Pick a Side: Hot Rod or Custom

Crack open an old car magazine like a 50’s Hot Rod or one of the little books like Hop Up or Rod & Custom and you will quickly see that our forefathers had split up into two camps when it came to modifying their cars. Those yellowed pages are covered in two types of cars; hot rods and customs. Hot rods were stripped down for speed at the lakes or drag strip. Customs, however, were those slammed, smoothed, and sculpted creations that invented the expression “low and slow.”

Sure, some guys had both. And some cars blurred the lines with great looks and big power. But ultimately, it seems that these guys split based on what they thought was important. Hot rodders wanted to go fast. This meant a philosophy of stripping weight wherever possible, while simultaneously adding as much power as possible. The image that most of us conjure to mind would be an early Ford, stripped of its fenders and all nonessentials, with a hopped-up flathead or later on, a multi-carb Cad, Hemi, or other overhead sitting proudly between the framerails. If a gadget, gauge, or body panel didn’t need to be there, it wasn’t. The results were often beautiful examples of form following function.

Customs, on the other hand, were all about image. A hot rod might look best screaming at wide open throttle across a dry lakebed somewhere, but customs were at their best slinking down a darkened street, candy paint gleaming under the streetlights and occupants barely visible through the chopped glass. The archetypal custom would be something like a ’50 Mercury with slick body tricks like rounded hood and door corners, shaved trim and handles, and a slammed stance. Full customs might have a chopped top. While hot rodders were chopping to better slip through the wind and go faster, customizers were chopping to make their cars appear to be more slippery. You get the point.

For those of us who weren’t around 50 or 60 years ago, George Lucas did us all a favor by perfectly capturing this dichotomy in the eternal car culture classic American Graffiti. John Milner was a hot rodder. His Deuce 5-window was the “fastest car in the valley,” and he spent his Friday night cruising around looking for a race. Passengers and local authorities complained about how crude his car was, but he didn’t care, so long as that 4-carb small block kept running hard. On the other side of the coin, we have Joe and the Pharaohs out cruising their chopped Merc custom. These guys didn’t care one bit about racing, but instead that car had to look the part for some tough guys up to no good.

For some of you, this is pretty well covered territory. But here’s a twist; how do we bring this age-old debate into the modern era? It’s 2023, and the good old days that we’ve been talking about were a long time ago. Sure, many of us ask ourselves these questions when we’re picking a build style for an old car. Are we going to skip the flashy paint job, saving our pennies for big cams and ported heads, or are we happy to have a low-compression stocker under the hood so long as it looks cool? But I’m wondering what cars built after the 1960’s have (or will) become identified for speed or just flashy good looks. What is the modern version of the ’32 Ford hot rod and the ’50 Merc custom? Is the modern hot rod something like a Fox Mustang with a Coyote swap, a Dodge Hellcat fresh out of the dealership, or a Cleetus McFarland ‘Vette-kart with no body and ridiculous power? Is the modern custom one of those trucks or SUV’s with the big polished wheels? I’m hoping you’ll weigh in on the conversation on our social media pages and share your opinions.

At a loss on the modern stuff? No problem, you can still pick a side. Is it speed at all cost, appearance above all, or somewhere in between? Join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram.