Hot Rod - Language

Language

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.

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Famous quotes containing the word language:

    “They who in folly or mere greed
    Enslaved religion, markets, laws,
    Borrow our language now and bid
    Us to speak up in freedom’s cause.”
    —Cecil Day Lewis (1904–1972)

    “The writer’s language is to some degree the product of his own action; he is both the historian and the agent of his own language.”
    —Paul De Man (1919–1983)

    “This is of the loon—I do not mean its laugh, but its looning,—is a long-drawn call, as it were, sometimes singularly human to my ear,—hoo-hoo-ooooo, like the hallooing of a man on a very high key, having thrown his voice into his head. I have heard a sound exactly like it when breathing heavily through my own nostrils, half awake at ten at night, suggesting my affinity to the loon; as if its language were but a dialect of my own, after all.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)