The automobile. It’s hard to imagine a time when we couldn’t jump in a car or truck and head off down the road. The first legitimate steam-powered automobile was built in 1768, followed by the first car powered by an internal combustion engine in 1807. It wasn’t until 1886 that the first gasoline-powered car was produced in Germany. From there, the first production vehicles hit the market; by the early 1900s, there was an automobile boom in Europe and the United States.
Henry Ford launched the Ford Motor Company in 1903 after leaving his first company—the Detroit Automobile Company, which later became Cadillac. By 1910, gasoline-powered cars were being produced by the thousands. Rat rodding has roots here, in the “vintage era” between 1918 (the end of World War I) and 1929, when the stock market crashed. The Ford Model T was the dominant car during this time, and many of these original bodies are still used today throughout the hot rod world. While rat rods didn’t exist back then, the Great Depression of the 1930s pushed Americans into creative uses of the automobile. This “forced ingenuity” led to the birth of the “doodlebug.”
When tracing rat rod culture in search of its roots, it would be an injustice to overlook the doodlebug. Like “rat rod,” the term “doodlebug” also has its gray areas and different interpretations. The definition that’s relevant to rat rod culture describes automobiles turned into farm implements (sometimes called “doodlebug tractors”) during the material shortages and economic hardships of the Great Depression through World War II. Farmers often took their family vehicles and modified them to be used for plowing fields, hauling loads, or serving any number of purposes for which they were not originally built.
The American doodlebug is a symbol of automotive ingenuity inspired by necessity, a remnant of which lives on in today’s rat rod community. Like those who created doodlebugs in the past, rat rodders of the modern era often repurpose parts and components that are rare, broken, irreplaceable, or simply used for purposes other than those for which they were intended.
Gas Power
Karl Benz, of Mercedes-Benz lineage, produced the first gasoline-powered automobile in 1886: the Benz Patent Motorwagen.
An original 1930 Ford Model A.
The need for such functionality was very obvious during the world wars as well as during the Great Depression, but during the early automotive boom, there was also another growing element: the need for speed.
Mother Nature has programmed every living being with the drive to be better, faster, and stronger than his neighbor. Therefore, it makes sense that the invention of the automobile was followed closely by automobile racing. The earliest documented “races” were more like endurance trials to prove that these newfangled machines were capable of making it from point A to point B with a minimal amount of trouble. This was no small feat, considering that there were few roads as we know them today. Automobile owners gave no thought to modifying these early vehicles because the point was to prove their roadworthiness as-is.
Fast-forward a few decades after the automobile had become a part of everyday life for the majority of American households, and you’ll find that automobile racing had become immensely popular. The races had morphed from cross-country endurance events to competitions held on oval tracks. What had once been a hobby for the super-wealthy was now within reach of a wide audience because there was now a rich supply of old cars in junkyards to use as raw material.
The aftermarket as we know it today did not exist, so there was no available “bolt-on” horsepower to make home-built racecars go faster. In fact, people were doing just the opposite. The less weight you had to move, the faster you could go. By removing things like lights, fenders, doors, and glass, you could free up the available horsepower to move the vehicle forward with more urgency. These racecars of the common man were known as “jalopies,” and jalopy races were a mainstay of the American racing scene from the 1930s until well into the ‘60s.
Take a look at an early hot rod, and you can easily see the jalopy influence. The modern-day rat rod definitely takes cues from the old jalopy racers. The parallels are simple—low cost, do-it-yourself, vintage iron. Many people refer to rat rods as jalopies today, which is almost a slang use of the term, but somewhere in that sea of gray, the dots do connect. Doodlebug, jalopy, hot rod, rat rod … all part of the same automotive culture that was born well over a century ago.
A vintage photo from the early days of car racing.
So, where does hot rod culture begin? Rat rodding, after all, is a part of hot rod culture.
What we commonly refer to as the hot rod culture started to take off in the 1920s and ‘30s as automobiles became more common (as opposed to a luxury of the rich and privileged). The price of new cars was declining, and used cars could be found rather cheaply. Junkyards and used-car lots began to spring up, offering inexpensive entry into the fraternity of car ownership. Hot rod culture and jalopy racing are close kin, and, along with the necessity of the doodlebug, these automotive ideals all ran parallel.
Some saw the car as more than just a means to get somewhere. They saw the car as a way to explore the world, to have fun, and to express one’s self. Inspired by the popularity of automobile racing, owners began to tinker with their cars, finding ways to make them perform better, go faster, and look different from everybody else’s cars.
By the end of the 1930s, manufacturers had abandoned the “form follows function” approach to designing automobiles and began to put a lot more thought into how cars looked. They had flowing lines and graceful curves that easily lent themselves to further augmentation and customization. It is here where hot rodding began to diverge into two paths. There were those whose main goal was speed, and there were those who saw the automobile as more of a showpiece. For the latter group, everything had to be finished and shiny, and performance (outside of general “streetability”) became secondary.
A classic hot rod at on display at a vintage car show.
Above and beyond everything, the automobile represented freedom. If you had a car, the world was yours to explore. The rebel element of hot rodding was always there from the beginning. Deserted highways and dry lake beds were common gathering spots for those wanting to prove their mechanical skills and manhood by driving their modified cars faster than the rules of the road would normally allow. Adrenaline junkies—both drivers and spectators—craved the intoxicating rush of high speeds coupled with the ever-present specter of danger. Those choosing to cruise rather than race formed car clubs with aggressive-sounding names like “The Diablos” or “The Phantoms,” suggesting that their group was one to be reckoned with.
The advent of World War II put a hold on the further development of the culture as the call of duty sent a great percentage of America’s young men into the service. On top of that, everything related to automobiles was being rationed as part of the war effort. Gasoline and tires were very difficult to obtain, and there certainly wasn’t much of anything available for something as frivolous as hot rodding. America’s car manufactures even ceased the production of civilian automobiles soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, meaning that there are few 1941 models, even fewer 1942s, and no production automobiles for the years 1943, 1944, and 1945, with regular production resuming for the model year 1946.
Once soldiers began to return from duty, the hot rod culture picked up where it had left off and then exploded. Guys coming back from the war had three things that fueled this rebirth: disposable income, a plethora of new mechanical skills, and the pent-up desire to get back to doing what they loved. And then it happened: rock and roll music.
A pair of Ford coupes from 1939 and 1940 at the 2015 Lonestar Round Up show for cars