Ready to relive your days as a young gearhead? Just take a run through this list of “hot rod” terms and you will be sure to visit the old days of automotive performance and customization.
A-Bone Model for Hot Rot Fans
A-bone: Model A Ford
- Bang Shift: To quickly shift a standard transmission
- Belly Pan: Metal sheeting underneath a street rod, to streamline the bottom of a rod
- Billet: Aftermarket dress-up components are usually machined out of a solid “billet” of aluminum
- Binders: Brakes
- Blown Engine: A engine that has a Supercharger
- Blower: The supercharger
- Bobbed: Shortened fenders
- Boost: The intake manifold pressure generated by a Turbocharger or Supercharger
- Boots: Tires
- Bored and Stroked: Engines that have had their cylinder walls enlarged and the crankshaft throw lengthened
- Bottom End: Refers to the lower portion of an engine and usually includes the crankshaft, flywheel, bearings, and connecting rods
- Cam: Short for Camshaft, a spinning rod that opens an engine’s valves
- Channel: The lowering of the body in relationship to the frame rails to reduce the overall height of the vehicle
- Chop: Removing a section of the roofline to reduce its height
- CID: Refers to “Cubic Inch Displacement” of an engine
- Coupe: Basically any car with two doors
- Crank: Crankshaft
- Cruise: To drive around
- Custom: Stock cars that have had extensive body modifications
- Deuce: 32 Ford
- Digs: Drag Races
- EFI: Electronic Fuel Injection
- E.T: Elapsed time – the time it takes to run a quarter-mile drag strip
- Elephant: The famous 426 Chrysler Hemi engine
- Fat: A rich fuel mixture denote by excessive black smoke
- Fill: Filling body seams with lead or body filler to lend a smoother appearance to the car
- Five Window: A coup body that has 5 windows, not counting the windshield
- Flathead: A engine that has the valves in the body of the engine rather than the head
- Flamed: Graphic representation of flames painted on the hot rod’s body
- Flame Throwers: A device to ignite unburned gases leaving the exhaust system
- Floor Pan: This means the floor of a vehicle –
- Fordor: The old Ford name for a four-door sedan
- Four Banger: A four-cylinder engine
- Four Barrel: A type of carburetor with 4 inputs
- Four on the Floor: Floor mounted shifter coupled to a four-speed transmission
- French: Usually refers to recessing the headlights and removing the seam of the headlight trim ring
- Fuel Injected: A system that injects fuel into an engine
- Gasser: A modified closed car that competes at drag races.
- Gear Box: A manual transmission
- Grab Rails: Handles mounted on the body to help passengers enter the vehicle, usually a rumble seat
- Grocery Getter: A mild street rod that is used for a run to the store and back
- Gutted: A rod with its interior removed
- Hammer: Same as Chop
- Header: Specialized exhaust manifolds that are basically just pipes
- Hemi: A engine with hemispherical heads
- Hides: Tires
- Hot Rod: A vehicle that has been modified to improve its appearance or performance
- Huffer: Supercharger
- Hydro: Automatic transmission (derived from the name Hydromatic)
- Igniter: The engines ignition system
- Jimmy: Acronym for a GMC
- Jug: A carburetor
- Juice: Fuel, Electricity, or hydraulic fluid
- Knock-Offs: A special wheel system that is held in place with one large, quickly removed nut
- Lakes: The dry lakes in and around Southern California where hotrodders raced their cars
- Lakes Modified: A radically modified racer designed for racing at the dry lakes
- Locker: A type of differential that helps prevent tire spin and distributes the engine’s torque evenly to the rear wheels
- Loud Petal: The accelerator petal
- Louvers: Vents or slots cut in and raised in various body panels, especially the hood and trunk areas
- Louie: A left-hand turn
- Lowboy: A rod that has no fenders or running boards that is lowered over the frame (channeled)
- Mag: Short for a wheel made with a Magnesium alloy
- Mill: Engine
- Molded: Filling and reshaping body panels and seams
- Mouse Motor: A small block Chevy engine manufactured from 1955 to the present day.
