Hot rodding has its roots in Prohibition. Moonshiners would modify their flathead Fords or whatever they were running to handle the weight of all that booze and keep a step ahead of the police. Many PD’s in turn modified their cars and a “horsepower war” ensued. After Prohibition the first cars the FL State Troopers used were base model 1939 Ford coupes with the larger more powerful Mercury flatheads, like one of the first supercars, the same principle behind the first Buick Century’s, basically Specials with the bigger more powerful Roadmaster straight 8s, and of course the GTO decades later. This hot rod craze really took off after WW2 in southern CA.
I’m right in the middle of a build,
I wouldn’t even think of doing this
in California. Where I’m located,
the emissions required are driven
by the year of the engine. A PCV
valve is the only emissions
component on a 1968 Mopar 440.
I know full well, the NASCAR
story. Haul booze during the week
to finance your racing habit on
Saturday. Still a big fan today.
They’re starting to slide a little
though, with the Bubba noose
incident.
All together too many folks have taken up the story of backwoods moonshiners souping up Flathead Fords during prohibition.
Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933, though prohibition continued in some states.
The first of the Ford L-head (flathead) V8 engines left the factory on March 9, 1932.
The Mob was moving booze by the truckloads, not souped up Model A’s.
In the mid 30’s Moonshiners certainly souped up the early V8s in backwoods runs after Prohibition to evade the “Revenoors”. Possible that some did get the early flatheads, but a brand new car would stand out like WC Fields nose in the country side, sure to alert the Tax Men.
Some hot rod documentaries believe that the west coast hot rods came about by the masses of returning GIs with dollars in their pockets and the need for speed.
The movie “Ford vs Ferrari” has the scene with Iacocca making his pitch for a sports/sporty car (Mustang), making just that point...of course sex was the number one item on the young vets bucket list.