Hot Rod Slang

Certain linguistic conventions are followed among rodders and customizers:

• The model year is rarely given in full, except when it might be confused, so a 1934 model is a '34, while a 2005 might be an '05 or not.
  • A '32 is usually a Deuce and most often a roadster, unless coupé is specified, and almost always a Ford.
• A 3- or 5-window is usually a Ford, unless specified.
• A flatty is a flathead V8 (always Ford, unless specified); a late (or late model) flatty is probably a Merc.
• A hemi ("hem ee") is always a 426, unless displacement (331, 354, or 392) is specified; a 426 is a hemi, unless Wedge is specified.
• A 392 is an early hemi.
  • A 331 or 354 is known to be an (early) hemi, but rarely referred to as such
• Units are routinely dropped, unless they are unclear, so a 426 cubic inch (in³) engine is simply referred to as a 426, a 5 liter engine is a 5.0 ("five point oh"), and a 600 cubic feet per minute (cfm) carburetor is a 600. Engine displacement can be described in cubic inches or liters (for example, a 5.7 liter engine is also known as a 350 {"three fifty"}); this frequently depends on which units the user is most comfortable or familiar with.

Common terms

• 3/4-race — high-performance flatty cam, suitable for street and strip use
• 3 deuces — arrangement of three 2-barrel (twin-choke) carburetors; distinct from Six Pak and Pontiac and Olds Tri-Power (also 3x2 arrangements)
• 3-window — 2-door coupé; so named for one door window on each side plus the rear window
• 5-window — 2-door coupé; so named for one door window and one quarter window on each side plus the rear window
• 97s — “ninety-sevens,” a reference to the model number of Stromberg carburetors
• A-bone — Model A coupé
• Alky — alcohol (methanol) racing fuel
• Anglebox - British slang for a '59 to '68 Anglia
• Awful Awful (mainly North American) — AA/FA ("double A" Fuel Altered) drag racer.
• Bagged - the use of air suspension to raise and lower the car
• Blower — mechanically-driven supercharger; excludes turbochargers. Commonly a Roots.
• Blown —
  • An engine equipped with a supercharger (a "blown hemi"); rarely used in reference to turbocharged engines
  • A vehicle equipped with a supercharged engine (a "blown higboy")
  • A wrecked engine or transmission
• Blue oval — Ford product (for the Ford badge)
• Bondo — brand name for a body filler putty, often used as a generic term for any such product
• Bored — increasing the diameter of the cylinders in order to increase engine displacement
• Bottle — nitrous tank
• Bowtie — Chevrolet product (for the badge)
• Bugcatcher (or bugcatcher intake) — large scoop intake protruding through hood opening, or on cars with no hood.
• Bumpstick — camshaft (for the lobes)
• Cam — camshaft
• Cammer —
  • most commonly, the SOHC (single overhead camshaft) version of the 427 Ford V8.
  • sometimes, the Ford Racing Power Parts 5 liter.
  • rarely, any engine with overhead camshaft(s).
• Channelled — a car lowered by having the floor removed and reattached; also, to have done so
• Channeling — removing the floor and reattaching it to the body at a higher point, thus lowering the car without suspension modifications. Sometimes known as a "body drop".
• Cheater slicks (also "cheaters") —soft compound tire with just enough grooves to make it street legal
• Cherry — like new
• Chop — removing a section of the roof pillars and windows to lower the roofline
• Chopped — also "chopped top"; to have top chopped
• Chopping — executing a roof chop
• C.I.D. (sometimes Cubic Inches or Inches) — cubic inches displacement
• Crank — crankshaft
• Cubes — CID
• Cubic inches — CID
• Cutout - a short leg of the exhaust system that exits to the side of the car and typically in front of the driver. The cutout can be operated manually or remotely from the drivers seat. Hot rodders typically use cutouts on hot rods that are used on the street and the strip. The cutout is closed for street use and open for drag racing on the strip.
• Deuce —
  • '32 Ford Model B (most often a roadster); now commonly on A frame rails
  • Chevy II Nova
• Dual quads — two four-barrel carburetors
• Dragster —
  • broadly, any vehicle modified or purpose-built for use on strips.
  • specifically, specialized racers (early or recent types, in gas, alky, or fuel varieties)
• Elephant — Chrysler hemi
• Fat-fender — 1934-48 (U.S.) car
• Flatty — flathead engine (usually refers to a Ford; when specified, the Mercury-built model)
  • 3/8s by 3/8s — lengthening the stroke and increasing the cylinder bore 3/8 inch. A term only applied to flattys.
• French — to install headlight or taillight slightly sunken into fender
• Frenched — headlight or tallight slightly sunken into fender or to install as such ("she frenched the taillights")
• Fuel —
  • most commonly, nitro (or a mixture of nitro and alky); also, the top drag racing class
  • broadly, gasoline (petrol)
• Full-race — high-performance flatty cam, suitable only for strip use
• Gasser — car used in gasoline-only drag racing classes in the 1960s (as opposed to alcohol or nitromethane fuels), where the front end of the car is raised along with the motor. Characterized by a body that sits well above the front wheels. Distinct from hiboy.
• Gennie — genuine
• Goat — GTO (not the Ferrari)
• Hair dryer — turbocharger (for the shape of the casing)
• Hairpins — radius rods
• Header - the origination point of the tubular exhaust system as the exhaust exits the cylinder head. Hot rodders typically use steel or stainless steel as header materials. A variety of exhaust manifold.
• Hopped up (also "hopped") — stock engine modified to increase performance
• Huffer — supercharger,
• Inches — CID
