What is a Hot Rod?

Series Summary

The rubber burning and engine roaring of a hot rod race leaves little to be desired. What is more exciting than watching custom hot rods speeding down the track? Well, many car enthusiasts enjoy the restoration and customization process just as much as the race itself. Installing and the tuning a custom engine, tweaking the suspension, and even painting the perfect pinstripes are all part of the glory of creating a race car that will tear up the track. In this free car restoration video series, an expert mechanic discusses the steps for turning an old junker into a classic hot rod. Learn how to evaluate the condition of a car being considered for a hot rod conversion project. Does the engine need replacing? Does the car have too much rust to bother restoring? Before embarking on an extensive restoration project, watch this video series to determine if a particular car is worthy of becoming a classic roadster that will roar down the race track or simply travel to custom-car rallies.

Video Transcript

"Hi. My name is Joel Jones and I own Jones Inc.. We specialize in building custom cars, hot rods and classic restorations. Some of you might be wondering, well, what is a hot rod? Well, depends on who you talk to, but my definition of a hot rod is any vehicle that has been modified, customized to improve its appearance, its functionality, its speed, its performance. So, you can consider a new Corvette that has a custom exhaust, you could consider that a hot rod. You could consider a Honda Civic that has, a ground kit on it a hot rod if you really wanted to. You might offend some people by doing that. The more traditional definition is: anything that's from the fifties, forties, thirties, thats been modified. The traditional roadsters, those would be considered hot rods. I mean, that that's more of a true definition of a for, for most people that are a little bit older than myself and who have been around the industry a little longer than I have. But is doesn't stop there, you can, you would consider even some four wheel drive vehicles hot rods. There's also all different types of hot rods. There's a new thing called rat rods, where none of it is very finished. It's, there's no new shiny paint, they're embracing the rustiness, they're embracing the fact that it's just old, it's cobbled together, and those are considered rat rods. You can, would consider a, an extreme four wheel drive vehicle, that would be considered a hot rod. So there's all kinds of different definitions for it, but really, anything thats been modified, anything thats been customized is a, is a true hot rod."