Rat Rod

Brakes good.
Tyres fair.

On safety tubes, but I ain't scared.

Some hotrods are painfully self-conscious. Skulls for the sake of skulls, or immensely detailed replicas of the yellow '32 Ford from American Graffiti.

To my mind, the Ford-powered LC Torana drag car we saw out at Ironbark Raceway (Gasoline Magazine, Issue 4 out next week) embodied the hotrod tradition of "this is what we have, let's make it go" better than some of the shiny, blown rods you see being backed off trailers.

Rat rods aren't immune - The irony of some poor panelbeater spending twice as long making new paint look weathered than it would to just make it shiny is impeccable. I prefer the advice I got when I bought my first muscle car - a white 6cyl HQ sedan:

"Paint it black and beat it with a chain..."