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 ...

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 ...

The phrase is a spin-off of "rat bike," which was in reference to custom motorcycles built on the cheap. The late Gray Baskerville, venerated hot rod writer, is said to have been the first to apply ...

Roger Rentola and Bryan Dagel don't worry about waxing their quirky vintage vehicles. They are, after all, rat rods. Unlike their more polished cousins in the antique and street rod family of older ...

“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 ...

Imagine driving a 1,100hp, twin-turbo sport truck with 1,400 lb-ft of frame-twisting torque-and not just in a blinding blast through the quarter-mile, but on a cross-country run. This was no feverish ...

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The rad rod is, as Sam Hard of Hard Up Garage oh-so-eloquently describes it, “this and that, and this and that.” Builders, the community and the automotive media are quick to put labels on what a rat ...

Feb. 14—DICKINSON, N.D. — The world of rat rods, once dismissed as little more than heaps of scrap metal, has captured the hearts of car enthusiasts Lee and Lisa Hageman. For them, rat rods provide ...