You could argue that no one builds a “hot rod” without intending to hot rod around in it at some point. There are show cars, customs, street rods, and such. While each one of those categories could also include some heat under the hood, they don’t necessarily convey the requirement as much as a “HOT rod” might. Do you agree?
So, the question arises then, in a world where too much is never enough, how much is too much when it comes to USING that horsepower? Case in point is this video showing a great looking, great sounding 1930 Model A Ford. We’ve stated on numerous occasions that you don’t NEED the all-too-common 700, 800, and-up horsepower to have fun with your ride.
The driver, Erkki Joon, from Tallinn, Estonia (Estonia is situated in northeastern Europe, on the Baltic Sea) is most assuredly enjoying his ride. While the car may not be making the aforementioned stratospheric horsepower numbers, the video shows that even with a limited-handling, dated chassis, you can still do some driving. Now, if you’re going to do this type of “driving,” you’d best be darn sure those welds are solid and all the joints are tight.
We’re used to seeing hot rods of all ages doing straight-line burnouts for a living, but this guy goes beast-mode on the loud pedal of this five-window and saws the steering wheel to boot! The car is powered by a tunnel-ram-wearing, 327 cubic-inch small-block Chevy. The engine thumps out a vintage tune thanks to a Duntov cam which sounds great and spools up super-quick, with the resulting tire smoke and squealing. There are some good-sized tires on the rear of the car and they soon get transferred to the asphalt at an alarming rate.
What really surprised us was how he tosses the little A around in the lot. And it doesn’t seem to mind it at all! We’ll confess that you’ll typically find us in the grandstands, watching others turn tires into smoke at the burnout competitions, but we’ll partake of the occasional wheel-spin when applicable. But this guy takes it to a whole different level. We’re used to seeing muscle cars and late-models doing doughnuts in white smoke, but imagine sitting in the spartan interior of this Model A Ford, peering through the side glass to see where you’re going!
There’s a lot we don’t know about this pale blue Model A but in other videos posted by Erkki (Joonkustoms Hotrod), we see that the car runs on original frame rails, and is very much a traditional hot rod. We will say that at the very least, there’s been some serious boxing done to the frame! From this video, we can see that it’s riding on parallel four-bars front and rear, and it appears to have a transverse spring in front and out back. Even so, the little coupe keeps its composure pretty well. Check out the video below and see for yourself!
We’d love to know more about this hot rod and shake the hand of the chap who puts it through its paces. We’d love to meet him, but seriously doubt we’ll be handing him the keys to our ride! Would you?