Hot rod

Hot rods are older, often historical, cars. Originally the term was used to the practice of taking an old, cheap car, removing weight (usually by removing roof, hood, bumpers, windscreen and fenders), lower it, change or tune the engine to give more power, add fat wheels and paint it to make it stand out. The term may have originated from "hot roadster" and the term was used in the 1950s and 1960s as a derogatory term for any car that did not fit into the mainstream. Other sources indicate that the term was derived from replacement of connecting rods in engines to allow higher RPMs to be reached without parts failure. In the 1970s hot rodders tried to clean up their reputation and thus they started to use the term "street rod" instead.

Related Topics:
Roof - Hood - Bumper - Windscreen - Fender - Tune - Engine - Wheel - Roadster - 1950s - 1960s - Mainstream - Connecting rod - 1970s

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Hot Rodders, including Wally Parks created the National Hot Rod Association NHRA to bring racing off the streets and onto the tracks. The annual California Hot Rod Reunion and National Hot Rod Reunion are held to honor pioneers in the sport. The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum houses the very roots of hot rodding.

Related Topics:
Wally Parks - NHRA - California Hot Rod Reunion - National Hot Rod Reunion - Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum

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Nowadays people who own hot rods keep them clean and try to make them noticeable. Those who work according to the original idea of cheap, fast and no frills are often called rat rods. There are many magazines that you can look at to see hot rods like Hot Rod Magazine, Street Rodder, and Popular Hot Rodding. There are also television shows like My Classic Car, and Horse Power TV. Hot rods are important to American culture.

Related Topics:
Rat rod - Hot Rod Magazine - Street Rodder - Popular Hot Rodding - My Classic Car - Horse Power TV - American

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Author Tom Wolfe was one of the first to recognise the importance of hot rodding in popular culture, and bring it to mainstream attention, as described in his book The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby.

Related Topics:
Tom Wolfe - Popular culture - The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby

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