Hot Rods Does Preformance Really matter anymore

Crazy Teenagers! Where is Broderick Crawford when you need him?

 

You know, its funny. When I was a young kid/guy in the sixties/seventies, there were old guys around that drove old cars, liked their old cars, were proud of their old cars, but thought that (brace yourself, this will sound familiar if you have been following this thread) ANYONE who modified cars for increased performance (in other words, hot rodders) was an asshole, a tearaway, an immature punk, and not to be trusted. If you had had referred to any of them as "hot rodders" it would have resulted in a fist fight, they absolutely would have shit a brick. Most anyone on here that was around back in the day can vouch for this, we all know them and remember them well, we would often encounter them when we tried to buy a car from them. Back in the day, we referred to these guys as "uncle Daniels".
Here we are one generation later, and the "uncle Daniels" now demand that we re-write the definition of "hot rod", so that "uncle Daniels" can be referred to as "hot rodders".
Not only that, they actually want to re-write the definition to EXCLUDE those dangerous asshole punks that modify cars for increased performance... Not in my world, not ever.

 

I read a reply that I totally agree with. The folks who are souping up their cars are generally tuners, at least up here. The older stuff gets rarer and rarer. Tastes change. A guy who is lost looking at a flathead may be right at home looking at a WRX or vice versa. Hot rodding is truly a ME thing. That's my 2 cents. Take it easy

 

Awesome George
Uncle Daniel is still trying to tell us what to do.

 

I read somewhere that the first race took place shortly after they built the second car. So to the engineers that built them, that's when it all started.(maybe not exactly like that)
So whether you believe performance matters or not, and to each his own. It is still the biggest reason ( I believe) that so many of the old cars of different eras have been saved. Get rid of all model A's that don't have a banger and see what's left. I'm not knocking on you guys that have bangers either.
Some styles that were good looking, but not so performance oriented were saved because of there looks. But someplace down the line some gear head was stuffing in a bigger motor.
Few people ever wanted to save a car that was slow and ugly when it was built, although some have, but few and far in between.
Your probably not going to see many K car restorations going on 20 yrs from now. Most have already been crushed. Go figure.

 

I go exactly as fast as my budget allows.

 

Have you ever noticed that when you offer your opinion you "throw your 2 cents in" but when people ask you for it they only offer "a penny for your thoughts"? That's 50% under the offer price, talk about a bubble in the economy. Take a penny, leave two. Anyway, here's mine.

It doesn't have to matter to everyone, but it matters to me. I've built a lot of cars, mostly day 2 muscle cars (stock isn't as much fun) but a few 30's era fords. Always wanted a flathead Ford V8, never had one, not until a couple of years ago that is when I located a good donor block and built it...hard. I didn't even have a car to put it in at the time but it was going to be the fastest flathead I could afford (according to my wife, I still couldn't afford it). I spent more money on the motor than on some cars I have built, I could have built 3 or 4 SBC's for the same money. I am working on the body and frame now, when finished, I plan to race it whenever and wherever I can, for as long as I am able. Why? Because I want a timing plaque riveted to the dash that I earned...not bought. I want a little sticker in my window from El Mirage, Bonneville, Woodburn, wherever because I raced there. I want to make memories and I don't mind breaking stuff in the process. I want to compete against others with the same passion and learn from their mistakes and laugh at mine. I want to have to buy expensive rear tires at seemingly ridiculous intervals. I like the smell of 92 octane clear fuel, going in and coming out and try not to look at what I'm paying for it. I like three pedals on the floor, no roof over my head and loud exhaust. I like fast cars.

When my end comes, the images that I will enjoy as I recount my years will not include the many traffic violations I have racked up, the high insurance rates I have paid, the number of trips home on the rollback my cars have made or the ungodly amount of money I wasted playing around in this hobby over the last 40 years (my wife thinks they're "investment cars", we'll keep that on the down low). I will however recall my first time behind the wheel of my brothers 69 Camaro well before I was old enough to be legal, my first car and the learning experience of "SBC horsepower-to-minimum wage ratio", my first run down the drag strip and getting the light and of course my first flathead Ford V8. My wife and kids will be in there somewhere for sure but that is OT. Performance matters to me. Insert penny here.

