Man on Main Street
Man On Main Street, Tony asks his friends; “What do you think about electric motors in hot rods?”
At the Historic Main Street Car Show in Garden Grove last month I asked my friends what they thought about Rat Fink. Another favorite topic of our friend Jersey from our Benchracing With Jersey series, electric cars. “Slot Cars”. That’s his answer to electric motors in cars. “They only belong in Slot Cars!”
I am a bit mixed on the subject. I carefully phrased the question to be about electric motors in HOT RODS. Not in daily drivers, trucks or anything else. Hot Rods. If you take the true essence of Hot Rodding the question is “Why not?” With the recent backlash Hot Rod Magazine got with their electric power plant in Project-X. (Which I just heard recently it now has a good ol’ petrol burning ICE back under the hood). That project was ALWAYS about trying out different things. So I thought it was inevitable and would also be replaced soon.
I am kinda diggin’ the stealthiness of an electric motor. I love the instant torque too. I mean, come on. That is what I dig about mashing down the go pedal in my 56, or my Hemi RAM and even rolling the throttle off and snapping the clutch now and then on my Road King. That put you in the back of the seat feeling is AWESOME.
As you will hear on this video, some of the guys like the dripping oil, the fumes and the sounds of a well-tuned gas powered internal combustion engine. And that is totally cool. Too. What isn’t cool is the fake sounds of a roaring engine (or arguably a dying cat) coming from a quiet electric car. Sorry Bob. (Although, I know he was being sarcastic in his response).
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Here are some scenes from the Historic Main Street Car Show…
