I have to thank KaleB for the inspiration this week. He suggested a Theme Tuesday on ‘vehicles that should never be hot rods but people made them into hot rods anyway’.
The more I thought about the idea, the better it seemed. Usually I’ve posted these kinds of vehicles one at a time, shoe-horned into WTF Friday posts, but why not a Theme Tuesday?
I’m going to play the definition of “hot rod” pretty fast and loose with this one. So if you’ve arrived here from a link hell bend on defending the sanctity of the title hot rod don’t worry, I do very much appreciate true traditional hot rods as see here in my Jalopy Jam Up coverage.
Start things off local with this semi truck ‘hot rod’. Anyone recognize the Cab?This old war Ambulance had no idea what it was going to be turned intoThis is the car that triggered Kaleb’s idea for this entire Porsche the second most recent Porsche hot rodThat project was followed up by this one. I wonder what the next Porsche based hot rod will look like?Does anyone know if this BMW 2002 project was ever finished? – Photo: Stay Classy AtlantaThe best I could find was a start-up video below – Photo: Stay Classy Atlanta
I actually really like this, it’s so ridiculous that it has crossed into he realm of amazingIt was probably a ho hum v6 model to start so what’s the harm right?Now this I could see more people being upset aboutA ’64 or so cut up into a Hot Rod, you just know that has ruffled a few feathersI opted not to include this in the most recent Volvo based Theme Tuesday, but I couldn’t leave it out of this oneI know it is not built out of a real Volvo, but it uses a lot of Volvo components and is just too damn attractive to overlook twiceThe 2CV is a quirky looking French car that takes surprisingly well to minimalist modification such as thisThe start to look almost Beetle like the lower they getThis Crosley still cracks me upI wonder if it ever managed to sell? And if it did I wonder if it was ever raced?I can’t imagine how large this vehicle actually is in person. It looks massiveThis tri axle 2 stroke rod was built out of a tank transporter of all thingsHow about a Suzuki Samurai Hot Rod? For those of you who love build threads it’s here on Pirate4x4.comWhen photos of this Miata surface online I thought “only Japan would do something as crazy as that” – Photo: The ChroniclesThen later a similar, but different, Miata showed up in the United States
Going to end this off with a curious Volkswagen based hot rod that was rolling around in 2011.
Dave, this is my favourite theme ever! I love all odd and offbeat hot rods. It may not be traditional,but I think that lets them get a bit more creative. The good thing is that most of those were probably saved from rust cancer. I know the Porches were. One day I’ll have a sweet rod built out of something off beat, and if the rust keeps eating my Silverado, then it may be headed in that direction.
The Citroen 2CV, Had one of these come into the shop a couple week back! absolutely ridiculous vehicle flimsy, underpowered and ugly to the eye. Im not going to lie though something about this car just makes it stand out from the rest. Oh the french.
I understand the desire to create or recreate a ‘hot rod’ from other non-traditional vehicles but I do not understand the desire to use a front suspension system that General Motors abandoned in 1934. Maurice Olley who worked for Cadillac attempted for a number of years to eliminate shimmy and poor handling from the solid beam axle that was used in virtually all cars of the period. He came to the conclusion that you could only reduce poor handling by getting rid of the solid beam axle. The men running GM at the time agreed to make the change on the Cadillac in 1934 but Olley was so respected that when he insisted they needed to do it to all the various makes, the Chief Engineer insisted that all GM cars would get independent front suspension about the same time, i.e. 1934. They also discovered that with IFS the king pin bearing show incorporate a bushing to increase friction. The added friction helps to reduce any shimmy that can occur due to the steering linkage joining the front king pins. With VW you have IFS. Why change to something that is inferior just because you think it looks ‘cool’? If you want to improve the VW torsion arm suspension look at some fo the original Porsche patents from the 1930s and 1950s. The original patent used horizontal ball joints as used in the Auto Union racing cars of the 1930s.
Darn you! Now I truly do wanna see that Volvo grill mated to a hot/ratrod
Dave, this is my favourite theme ever! I love all odd and offbeat hot rods. It may not be traditional,but I think that lets them get a bit more creative. The good thing is that most of those were probably saved from rust cancer. I know the Porches were. One day I’ll have a sweet rod built out of something off beat, and if the rust keeps eating my Silverado, then it may be headed in that direction.
The Citroen 2CV, Had one of these come into the shop a couple week back! absolutely ridiculous vehicle flimsy, underpowered and ugly to the eye. Im not going to lie though something about this car just makes it stand out from the rest. Oh the french.
I understand the desire to create or recreate a ‘hot rod’ from other non-traditional vehicles but I do not understand the desire to use a front suspension system that General Motors abandoned in 1934. Maurice Olley who worked for Cadillac attempted for a number of years to eliminate shimmy and poor handling from the solid beam axle that was used in virtually all cars of the period. He came to the conclusion that you could only reduce poor handling by getting rid of the solid beam axle. The men running GM at the time agreed to make the change on the Cadillac in 1934 but Olley was so respected that when he insisted they needed to do it to all the various makes, the Chief Engineer insisted that all GM cars would get independent front suspension about the same time, i.e. 1934. They also discovered that with IFS the king pin bearing show incorporate a bushing to increase friction. The added friction helps to reduce any shimmy that can occur due to the steering linkage joining the front king pins. With VW you have IFS. Why change to something that is inferior just because you think it looks ‘cool’? If you want to improve the VW torsion arm suspension look at some fo the original Porsche patents from the 1930s and 1950s. The original patent used horizontal ball joints as used in the Auto Union racing cars of the 1930s.