IS THE CLASSIC STREET ROD DESTINED TO RIDE OFF INTO THE SUNSET?

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I’ve become an amateur street rod historian over the years.

My education began when I was a kid in the 60s and my school bus route went right past a house with a long driveway.

Calling these cars a distraction for a grade school kid is like calling Niagara Falls a plumbing leak. This was my earliest education on what we call classic street rods—you’d see them on the streets in town, but our family lived in the country. There was no chance to sneak out at and see these cars in action on the street, but my older brothers sure knew the players.

I liked how these guys built these cars, because they were light years away from anything my dad ever drove. They were the ultimate statement for young rebels who wanted something cool enough to pick up babes—and fast enough to shut down a loudmouth challenger on the street.

Their street rods looked kind of dangerous—that also appealed to a young me because I was the kind of kid who never backed off from a stupid challenge on a bike. Hurtling over a cliff on a pedal bike was a mere day at the office for me and my buddies back in the 60s, so the unsafe aura built into a street rod was a natural fit for a reckless kid.    

These cars were the ultimate look-at-me vehicles because most of them were candy-apple red, blinding gold or lime-green. They didn’t even need the open headers to get a cop’s attention—you could spot a street rod from the Gemini space flights.

I’m referring to the classic street rods in the past tense because I believe they’re heading into automotive history. You’ll still see them at car shows, but the guys who own them are pushing 80. Many of them built their street rods back when Lyndon Johnson was president.

I know—what about the Ridler Award? Doesn’t that mean street rods are alive and well? That’s easy to answer because Ridler Awards are not going specifically to a classic ’32 Ford coupe—last year’s winner was a ’53 Vette. This might sound like heresy, but at some point, you’ll see a Datsun 240Z or a ‘’75 Toyota Celica in the winner’s circle for a Ridler award.

Others may point out rat rods as the natural successor to the street rod and they’re right and wrong on that point—but mostly wrong. Conventional street rods were built with the idea that they had to look good too.

A Cummins Diesel powering a beat-up ’47 Chevy pickup cab sitting on a 1-ton Ford truck frame is kind of street rod-ish–but only in the loosest sense of the term. That, plus the reality that the term rat rod is now applied to cars like a rusty 70s era Chevy Biscayne that was recently pulled out of a swamp. It’s become a marketing dream for every guy with granddad’s tired and battered old four-door sedan for sale.

I want to end this with a sad reality. Street rods will still be around, but they’re going to found in Toyotas and Hondas with transplanted 600-horsepower Mazda engines.

By: Jerry Sutherland

Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post,  Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.

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