 

^^^ Ryan, I just added that last line to my signature

 

^ What a smoocher

 

I'm a tradtional hotrodder, and i want to go as fast as i can with old parts, meaning all engine internals, i did cheat my daily running 6" scat h beams but otherwise every part was pre 1970 intake, cam and all. Being a daily i cant go full retard and run alchohol and 4.88 gears but i still move. My version of streetability is needing to clean the plugs out on a regular trip to and from work. Hell i still get 22 mpg on the highway even with 3.73's. When i finally rebuild this motor in 150-180k miles i'll be the only motherfucker on the daily commute with a 6-71 sticking out of my hood.

Btw for those who dont know, the car in my picture is my daily, l79, m22, 3.73's and a rust hole big enough in my floorboards to drop a softball thru

Now if i take the traditional title off, i'd probably be going as fast as i can afford/manage to drive daily, but honestly that has little interest to me since it gets too expensive for my tastes

 

Preformance? Is that like making motor noises while you sketch out your next project? LOL-1/2. Gary

 

Performance mattered to me a couple decades ago. In fact it mattered more than anything. As an accomplished restorer and finisher you'd think I would refinish my own too right? Nope, and I bought the car because I liked the color. A bit over a year later I was ready to attack the streets of Motown in the wee hours of the morning. Did my best to hide the 1050 Dominator, the Merlin heads (which I ported), even the CID by running an inch smaller dampener. I didn't bother to hide the 4 solenoids around that 1050, in fact some of those I'd see had up to 6 (!) and I knew I wouldn't mess with those guys "up there". After 2 weekends of testing in "no E.T." nights I figured I was ready to hit the switches and get immediately tossed from the track for going sub-10.00 sec. I ran consistent 11.40s with a tight converter and 4.30 gear so there was ample power. In the 1st 600' I went faster and quicker than I'd ever dreamed, and that dream quickly turned into a nightmare. The system was delivered with the wrong plate. Modified by none other than Kurt Urban, I guess I forced too much "juice" into my BBC that was built with all the heart and soul I could muster. It surpassed my predictions "on motor", and broke my heart on the bottle which I had set up for 100HP then 150HP for a total of 250. With the mods to the plate it was more like 400+, way too much for stock rods and TRW slugs. Performance still mattered and I had a spare bullet in the corner with better rods, crank and block. What didn't matter was the street. The same night that I relieved the 1st block of it's #4 cyinder wall (it was gone from 9:00 o'clock to 3:00 o'clock, and from top to bottom) the local constabulary did an ignorant and unlawful raid on anything and anybody at the donut shop we hung out in. I had lots of disposable cash in that car, and back then it wasn't easy to come by. Some cars got impounded and lost big $$$$ parts in the impound lots (remember, this was Motown). Some were jailed and still carry that scar. Mine was at home licking it's wounds acquired 20 miles south of there and I showed up late to the party. Glad I did too, and I made up my mind that it should matter at the track, eventually netting me 10.30s at just south of 130 MPH. After almost 500 rounds of racing and only 1 showing in the finals (with another driver) I learned that bracket racing wasn't for me. He got there in 7 rounds that included 2 red lights against us, 2 breakouts in our favor, a bye run (for the 1 round it ran the number) and a round that he drove for the win with an awesome light, only to go red in the final. I gave it up in 97 and I still have an unreasonable desire to do it again. Maybe in a 'glass bodied Deuce roadster with a zippy SBC and all kinds of vintage appeal? I'll bet I could build it to...to...yeah right. I could shit and play with the stink too, right? Some go from there and become "The Snake", some become the best in their class (ever hear of Scotty Richardson?), some keep flogging away until they can't.

