Performance & Customs
Stock was not always the finish line. Sometimes Detroit built the special package itself. Sometimes a racer cut the car apart. Sometimes a hot rodder looked at a perfectly usable automobile and decided the factory had clearly stopped too soon.
This section is for the machines and ideas that moved beyond the ordinary production car: factory performance packages, race cars, hot rods, customs, gassers, swaps, street machines and competition hardware that escaped onto the street.
The Cars section stays focused on production cars as people bought them. This is where things start getting changed on purpose.
Factory Performance
Chevrolet’s Central Office Production Order system could be used to build combinations ordinary dealer order sheets did not offer, and performance-minded dealers learned exactly what that made possible.
Hot Rods, Customs & Street Machines
Competition cars made side-exit exhaust look purposeful, and street machines borrowed the idea with enthusiasm.
Gremlins, Vegas, Pintos and plenty of other small cars eventually wound up with V8 power because hot rodders have never considered the factory engine bay a binding contract.
Race-Bred Machines
The nose-high look came from trying to move weight onto primitive rear tires at launch. The silhouette stayed around long after chassis technology improved because it looked exactly like old drag racing ought to look.
Ford already had enough engine. The problem was everything wrapped around it. The Thunderbolt stuffed a 427 High Riser into a Fairlane, stripped away anything that slowed it down, and kept cutting until the rulebook finally made them stop.
Bottom Line
Performance & Customs is the home for cars that were built, ordered or modified to do something beyond ordinary transportation. Some came that way from Detroit. Some came out of race shops. Some came out of somebody’s garage with a torch, a welder and more ambition than restraint.
Stock is welcome. It just is not required.