- NOS: Nitrous Oxide System –
- N.O.S: New Old Stock and refers to parts that are the original parts supplied by the vehicles manufacturer
- Nail Head: A 1950’s Buick engine
- Nerf: Short for Nerf Bars – used to ward off tires in open-wheel racing cars
- Overbore: An engine block that has had its cylinder bore enlarged because it is badly worn or the owner wants more power
- Pearl: Paint with reflects ‘Mother of Pearl’ iridescent colors
- Pit Pins: Quick release pins that hold body panels in place
- Phaeton: An open two or four-door sedan manufactured in the late 20’s to the late 30s, that had no roll-up windows
- Pin Stripe: Long narrow painted stripes usually running the length of a hot rod.
- Ported: Intake and exhaust ports that have been enlarged and polished to provide maximum flow through the heads
- Pro Street: A hotrod made to look like a drag racing car
- Puffer: A supercharger
- Quick Change: A rear end that allows for rapid changing of rear-end gear ratios
- RPM: ‘Revolutions Per Minute’ or how many rotations the crankshaft of an engine completes in one minute
- Rails: Refers to the frame side rails on cars
- Raked: A rod that has been lowered in the front or raised in the back
- Rat: A Big Block Chevy V8 engine e.g.: 396, 400, 427, and 454 cid
- Repro: Reproduction parts to match or replace NOS parts
- Resto-Rod: A street rod with a stock appearing body
- Roadster: A two-seater to a ‘Phaeton’ – removable top and no roll-up side windows and the windshield could fold down
- Rod: A short for Hotrod or Connecting Rod
- Roll Bar: A special cage made of round tubular steel and designed to protect the vehicle’s occupants in case of a rollover.
- Roll Cage: See Roll Bar
- Roller: A chassis that is completed enough to be rolled around on its own.
- Rubber Rake: A rake achieved by the use of big tires in the back and little tires in the front
- Sano: A rod that is absolutely spotless (sanitary)
- Scallops: A graphic in the shape of a long narrow triangle usually starting from the front of a hotrod
- Scatter Shield: A protective enclosure at the rear of the engine to protect the driver in case a clutch explodes
- Scoop: A device mounted on the hood to force air into the engine at higher speeds
- Sedan Delivery: A truck with two opening doors up front and one mother of a door in the rear
- Slammed: A vehicle or hotrod that is as close to the ground as humanly possible without actually touching
- Skirts: Short for fender skirts that cover wheel well openings in customs and hotrods
- Smoothy: A hotrod that has had all raised portions of the body removed including moldings and sometimes chrome
- Stacks: Short for Velocity Stacks which are used on carbureted and fuel-injected engines
- Stick Shift: A floor-mounted gear shift lever
- Stones: Short for Firestone tires
- Stove Bolt: A nickname for a 1940s Chevy inline six-cylinder engine
- Stroker: An engine equipped with a longer than stock crankshaft throw with modified length connecting rods
- Stuffer: Supercharger
- Supercharger: A mechanical device designed to force air into an engine at higher than atmospheric pressure
- T-Bucket: A short, fenderless opened ‘T’ body hotrod
- TPI: Tuned Port Injection
- Tach: Short for Tachometer and a device to read engine RPM
- Three on The Tree: Refers to a column-mounted three-speed transmission shifter
- Tranny: Short for Transmission
- Tubbed: To increase the wheel well size to accommodate very large tires usually at the rear axel
- Tudor: Ford name for a two-door sedan
- Tuck and Roll: A cool style of upholstery
- U Joints: Short for Universal Joints and these are located on each end of a drive shaft
- Uncorked: Running without mufflers
- Vicky: See Victoria
- Victoria: A sporty two-door sedan body that featured a different rear body panel style
- Wedge: A type of Chrysler engine with wedge-shaped combustion chambers in the heads
- Wide Whites: Wide, whitewall tires
- Wide Weenies: Large rear tires
- Wires: Spoked Wire Wheels
- Woodie: A station wagon with wooden side trim
- X Member: The center portion of a frame where the frame rails meet or cross
- Z’ed: Frame rails altered in a Z shape to lower the front of a hot rod
- Zoomy: A wild street rod with open exhaust pipes
Featured Image: Wikimedia