What Effect Did The Hot Rods Have On The Car Industry

Hot rods are vintage American cars that are modified for straight line speed. Young men who wanted speed, built these cars in their backyards. In the early years of hot rodding, 7,500 people were killed in car wrecks, however hot rods have made positive impacts also. For 80 years, hot rods have caused the automakers to create the sports car, and muscle car. Hot rods have had a big influence on the car industry that a lot of people are not aware of.
Hot rods got their start in the early 1920s in southern California. First of all, young men started racing their cars, everyone wanted to be faster than the next guy. Don Montgomery wrote a book titled Hot Rods in the Forties. In the book, it talks about how hot rods got their beginning, bootleggers
At the beginning of racing, races occured on dry lake beds. The most popular lake beds were Harper, Muroc, and El Mirage, found approximately 50 miles north of Los Angeles. Beginning speed enthusiasts could drive a couple hours and arrive at one of these lake beds (Auto Editors 1). The racing style on lake beds consisted of time trials, the amount of time it takes to go a predetermined distance. A car was set up to go as fast as possible for this type of racing. Later on, since dry lakes can’t be found in most parts of the country, organizations were formed to solve this. Instead, they made their own tracks, typically a ¼ mile of pavement. One of the first was the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), formed in 1951 (Auto Editors 5). This helped stop street racing, and gave rodders a safe place to race their cars. But this kind of racing requires a totally different setup on the car. A drag car has low gearing, wide sticky tires and made to accelerate as fast as possible, rather than the lake racer, which is made to have the highest top speed possible. As a result, drag racing became the most popular form of racing because it is easier to find a drag strip than a dry lake
First, they made the fenders part of the body, car bodies became more streamlined. Suddenly, hot rods looked dated compared to the new body style of cars. No amount of body work could make a ‘32 Ford look like a new Cadillac, so more people bought new cars instead of customizing their old car (Auto Editors 8). The effect was a dramatic change in American car culture. Later on, the manufacturers began to build “factory” hot rods, these were called muscle cars. The name came along, because the big 3 manufacturers started a war to build the fastest car or the car with the most power. Wikipedia says “It was now possible to buy a muscle car that outperformed nearly any hot rod, with more passenger room, and without having to expend the effort of building and tuning the car oneself.” This drew the sales of many speed enthusiasts, because they could go buy a car that was better than one they could build. Muscle cars exceeded the popularity of hot rods until 1973, when the oil crisis occurred, and consumers wanted fuel efficient and safe cars rather than big power (Wikipedia). The muscle car was the response to the hot rod by the automotive