Thread: Do you know the differance between a Hot Rod and a Street Rod?

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Thanks everyone for the replies. Again, thanks to this forum, you can lay it out there and get some really honest and great feedback.
Ken

Those that are afraid to/hate to go fast drive street rods. Those who want to change the rotation of the world tend to like hot rods. I'd agree with others that street rods have mannors where hot rods can be rather impolite

i learned the meaning yesterday. the local cruiser club here had a small show and they are a club consisting of very drivable cars not much in the way of speed. i went anyway with my hot rod,(the only one) and people spent more time looking at my car and asking questions about it then anybody elses, except the judges that were club members, they walked past my car and did not even look at it. trophy time came around and out of 50 cars with 25 trophys, i did not even place, there was a 60 something falcon that had duct tape for bondo, really a whole roll. the car puked a gallon of antifreeze when he pulled it in, it was worth a hundred bucks tops, he got a trophy. i was not mad but i sure thought youve got to be kidding, duct tape man got one before me. i am sure being a club member had its perks there. it was a good time anyway i met a lot of nice people! so now i think a street rod is practical in driving standards and a hot rod is a radical design built with speed in mind.

I don't mind being thought of as "the obnoxious, rude bastard in that red car" because once I shut it off and you really get to know me, I'm just like any other "Street Rodder"
Ken

mooneye, you got to love the anti-hotrodders!! It wont be long before they start driving KIAs into the shows. I have been to one show where there were legit judges actually walking around every car with clipboards.... that was my first show haha Can't count how many shows where your situation has happened. However, still one or two guys at each show that I can talk hotrods with.

Red wrote:

So would the truck that we are building be a hotrod or a streetrod? It is a 51' Ford F1 with a 429, I "think" it has just over 400hp at the shaft. (I think we need to beef it up, a lot, but not my money or truck) leaf springs in back, but has disc brakes in front, is getting power brakes, power steering and probably aircon (Fresno in the summer you know). I always call it a hotrod, am I right?

Technically, Red you are correct. SEMA has messed with the laws in nearly all states to legally declare that a street rod is a pre-49 modified or re-constructed vehicle. So in most states your truck no matter how modified would not be a street rod simply because of the year of manufacture. Of course there are some states that have yet to subscribe to this. A couple of years ago I saw a modified VW with Maryland Street Rod tags. (Kind of made me feel like tossing my cookies.)

Distinquishing between a two pre-49 cars of the same vintage would become a matter of opinion of the owner and the observer as to whether it was a street rod or a hot rod. My 34 has attributes that can put it in both classes. As time goes on, I think I prefer the hot rod class over the street rod class.

Define me..........define me............

Haven't you ever heard;
A streetrod has a 350 Chevy in the front, and wax in the trunk,
A hotrod has a flat head Ford in the front, and tools in the trunk!
CHAZ

i dont know about the flat head defining a hot rod, but the tool box is right on the money

Well under that description I guess my 34 would definitely be a street rod and not a hot rod. I have no trunk to put tools in. I just put them on the back seat.

Since I have no trunk, I more often than not leave wrenches on the intake manifold (by accident) .. Just the other weekend, we pulled into the local 4 bucks only to find my engine mount bolts all backing out!!! One had already fallen out. I called the house to have them bring a 9/16ths wrench. However, all they could find was a 14mm...come to find out, I had what I needed all along. The 9/16 was on the intake manifold!!

I grew up thinking a hot rod was any vehicle you not only modified, but mainly
had go fast. I don't mean pretend sounding go fast, the black stripe kind. When people ask me about my Vette, I call it a hot rod, right/wrong??????? I think someone made the name street rod up to sell more magazines....

Sell more magazines??? Maybe. Sell more Billet? Definitely.

My basic reaction to this question is: A Street Rod has AC - Fuel Injection - and Cruise control, and a Hot Rod has Handles - Hinges - and Horsepower. Some of us lean towards one or the other, and other folks just like them all. I tend to like the horsepower one. I like my cars to sit right, look right and have a bit of an attitude and be a little abrasive, like they mean business. Just like Don said, "mine are always basic blood and guts boneshaking rods with few creature comforts". So I started thinking of my youth, ( teenager in the late '50's early '60's ). Back then in my neck of the woods we had what I called 'mild customs' and the other 'factory hotrods'. In my little world those mild customs morphed into street rods, and those modified factory cars into hotrods. As I remember the girls always liked the mild customs! Bob

I like to think of my 48 DeSoto as a HotRod, cause that's the original term I grew up with in the 50's and 60's. I think HotRods are driven and not into trophys, and StreetRod is another name for 'Trailer Queen' in seek of show trophys.

For those who remember back in the days of HotRods, they were NEVER trailered. Never, NEVER.

Jack