In the song, probably. On the album cover, definitely not.
OK line by line:
Just a little deuce coupe with a flat head mill
Flat head Ford V8
But she’ll walk a Thunderbird like it’s standin’ still
walk= pull away from in a race at a walking pace. Like it’s standing still= faster than a walking pace
She’s ported and relieved and she’s stroked and bored.
ported = increase the size of the intake/exhaust poets, relieved = removed (relieved) castings obstructions in the block. Stroked = increased the stroke of the crankshaft to increase the displacement of the engine. Bored = increasing the diameter of the cylinder to increase the displacement of the engine.
She’ll do a hundred and forty with the top end floored
With your foot flat on the floor the car will go 140. Top end = as fast as it will go
She’s my little deuce coupe
You don’t know what I got
(My little deuce coupe)
(You don’t know what I got)
She’s got a competition clutch with the four on the floor
Stronger clutch, shifter on the floor,not the column
And she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar
Exhaust cut out for the lake pipe (run down the side of the car under the doors)
And if that aint enough to make you flip your lid
There’s one more thing, I got the pink slip daddy
Pink slip = Title, he owns it outright.
And comin’ off the line when the light turns green
Well she blows 'em outta the water like you never seen
I get pushed out of shape and it’s hard to steer
Gets sideways under hard acceleration, a handful to correct.
When I get rubber in all four gears
Each time he grabs a new gear there is so much power the tires lose traction and leave tire marks “rubber” on the pavement
The lyrics were written by Roger Christian, BTW. Brain knew as much about cars as he knew about surfing.
Somehow, a DJ writing the lyrics doesn’t fill me with confidence either. Maybe Roger’s brother was into car culture like Dennis was into surfing.
You know, I really love the feel of tuck and roll upholstery.
Anyway, I also thought “deuce” referred to a two-door making “deuce coupé” a bit redundant. Are we sure that it refers to 1932?
Yes we are.
Lake pipes, in case the OP is still wondering.
Wow… all of this lingo is part of my foundational knowledge. Is it really that obscure in the era of chipped, flattened ricers?
Somebody already answered, but I’ll mention this: My dad had a '74 Toyota Hilux with four forward gears (and floor-mounted shift lever). IIRC, the '75 model came with a 5-speed. The MGB was built until 1980, and it had a 4-speed transmission, though electrically-operated overdrive in 3rd and 4th were common.
Are you sure you don’t mean tuners?
Yup. Also, Blinded By the Light by Bruce Springsteen. "Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night "
She’s ported and relieved and she’s stroked and bored
Do people still do this to engines today to make them more powerful or were these things what one had to do to engines 50 years ago to make the 1930’s engines go faster?
Yes, people still do it. Stroking and boring increases the displacement (the volume of air/fuel mix an engine can pump in a complete firing sequence), which is a fairly foolproof method to getting more power out of an engine, since it’s a bigger engine when you’re finished with it.
The heads are usually designed to be somewhat all purpose. There’s plenty to be done (porting and relieving) in most of them if absolute performance is your goal. Here’s a company offering CNC porting of my engine’s heads.
They still do it today. Just not with the engines they put in your average sedan. Some people do the work themselves; others buy complete engine/tranny combinations from speed shops and just drop them in. Watch Counting Cars on the History Channel sometime. Danny and his crew put out some amazing cars, with tuned engines that are works of art.
I hear the lyrics as “she’s got the big slip, Daddy” as in slip differential.
But in differentials, you would want a limited slip, not a big slip. A big slip would be a peg-legged smoke machine. Which is still fun, but not usually fast.
What is a big slip differential? I got curious and I’ve found a few Google results claiming that “big slip” was '60s hot rodder slang for limited slip and that the lyrics actually are “big slip, daddy” For example
Don’t know if this is convincing to anyone but it’s not the only result in a search for “big slip” differential and it always sounded like “big slip” to me.
Listen to the Beach Boys sing the song live - “Beach Boys Concert” is a good place to start. The lyric is “pink slip.” Unless my ears have been fooling me for the last 40 years.
I’ve always heard it as “pink slip.” I just listened to it closely on my phone with my ear buds in, and heard “pink slip.” And I have a pretty faithful cover by Jan and Dean, and they also sing it as “pink slip.”
I’ve always heard, “I’ve got the pink slip, Daddy.”
I think the idea is to suggest not just that he owns the car but that he has the pink slip with him and would bet his car against “Daddy” in a race if Daddy agreed (“Daddy” being short for a dismissive “daddy-o” as others have suggested.