Seperation by Modification

The Honda Civic. The 1932 Ford. The Acura Integra. The Mazda RX7. The Ford Model A. The 1955 Chevrolet. The AE86 Toyota Corolla. The 1940 Willy's coupe. Anyone care to venture a guess to what all these cars have in common?

At one point or another from the early 1930's to current time, someone has looked at these relatively plain-Jane cars, and said to themselves "Hmm...I wonder if I could make this car faster...."

In the golden age of hot rodding (Up until disco, muscle cars, and The Beatles killed it) this would be accomplished by souping up your existing engine or finding a bigger, badder high-compression V8 and figuring how to wedge it into the relatively tiny cars on the 1930's. Add a set of pie-crust drag slicks, take off the fenders, drop it a few inches, and you are set to cruise for a fight.

Japanese import cars came to our shores in the 1970's (not sure on the dates here), and a whole new era of hot rodding was born. When teenagers figured out that they could turn their 90hp 4 cylinder Honda Civic into a fast, loud, turbocharged monster, it took off as fast if not faster, and much in a similar fashion, as those who modified Grandpa's 1930 Model A in the early 1940's.
As cheap and plentiful as multi-carb intakes and Oldsmobile Rockets were in the golden age, today it is very much the same with intakes, exhaust systems, nitrous, and many more speed parts for our across-the-pond friends.

Today both industries are growing by leaps and bounds every day, and with many import companies such as Toyota, Honda, Acura, Mazda, and Volkswagen releasing cars with 200-plus horsepower turbocharged little rockets as factory items. The hot rod industry is reproducing entire car bodies in both steel and fiberglass, and we can get almost anything new that we could back then.

Granted, I am more of a hot rod guy. I always have been, and I always will be. But that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy what is being offered in the market today. Case in point, I sold my nearly new 2007 Ford Mustang to buy the 2008 MINI Cooper S that I drive every day. Call me whatever you want, I love that thing! It's nice to have a reliable car to drive while I make my hot rods safe, low, and able to set off car alarms.