hot rod orig. U.S.
A motor vehicle specially modified to give high power and speed; the driver (also hot rodder) of a hot rod. Hence hot-rod v. intr., hot-rodding vbl. n. Also attrib. and fig.
| 1945 Life 5 Nov. 87 A ‘hot rod’..is an automobile stripped for speed and pepped up for power until it can travel 90 to 125 mph. Most hot rods are roadsters. 1949 Life 7 Nov. 123 (caption) Policeman holds fistful of licenses confiscated from hot-rodders. Ibid., In Los Angeles and Dallas, where ‘hot-rodding’ is at its peak, hundreds of youngsters spend their spare time in suicidal games on wheels. 1953 J. N. Leonard Flight into Space 87 All over the United States and in many other parts of the world are groups of enthusiasts who dream of hot-rodding off the tedious earth. 1953 Time 21 Sept. 85/1 Every day during the show he thrilled the crowds with the airborne hot-rodding that Britain encourages at Farnborough. 1955 Sci. News Let. 1 Oct. 213/1 Teenagers are as accident prone with shotguns as they are with hot rods. 1957 J. Kerouac On Road (1958) 15 A hotrod kid came by with his scarf flying. 1958 J. D. MacDonald Executioners (1959) iv. 52, I don't want her hot⁓rodding around in the night, going to those drive-ins. 1958 Woman 9 Aug. 14/1 Hot-rod road scorchers. 1958 Observer 30 Nov. 10/5 Bernstein and his direct knowledge of hot-rodders and what they are after. 1959 Observer 25 Jan. 7/4 Mike Hawthorn, champion racing driver and the idol of hot-rods all over the world. 1959 Sunday Times 22 Mar. 24/8 My old two-litre hot-rod after its last disastrous tune-up. 1959 Encounter Dec. 30/2 Almost every popular magazine nowadays is likely to be written in a hot-rod style which bursts with energy in every sentence. 1962 Punch 17 Oct. 559/3 The youth of these islands..looked on the motor-cycle as their hot rod. 1967 Listener 23 Nov. 682/1 The Beach Boys made their reputation..ostensibly by taking surfing and hotrodding as their subject. 1971 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 3 Sept. 41/1 The first hair freaks I ever saw in California were not hippies, but surfers and hotrodders. |