Hot Rods

[Lil' Joe]

I love them, although I have only just been introduced to their beauty Can anyone post some cool pictures of any? I would be most grateful. And if there are any owners of cool hot rods that would fancy a natter re the performances and driving experiences I'd love to hear from you, either here or via PM.
Thanks guys,

Joe

[cazzer]

As in classic old school 32 ford coupe types or anything souped up in a proper manner?

[central]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hot+rod+images

[300bhp/ton]

Pop over to the NSRA website and forums some very, very cool cars.

[central]

PHer badbird

[Lil' Joe]

As in anything souped up in a proper manner

[Jalopnik]

Here ya go Joe...

http://www.nsra.org.uk/newforum/

http://www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/

Cheers,
Rich

[TheEnd]

http://www.darkmesa.com/motor-city/2505-rolls-royc...

one of my favorites

[Forthright MC]

I've been going to the NSRA/Custom Nats at Shuttleworth for the last few years, more snaps here,

http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/Forthright...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029815&...

[Balmoral Green]

Fantastic. Do you chaps not get pulled by the bib from time to time for lack of fenders/cycle wings and open exhausts? They must be louder than a very loud thing.

Edited by Balmoral Green on Saturday 21st November 11:57

[Poncho pilot]

[Lil' Joe]

And to add the Balmorals question, aree they even road legal? Performancce stats? Driveability?

Jut the sort of thing I was after though, cheers.



Oh, and more more more!!!

Edited by Lil' Joe on Saturday 21st November 12:34

[Disco_Biscuit]

My favorite

Edited by Disco_Biscuit on Saturday 21st November 13:52

[central]

I'm pertty sure they're all street legal except for "badbird" - which is a Pro-Mod Dragster. (around 3,000hp and quarter mile ETs in the low sixes @ over 220 mph)

[central]

These guys ARE street legal -
http://www.streeteliminator.com/index.html

[Balmoral Green]

central said:

I'm pretty sure they're all street legal

I don't know about the open pipes. But the Bentley boys who race take their cycle/blade wings off for the track, but they have to go back on to be legal on the road.

[300bhp/ton]

Lil' Joe said:

And to add the Balmorals question, aree they even road legal? Performancce stats? Driveability?

Jut the sort of thing I was after though, cheers.



Oh, and more more more!!!

Edited by Lil' Joe on Saturday 21st November 12:34

Legality in the UK is more of an issue, open wheels certainly shouldn't be legal or pass an MOT, some of the straights pipes will be loud and cause more people in this nanny state to complain and there's no way most of these would pass an SVA/IVA.

That said there are plenty in the UK fully legal and those which somewhat chance it as an occasional use summer vehicle.

As for performance, well they goes as well as you build them to go. I doubt many will handle like an Elise, but I'm fairly confident that they can be made to go round corners more than ok. Power wise, well if you go traditional with a 4 pot or flat head V8 they won't make huge power, although they won't be slow either. But there's no reason why they can't be brutally fast.

ZZ Top love these cars and they have featured in a number of their albums and music vids.

A common British hot rod is the Ford Pop with a Rover V8 and maybe something like a Jag IRS rear end:

[Balmoral Green]

I know it would be sacrilege, but I'd love to give a Bentley MKVI the Hot Rod treatment. Chopped and lowered, no wings, no bonnet, Bentley V8 engine exposed, open pipes. Rat Rod style, bare metal and a layer of rust.

I think the shape would work really well.

[Lil' Joe]

I have a memory of a Facel Vage with a V12 or something similar. Any details anyone?

Thanks for the replies guys too.

[Streetrod]

Lil' Joe said:

And to add the Balmorals question, aree they even road legal? Performancce stats? Driveability?

Jut the sort of thing I was after though, cheers.



Oh, and more more more!!!

Edited by Lil' Joe on Saturday 21st November 12:34

Ok having been into Hotrods now for over 30 years I will try and answer a few of your questions.

Most of the cars that you see that appear to have straight pipes aren’t. They either have very small mufflers in the pipes or the exhaust diverts into a normal system under the car. When you fancy being a bit OTT you can run the exhaust straight out.

Fenders are not required to pass an MOT and fall into a bit of a grey area within the construction and use regulations. A very large number of hotrods in this country now run without them with and tend not to get much hassle from the police.

Performance, now this is an interesting on. Traditional hotrods date back to just after the war when American service men returned with money in their pockets and a need for speed. So they bought up the flat head V8 powered cars that had been available before the war and that were now going cheap and decided to race them.

The easiest way to go fast back then was to strip of anything that was not necessary, therefore the likes of fenders etc ended up in the skip in a bid to lose weight

Now where to race, well America as we know has long straight and wide roads, and when you lived in California back then it was not hard to find an empty one so street racing started.

The guys who really wanted to go fast headed for the salt flats.

So Hotrods have traditionally been very fast in a straight line. The ones who wanted to go round corners ended up in NASCAR.

Now a quick streetrod today will run a 1/4 mile in about 11 - 12 seconds, and a lot of those exist. To put that in perspective that’s faster than almost any supercar you can buy.

The really quick guys run in the Street Eliminator series where the cars have to run on street tires, pump gas and be fully MOTed Taxed and insured. These cars are now running a 1/4 mile in the low 7 second range at close to 200mph. Now that is performance. A Veyron would be un-likely to make it through qualifying