The terms hot rod and street rod are used interchangeably by many, but there is a subtle difference between the two. To understand the difference, we need to go back to the beginning of the history of the hot rod. The hot rod had it’s beginnings in the 1920’s when the automobile was first being sold by the millions due to new assembly line techniques. Younger California drivers wanted to race their cars, so they got together in the salt flats during the evenings and raced. The first cars in the 1920’s were mostly model T’s, and the engines only produced around 20 horsepower. To raise the acceleration and top speed, car owners removed all non essential components including running boards, panels, hoods, and ornaments. These first cars were not yet called hot rods, they were called gow Jobs.
The Model A was available in the early 1930’s with the new flathead V8 engine producing around 80 horsepower. Drivers quickly learned they could double the horsepower by adding more carburetors, straightening and shortening the exhaust, and removing the muffler. Hot rodding did not expand until after World War II when it took off all over the United States, made popular by returning servicemen with newfound mechanical abilities, extra time and money, and the craving for speed and adrenaline. By the early 1950’s technology had made the engine such a potent machine that it was getting too dangerous to drive these on the roads, or race them as many did.
Hot rods were getting bad press at this time, so the NHRA was created and in 1953 there was the first official hot rod racing. Stricter safety regulations and moving racing off the streets was the idea. The NHRA became a huge success, and within a few years the hot rod had taken a few paths. The term hot rod was now being used for racing cars, and street rods deemed a model driven on the street and not in sanctioned races