I've been saying for a long time that a lot of the cars I grew up with looked exactly like some of the rats you see today. The one with the flexible exhaust pipe in that picture is very close to the ones I am talking about. The only finished, painted cars I remember seeing where in magazines.
Uncl Ian said it well, we didn't stay stagnant on new stuff coming out, we jumped on any new trick or accessory to make our cars faster and better. Tradition to me is people being inventive and creative. As soon as we saw someone with a new part on their car we had to save up and have one too.
Tradition is also that we had some real abortions back then too. We didn't know much and had very little money or tools to work with, so we cobbled a lot of things together. Very few places had off the shelf parts like we can 1-800 today, so we built 99 percent of it at home. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't work.
That is why I like rat rods, they remind me of the spirit of the cars I grew up with..........built by Fathers and Sons in their own backyards or garages. It is that kind of inventiveness that built this country and why we won two world wars. I bet there are more cars going together in backyards and home garages than ever before, and the rat rod movement was responsible for a large portion of that growth. People now realize you don't have to have a huge bank account or fully equipped shop to enjoy this great hobby.
That my friends is tradition.
Don
