Hot Rods...Alive and well, Different but so much the same Options

[awd4kicks]

Have any of you seen that special on the SPEED channel for ‘Hot Rods’? I watched a small portion of it the other day and it is cool. It also helped me put my finger on something I had not before.

The term ‘Hot Rod’ has been around at least since the WWII vets hopped up their daily drivers and ran them at the Salt flats before drag strips were even built. The theme to their hobby was cheap light weight vehicles that they could modify for the most performance. Their version of performance was straight line top speed that graduated into the fastest car in a given distance. These guys were masters at home built mods because they didn’t have any other choice. They reground their own cams, installed cylinder heads from other engines, balanced cranks by hand, and pulled every pound of weight out of their cars in an effort to make them faster.

Ever since I can remember the term ‘Hot Rod’ has been in my vocabulary. I have always dreamed of these wild speed machines and having a few in my grasp. Since I got into the DSM scene in 2000 I felt maybe I was straying away from the lineage that had built this hobby up from the beginning. After seeing this special on TV though, I think that the heart of ‘Hot Rodding’ is living on in a very real sense with the DSM owners. There are other brands and nationality of makes that get similar treatment, but few other groups have the raw style of no-flash-purpose-built-mods like the DSM owners.

There are quite a few members in our own local area that really live by this theme. I think it’s obvious that akamiami and his ‘jalopy’ can be considered the modern day version of ‘Hot Rodding’ in the most pure sense.

My hat is off to all you that keep the heart of this hobby alive!