Today a good performance is when my work wins everything in sight, everywhere it goes. A good performance is a decent cash flow in the business. A good performance will be finishing what I have and hanging with my favorite like-minded hoodlums. Trust me, I "get it" too. It's a lie to say it can't "get you" because in those days that car owned me, not the other way around. Logic and obligation can silence the loudest bravado in this thread or within your favorite peer group. If I can go anywhere I please with confidence, knowing that I'll get back without drama or calling road service, that my friends and peers enjoy my shit as much as I do, that when it's just me and that thing and milk crate with a fresh cup of coffee and I like it just as much as when I got it, that my friends is an Oscar winning performance. I've only been 165 (but it was in a Ferrari), but I went from zero to near a 130 many times. What a rush. I've raced on the streets and at the track, and I won lots more on the street, but today it's armed dope dealers and crooked cops. Honor is as big a joke as sportsmanship out there. I'll take my brand of performance any night of the week, and even twice on Sunday. But you can bet your flat tappet cam it'll be in some sort of hot rod regardless of how "hot" it actually ends up.

 

[QUME="theHIGHLANDER, post: 11109897, member: 6517"]Performance mattered to me a couple decades ago. In fact it mattered more than anything. As an accomplished restorer and finisher you'd think I would refinish my own too right? Nope, and I bought the car because I liked the color. A bit over a year later I was ready to attack the streets of Motown in the wee hours of the morning. Did my best to hide the 1050 Dominator, the Merlin heads (which I ported), even the CID by running an inch smaller dampener. I didn't bother to hide the 4 solenoids around that 1050, in fact some of those I'd see had up to 6 (!) and I knew I wouldn't mess with those guys "up there". After 2 weekends of testing in "no E.T." nights I figured I was ready to hit the switches and get immediately tossed from the track for going sub-10.00 sec. I ran consistent 11.40s with a tight converter and 4.30 gear so there was ample power. In the 1st 600' I went faster and quicker than I'd ever dreamed, and that dream quickly turned into a nightmare. The system was delivered with the wrong plate. Modified by none other than Kurt Urban, I guess I forced too much "juice" into my BBC that was built with all the heart and soul I could muster. It surpassed my predictions "on motor", and broke my heart on the bottle which I had set up for 100HP then 150HP for a total of 250. With the mods to the plate it was more like 400+, way too much for stock rods and TRW slugs. Performance still mattered and I had a spare bullet in the corner with better rods, crank and block. What didn't matter was the street. The same night that I relieved the 1st block of it's #4 cyinder wall (it was gone from 9:00 o'clock to 3:00 o'clock, and from top to bottom) the local constabulary did an ignorant and unlawful raid on anything and anybody at the donut shop we hung out in. I had lots of disposable cash in that car, and back then it wasn't easy to come by. Some cars got impounded and l.[/QUOTE]

I won't even try reading that continuous long winded mess.

Have you ever heard of this thing called paragraphs ?

 

Oh Cripes ! Now the grammer police are out .
dave

 

That's the Grammar Police.

They arrived with the Spelling Police.

 

Ha hah ha hah

 

A couple of hundred horse power and cross plys is plenty of fun.

 

Not to be confused with the Suede-Denim Secret Police.

 

My 460 powered 66 F100 does good enough for me these days.

 

I'm probably in deep shit if they have tazers.

 

Give FG a thread where he can pontificate on how he is the most traditional knowing, ( why he has every car magazine ever printed, plus he invented Wikipedia) the most speed freakiest, (why he once drag raced himself and won!)
the best engine builder/head porter/carb tuner the world has ever known, just ask him. He runs several websites, and is the best poster on each one...they used to call Andy Grantelli Mr. 500, FG is Mr. Speed. He can take a brigs lawn mower engine and win a top fuel race with just a screwdriver and toothpick for tools.
Please make sure you listen to him real good...I would but I have him on my ignore list

 

Quite the diatribe for somebody on your ignore list, no?