• Indian (also "Tin Indian") — Pontiac (for the grille badge)
• Jimmy (or "Jimmy Six") — GMC straight 6
  • Any GMC product, such as a compressor used on 2-stroke diesels used as a supercharger.
• Lakes pipes — exhaust pipes running beneath the rocker panels, after use by lakes racers
• Lope — exhaust note produced by of a high-duration cam
• Louvers —cuts in the sheet metal of the body with a narrow raised section on one side of the cuts to create a small window. Used to release air from engine compartments, or often merely for esthetics
• Lowering — reducing the ride height (or ground clearance)
• Lunched — wrecked; caused to be wrecked ("lunched the transmission")
• Mag —
  • magnesium wheel, or steel or aluminum copy resembling one such
  • magneto
• Merc — Mercury
• Mill - any internal combustion engine
• Moons (or Moon discs; incorrectly, moon discs) — plain flat chrome or aluminum disc hubcaps, originally adopted by land speed racers. Smaller examples are "baby moons". Named for Dean Moon.
• Mouse — small-block Chevy
• Mountain motor — large-displacement engine. Named for their size, and for being constructed in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. In organized automotive competition, the term commonly references a V8 engine displacing more than 500 cubic inches; informally, a V8 engine displacing more than 560 cubic inches
• Nail - any car used as a daily driver
• Nailhead — Buick V8, so named because the relatively small diameter valves
• Nerf Bar - a small tubular or solid T-shaped or decorative bar that acts as a bumper. Four nerf bars are typically attached to the ends of the frame rails. Two in the front and two in the rear of the hot rod. Nerf bars are not very functional as bumper protection.
• Nitro — Nitromethane, used as a fuel additive in some drag cars
• Nitrous — nitrous oxide
• NOS — Nitrous Oxide System (a.k.a. laughing gas, liquid supercharger, N₂O, nitrous, "the bottle"): apparatus for introducing nitrous oxide into the air intake of an engine prior to the fuel entering the cylinder.
• Nosed — as in "nosed & decked": is the removal of any hood (bonnet) or trunk (boot) ornaments, the filling of holes and painting as a smooth clean surface.
• Pinched — narrowed and lengthened body, usually at the nose
• Pop —
  • a mixture of nitro & alky.
  • British slang for a sit-up and beg Ford Popular.
• Plod —
  • British slang for body filler.
  • British slang for the traffic police (after PC Plod in Enid Blyton's Noddy series)
• Ported and Polished - enlarging and smoothing of the intake and exhaust port surfaces of performance engine cylinder heads to facilitate the ease of movement and increased volume of the engine gasses.
• Portmatching - the lining up of the intake manifold, cylinder head ports and exhaust headers as to create one continuous smooth course of travel for engine gasses with no ledges or obstructions.
• Pro Street — street legal car resembling a Pro Stock car. Some are very thinly disguised racers.
• QJ — Quadrajet (Rochester 4-barrel carburetor)
• Q-jet — Quadrajet
• Rail (or "rail job") —
  • dragster with exposed front frame. Usually refers to early short-wheelbase cars, and not usually to Altereds.
  • (drag racing) guardrail
• Rat — Chevy big block engine
• Rockcrusher — Muncie M22 4-speed transmission so called because of the audible differences in operation between the model M-22 and its lower strength but quieter cousin, the M-21
• Rocket — Oldsmobile, in particular their early V8s
• Rolled pan — Contured sheet of metal that covers the space where the bumper used to be
• SB — small-block (Chevy)
• Sectioned — having sectioning ("the '49 was sectioned"), or having performed a sectioning ("he sectioned the Merc")
• Sectioning — removing of a horizontal center section of the body and reattaching the upper and lower parts
• Shoebox — '49-'54 Ford (for the slab-sided appearance)
• Slammed — lowering the car very close to the ground. Frequently accomplished with the use of air suspension.
• Slick — soft compound tire with no grooves, designed just for drag racing. Usually much wider than normal street tires. Used in the rear of the car
• Souped (or "souped up") — hopped up, performance improved (more common in '40s and '50s)
• Steelies — stock steel rims
• Stovebolt — Chevy straight 6
• Street legal — dual-purpose car, capable of performing routine duties as well as weekend racing. Some cars described as such, such as Pro Street cars, are very thinly disguised racers.
• Street-strip — dual-purpose car, capable of performing routine duties as well as weekend racing. Some cars described as such have very marginal off-track utility.
• Strip —
  • drag strip.
  • More broadly, cars or parts used or intended for racing only. Thus "street-strip" is a dual-purpose car.
• Stroked — increased stroke, to increase displacement; usually by adding a longer-stroke crankshaft
• Suicided — changed from front- to rear-hinged ("suicide door") type
• Tin Indian — Pontiac (for the grille badge)
• Toploader — Ford 4-speed manual transmission so named because access to the transmission internal was made via an access panel located on the top of the transmission housing 
• Track T — Model T roadster built in the style of a dirt track race car
• Tunneled — deeply sunken into fender
• Wombat — A nickname for the General Motors W series engine (348-409 cubic inch)
• Wrinkle walls — drag racing slicks
• Zoomie pipes (or zoomies) — short exhaust pipes with no mufflers, used for racing, or just for show (not street legal)

Some terms have an additional, different meaning among customizers than among rodders: NOS, for instance, is a reference to new old stock, rather than nitrous oxide.