Rare cars that make cool Hot Rods or would make cool Hot Rods

How about a '47 Cadillac Series 61 fastback?

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Working on a Delage right now, pretty nice project to play with. Mostly going back to original, but the owner is OK with some upgraded materials and performance as long as it can be easily reversed.

 

From member "And" a few years ago... a hot rodded Muntz Jet, perhaps?

 

mercedes

 

No picture but I saw an old Rolls Royce with a 460 Ford motor at a car show in Puyallup, WA several years ago, thought that was pretty cool. Maybe someone on here is familiar with it.

 

Posting pictures anyplace?
I would love to see this one.

Also, I've always thought an newer Diesel drive train in an older Mercedes would be a blast.

 

If I won the lottery I would rod the shit out of a Bugatti type 41

 

Don' know if its the same one but there was one at the plesanton goodguys show this year unsure of the drivetrain. Not my cup o tea but cool none the less

 

Thought this one was pretty unique, a 1946 Riley

 

1950 saab. saw one in the junkyard a few weeks back and cant stop thinking about it. would be different for sure.

 

How about a 41 Packard 110 350zz4, 700r4, transam rear, corvette clip with bags. 1 of 50 known in Packard world, being hunted down still today

 

Wish I could have taken pics of the car I striped a couple years ago but it is being built to compete for the Ridler Award and pics are not allowed.A 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K with 280SE twin cam engine and Corvette suspension front and rear.Grille and hood has been sectioned 1 1/2 inches (hood sides are piecut). Hopefully it will be ready this year.
This year at RM Auctions 2 540K's sold for about 4.5 mil apiece.Got to be the most expensive hot rod I've ever seen.

 

That Riley is amazing any more info on it ? It is exactly what I was looking for a step out of the ordinary ,cool lines to begin with rodding it only made it better . Some people modify only to change things but some of Detroits greatest cars can be cleaned up & improved as long as its done with care and thought about the end result

 

I think a volvo 544 would be fun to hack up.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skandix/4919060435/lightbox/

 

A 55 300c would be fun to turn into a gasser.

 

always wanted a '32 B-400

 

The body is what sets the value on a 500k/540k. The ones that brought the big money this year were all very very desirable bodies. That said, the cheapest body on a 540k will still bring 500k to 800k. I doubt anyone is cutting up a real 540k to build a rod.

 

Me Too = I always dreamed of a B-400 and A 33 Vicky, so I cut up a derelict 33 Fordor and made Both a Vicky and a Convertible Sedan with a Decklid which Ford Sedans did not have.and the final product is Rare,as Ford discontinued the B-400 Convertible Sedan after producing 1,100 units in 32

 

I've had thoughts of cutting the square ass off my '41 continental Cabriolet and adding some long swooping something in its place , what i don't know , but the rest of the car has such nice low stretched out lines that it begs for some special treatment to the rearend ,the V-12 could stay or maybe a Jag twin cammer, or?

 

I've seen this before, thats one badass car!

 

Yeah, I could see that one stuffed with a SOHC 427 Ford motor....

 

Unfortunately there are different interpretations of "improve".

I like to take rare cars and re-engineer them for usability in modern traffic but retain the look and feel of the original - that makes me a diehard resto rodder. Pick your car right and you do not have to mess with perfection other than update the mechanicals and creature comforts - or lack thereof....

 

Perhaps: but I shall continue to maintain that a Duesenberg or a Bugatti is where the ultimate hot rod is headed. We are used to the hot rod being so established a phenomenon as to be able to self-inspire, i.e. hot rods inspire other hot rods. Indeed, this elusive notion of tradition that this forum is all about has a lot to do with that process of ongoing self-inspiration and the resultant conceptual social commons around the hot rod idea. But that was not always the case: what were early T speedster builders trying to do but to emulate the mainstream racers and expensive sports cars of their day? The hot rod phenomenon certainly continued to absorb inspiration from outside its own boundaries for many years afterwards.

But I digress. One approach to the OP's challenge could involve cars that are not rare due to their being expensive or exclusive, but because they didn't make it commercially or otherwise. The wave of weird American start-ups after WWII is an obvious place to look. How about a gasser-style Tucker with a tube axle up front and a blown, air-cooled flat-8 at the back? What could one do with a Davis? or an Airway, Bobbi-Kar, Brogan, Buckaroo, Comet, Crofton, Cubster, Delcar, Del Mar, Gadabout, Gregory, Hoppenstand, Keller, Mustang, Playboy, Publix, Pup, Scootmobile, Thrift-T, or Town Shopper? I've got a sort of instinct that these smaller ones would be cooler if not done too cartoonishly, i.e. 1100cc motorbike engines rather than blown Hemis. Some might be extinct and some might never actually have been made at all, but all were overambitious projects launched from too-modest bases and as such, if the relevant information could be had, should be quite easy to replicate. Of course in some cases one would have to wonder why anyone would want to do so ...

But what about a Gordon Diamond, a Cortez sedan, a Stout 'Y', or a Beech Plainsman?





There were similar attempts, generally more successful, before WWII. The fashion for "companion marques" springs to mind: not only LaSalle, Marquette, and Viking but also Erskine, LaFayette, Rockne, Roosevelt, and Whippet. Of course Pontiac originated as a companion for Oakland. And then there are Continental, DeVaux, Durant, Elcar, Jordan, and many others, many of which are really so ordinary that it makes more sense to start with either original or repro Ford bits.

Then there are Europeans: I think a Jowett Javelin with a Subaru flat-four could be quite interesting. Likewise the Steyr type 50 was always a better Volkswagen than the Volkswagen; so was the Tatra 57 in its various iterations. All these are relatively rare and would make cool hot rods at the hot-modernish-four sort of level. I merely scratch the surface.

 

Supercharged 1951 Packard straight 8 flathead with 352 cu inch motor with polished aluminum cylinder head and with triple carbs and open exhaust on the crowd side of the car...... and ofcourse with the cool bird hood ornament!

 

Old lakes , salt racer I knew once said he started a Meesserschmitt as a land speed car somehow a foreign car body rule change stopped it how cool would that be or maybe a citroen done same way ?

 

There have been Citroëns on the salt. I'm sure it depends what classes they're running in.

 

Auburn Speedster

 

In portland there is a ol boy with VIPER V-10 powered 1941 Packard Darrin parked next to his street rodded 1941 Lincoln Contintal

 

Who is the coachbuilder? Is it a 3½ or a 4¼?