I know that the words HOT ROD has been around for a long time. I would like to know where the term originated, when it originated, and whom is responsible for coining the term HOT ROD ??
As my Dad explained it to me: The efforts to modify your mode of transportation to fit your needs or to stand out from all the other " black ones" came about 32' ish and with the new looking 32 model the term Rod was coined a few years later by the guys hanging out wrenching. Somewhere shortly after, adding speed equipment and making a Rod faster made it " Hot". The "Hot Rod's" were the faster, altered in some manner cars the younger crowd were driving.
I was told years ago that it was a short term for hot roadster, that makes sense but I thought I would ask for more information.
well, I know where the term that predated it, "hop up" came from...it was a horse racing term, when you "hopped up" your horse with cocaine. back in the early days of rodding, boat racing and horse racing were the best comparisons, which is why some of those "tail draggers" were low in the back, like a motorboat raising its bow up on acceleration. Then came the "California Rake", which did it in reverse to allow for bigger tires in the rear. Oh, did you say you wanted more trivia (whaddya mean you didn't?) in the days of dirt roads, you dragged something across it to smooth it out of ruts, and the main street into town got the most commerical traffic for those needing product, so it became "the main drag" since its the one the farmers wanted dragged the most, both to get product in and crops out. "Drag race" may have come from this. well, sun's setting, I guess that's my day's worth of trivia spouting.
I don't think the term "Hot Rod" came into existence until after WWII. Prior to that they were known as "Gow-jobs" or "Soup-ups". It is generally accepted that the term comes from "Hot Roadster."
As for Gow Jobs; Many disputes over the origin - But the most likely explanation is this; In California in the '40s and early '50s hot Rodders despised the term "hot rod" and never used it. They considered it a black eye. To the general public a hot rod was beat-up jalopy with no muffler, careening through a school zone with a juvenile delinquent at the wheel. To the newspapers they were a menace on par with Communism and ought to be stamped out by the police. To the serious student of speed who had a lot of brains, sweat, and money tied up in a sophisticated performance car, this was nothing but an insult. They used the terms hop-up or gow job. So where did these come from? Well, "hop" and "gow" were names for opium which were in use as far back as the late 1800s and probably came from the Chinese. In the old days they improved the performance of race horses with drugs including opium and cocaine. This was not even illegal until the early '20s and continued surreptitiously after that. A horse that went faster than it had any right to, was said to be 'hopped-up" or "gowed-up". From there it was a short step to apply the same names to a souped-up car. By the way, human drug users got the same names. If you read a few hard-boiled detective stories from the '30s and '40s you will soon find reference to "hopped-up punks" and "gowed-up hoodlums." And people still say "Johnny is all hopped up on drugs"
The Jalopy Journal
