I like to watch the various car shows on the weekend and the hot rods they feature always seem to be Fords/Chevys/Chryslers (including Dodge & Plymouth).
Obviously, this because those three manufacturers made the most/popular cars.
How about some cool cars from other manufacturers? Any recommended sites?
I’m sick to death of seeing '32-34 Fords, '55-57 Chevys, and late 60s/early 70’s Mopars.
Hell, I’d pay to see someone slam a Pacer, Gremlin, or some other car not known for its hot-rodability.
Here’s a Studebaker . If you search this site, you’ll find a lot of non big three vehicles. What I’d like to see is a hot rod with something besides(yawn) a 350 chevy motor.
I don’t know whether you noticed, but the rodder fraternity is not exactly a hothouse of individual creativity. It’s dominated by grown-up high school boys, Joe Sixpacks who want most of all to Belong.
The rods may be different from one another, but they’re alike in all the important ways: shag carpet, bucket seats, flame jobs, mags, yada yada. The innovators in the field, the George Barrises et al, are few and notable.
I was watching American Hot Rod (fast forwarding any part where Boyd Coddington is flapping his gums) and a recent program was about the crew building a hot rod for some large corporation (I forget the company) and before the car was announced, I said, “I’ll bet it’s going to be a '32-34 Ford”.
I was right.
Once in a while, an oddity will pop up. Like this 1936 Airflow. Yes, it’s a Chrysler, but at least it isn’t a Challenger or Charger.
I always loved the Stone, Woods & Cook '41 Willys. At the same NHRA Museum is a pretty cool Fiat.
Back when I had a subscription ('80s), I saw an Airflow in Hot Rod Magazine.
How 'bout A Pacer 4×4? Here’s a Pacer at the drag races.
Come to think of it, that Airflow article I saw in Hot Rod also featured a LaSalle.
Found a Webshots folder with a bunch of unusual ones. Also, try browsing the My Classic Car photo galleries, here’s a '31 Buick. Look for the My Classic Car TV show if you get The Speed Channel.
Back in the day there was article in Hot Rod or Car Craft about a guy who put a 400 in a Gremlin. He said it was tricky to handle because the rear end kept trying to pass the front.
There are quite a few V8 Datsun 240-Z’s kicking around. You could make a beautiful car out of one of those.
There are some VW Bug “hot rods” around. Fenders removed and the quarter panels smoothed to look hi-boy, chopped top, primer paint jobs with Mooneyes stickers… the whole 9 yards.
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rolls.pleats/ContNo7bug.jpg
I don’t really see the point. It’s the automotive equivalent of mixing metaphors: “It’s a sensible German economy car with the soul of a 50s greaser!”
I once knew a guy (online) who had a Model A body on a mid-70s Jeep 4X4 with a Cadillac 500 engine. Sure, a Model A is a little bellybutton-ish (i.e., everybody has one), but the final product looked as much like a logging truck as a street rod. Besides, how many people go mudding in their hotrod?
People have put 70s Eldorado drivetrains (500CID, front wheel drive) into the backs of bugs. I think that the focus was on power to weight, definitely not on handling.
I used to own (built it myself) a '47 Hudson pickup with a Ford 302.
Like this one ; mine was blue and gray.
You’ll occasionally see Pontiacs (especially older ones like GTOs) tricked out for radical performance but still powered by a Pontiac mill. The 421 high-output (HO) and super-duty (SD) engines were pretty impressive high-compression engines. (Problem with running them nowadays is getting the fuel for them).
I remember seeing a 401-powered AMC Pacer that had serious motion to it, too.
Modern thing I tend to see a lot is a Neon with a previous-gen Stang GT engine and drivetrain shoehorned in.
Failing that, the SRT-4 Neon engine goes a lot of places. Including a Bonneville '32 Ford.
How bout a pimped out Isetta?
http://www.mothers.com/powertour/powertour99/PT99_Txt/PT99_May19.html
Unless there are available parts for hot rodding the process gets much more complicated. Not a lot of shops have the ability to fabricate a lot of parts from scratch.
