Anyone who is at least passingly familiar with custom cars has probably at least heard of the concept of a hot rod. A hot rod is, of course, a custom car designed with the express purpose of going as ...

We start our rat rod truck adventure in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where our man Jesse Kiser attended the Heavy Rebel Weekender rockabilly music festival and car show, a hardcore Mecca for ...

If so, your opinion on rat rods—and by extension, diesel rat rods—may be informed by whether you are already invested in traditional hot rod building (pre-1949 hot rods) and the long history of ...

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Hot Wheels took its annual Legends Tour to Detroit, a city with one of America’s most vibrant car cultures, and the results didn’t disappoint. The winner is a 1931 Dodge Rat Rod built by three members ...

“I get an endless amount of garbage from people about buildingrat rods, but I get just as much about them being diesel powered,” Steve says. “I grew up in the steel industry, so I was used to watching ...

Rat rods originated as a counter-reaction to the shiny, custom-built hot rods that focused on looks rather than power. Many viewed them as expensive rolling decorations compared to the hot rods of the ...

In the world of custom builds, rat rods are a special breed. Ugly enough to be unstoppable head turners, these machines are if you like the ultimate sleepers, sending all the wrong messages to the ...

Joe Kozuszek of Belleville admires the interior of an entry in Saturday’s Rat Rod Show in Grafton. Six-year-old Ethan Hosto of Worden gets a closer look at a “rat” on a rat rod at Saturday’s show in ...

It may surprise you, as it did me, that there is actually a car collector category called rat rods. One might compare a rat rod to some modern art sculpture that not everyone can appreciate the ...

A rat rod shows its colors, or lack thereof, on Saturday in Grafton. Chuck Darnell of Quincy, right, talks about his 1960 Cadillac show car during Saturday’s Chop Rod Ramble. A visitor admires a ...