Americans love their cars and trucks. From classic restorations to rat rods, we as a society are fascinated with our gas guzzling vehicles and the activities surrounding them. Even though fuel prices around the world continue to rise, we can’t get enough of the freedom that owning a vehicle provides.
The car craze has been a thing for almost as long as motor vehicles have been amongst us. In the early days, movie stars and entrepreneurs with money to burn pumped wads of cash into the latest and greatest sports cars and luxury sedans for prestige. Their desire to show off their affluence helped push the motor industry to create sleeker, sexier and faster vehicles to fascinate the world with.
Racing was an inevitable link in the evolution of the automobile. Everyone wants to know which vehicle is the fastest, or wants to see how far they can push the technology of the day and learn how to push it even further. Drag racing, cross country rallies, and speedways became hot attractions for hundreds of thousands of fans with a need for speed.
As cars and trucks became more affordable to the average citizen, the common folk got to enjoy showing off their new rides to their neighbors and friends. Family cars were being developed to accommodate the growth of our nation following World War II. Manufacturers were constantly producing newer models with bigger and better features to sway the public to purchase their brand, which often developed into a life-long love (sometimes generational) for the maker.
It was also around this time when the “hotrod” began growing in popularity among the youth. Curious teens, fascinated with the mechanical aspects of the internal combustion engine, would acquire an old jalopy and work out ways to breath new life into them with modifications to the engines, big tires, shiny chrome wheels and trim, and bright flashy paint jobs. They’d race each other in the streets for “pinks”, the titles to their rides, forcing the loser to hand over their pride and joy only to find themselves another old junker and start all over again.
Today, those old jalopies come hotrods, as well as old cars that haven’t been modified are now considered classics or antique autos. The owners of these classic cars, trucks and sometimes motorcycles bring their vehicles to Cruise Ins to show off their hard work and dedication to bringing these beauties back to near original condition. Some builders also choose to build their engines to perfection, but leave the body of the vehicle in an “as found” state. These rusted out relics are known as Rat Rods, and are as well loved by classic restorationists as those built up to near new condition.
Even with all the clamor for newer vehicles to be environmentally cleaner, I don’t believe America will ever lose its love for the fossil burning classics. Those heavy metal bodies and frames, roaring engines, and squealing rubber tires have a deep hold on our national fiber, and I hope they forever will.
All images by James F Keck © 2018 unless noted otherwise.
