss Baskerville.

 

The Whole Nine Yards" Giving it everthing your got left"

This was usally the amount of Gun Belt ammo held in the wings of WW2 Fighter Planes Nine Yards of 50 Cal Some times

 

"Racking the pipes", "racking 'em off" ............with glasspacks or equivalent, revving up in a lower gear, then letting off the 'foot feed' and hearing the exhaust note

"peelin' out" "peelin' rubber"......spinning (usually squealing) the tires on initial acceleration

"ridin' shotgun" .........the person on the outward passenger position on a bench seat with three abreast

"cuttin' donuts"......from a standing start, with the front wheels cranked into a turn, peelin' rubber in a circular pattern leaving a "donut" shape of black marks on the pavement

Ray

 

Fun thread!

How about: Double-clutching
Hot wrench, or Oklahoma speed wrench (cutting torch)
Playing chicken (bad idea)
Lakes plugs (long 'Lakewood' style exhaust pipes with a removable cap at the end)
Georgia overdrive (coasting)
Hog's head (clutch housing or removeable differential housing)
Heater (flathead Ford)
Wolf Whistle (stupid add-on noisemaker from J.C. Whitney)
Exhaust cut-outs
Lift kits (C-shaped devices to raise the front end - mostly used on tri-five Chevies)
Titty Pink (very popular color in the late '50s, early '60s)
Crinkle or wrinkle paint
Cherry Bombs (glass-pack mufflers)
Classic Car Wax (the best stuff ever - pure carnuba)
Blue Coral Wax (second best, but most popular and less work)
Diamond pleat upholstery (popular after everyone got tired of roll-and-pleat)
Recapped tires (what most of us could afford)
White wheel wells (hand painted every Saturday before the night's cruise)
Spinner hubcaps (three or four bar)
Racoon or Squirrel tails on your 'ariel' (TOTALLY uncool)

 

That guys a "couple quarts low" = not all there.

 

Persuasion Tool = hammer
Heavy = hot, in the thermal sense, of nuts, bolts, and small parts: "just you try picking it up!"

In my part of the world it was the little yellow lemon-shaped plastic bottles in which lemon juice was sold that went onto the aerial. Even uncooler. It went with the fake fur "lawn on the dash". My cousin had the idea of making little lawnmowers ...

By the way, is a Studebaker called a "Study-baker" anywhere else in the world? As far as I can tell it's a "Stew-de-baker" everywhere except in South Africa.

 

We used to call it "rappin' the pipes"...

 

That would be the whole 27 feet.

Heap, one of the fellas just wrote me about getting to work on my car so he could race me in my heap at MOKAN this year. I haven't heard one called a heap in ages.

That would be heap as in heap of junk I suppose. But from the fella in question it was a compliment, I think.

 

Ha ha ! My wife worked for onstar and used to love talkin' to southerners. She could do it perfect too " I mashed da button an' it just don't go!"

 

I must be old, I use "nosed over" all the time, or "laid down". "laid down" more if it didnt pull off the shift point, "nosed over" more if it was within the last 300 feet.

 

Rat motor (Can I say that on the HAMB)
Mouse motor
Bangin gears
Blew the aft shaft
Purple Hornies get the Chicks
STP = spin tires on pavement
Ricky Racer
Gravel Burner

 

"power bangin' gears" shifting with the "foot feed" on the floor.

"Dago" has nothing to do with a nationality. Ed Stewart, nicknamed “Axle” by friends and customers, gave Hot Rodding a piece of hardware that would impact the look and character of hot rods in the late ’40s. Given the nickname of the town from whence it came, San Diego – “Dago” – the Dago dropped axle, was requisite metal for any ride worthy of being called a hot rod. Re-manufactured, as it was, and marketed by San Diego speed merchant Ed Stewart, the axle was such a pervasive part of hot rodding that it’s nickname became a description for a down-in-front hot rod; when someone described a car as “Dago’d” there was no question about it having a nose-down stance.

 

"Trans" not "Tranny"

 

Two antenna's - duel tanners
wing vents - no draft windows

 

Petal to the metal
Romp on it
Smoke em

 

YO-YO,, A pieced together Hot Rod,,,,,,,, or that other kind we are not supposed to refer to.

 

Another version of the origin of "the whole nine yards": For many years, readi-mix or transit-mix concrete delivery trucks had a 9 cubic yard capacity ... therefore, if you wanted a full truckload you asked for "the whole 9 yards".

 

"haulin' ass"
"layin' rubber"
"gittin' it"

 

And the name was slang used by saliors /radio men on ships while talking about the port and the name stuck. all the saliors called the city of San Diego dago and they were hot rodders..thank you for getting this straight..

 

FOOT FEED is the gas pedal.

 

My dad always said. "I had it wound tighter than an 8 day clock"

 

Correct with air combat and fighter planes, actually comes from WWI and the ammo that was held, was 9 yards. If you went the whole 9 yards (like you said, everything you've got) then you had to head back to base.

 

Wow, I remember the term "full house," no one says that anymore these days.

 

I used to hang around this old man who used to race the equilavent of comp eliminator in the late 60's early seventiesish time period and he would tell me " Kyle, I'd mash the foot feed to the floor til the rev indicator read 9 thousand then side step up the clutch and away it went wwwwwaaaaaaaaaa"

 

May I point out a term never used back then used today, "Old school." Back then all these things were modern, this wasn't old!! Guess if one wants to be truly "old school" don't use the term "old school"!

 

Right on^.

 

Heard these from "old guys" at car shows and the drags as a kid.

Twice pipes = dual exhaust.

Sun deck and toilet seat = continental kit

Mexican radar = curb feelers "I'm in so cal"

Pumpkin = drop out differential

Mom's car = four door (no exceptions)

parts car = see above

door stop = Studebaker Avanti

 

LOL! I think that's where I picked up most of mine when I was a kid!

 

How about "Boss" "Sled" or "Souped Up"? or any call their Motorcycles a Scooter or a scoot