BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods

Subject: RE: BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 01:41 PM

I don't see much point if it doesn't make it go handle or stop better - although I do like a good sound and I am going to get my calipers done.

Mk 2 2 litre Triumph Vitesse with the three quarter trailing rear suspension was OK. Mk 1 1600 with swing axles a death trap.

Subject: RE: BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 09:28 AM

More of a soopty than a hoopty?

The mail in the next town over used to be delivered in a station wagon with a hood ornament that I think was a chicken... a plastic one.

Here in New England, cars (ancient Saabs and Volvos) that get decorated often are just plastered with interesting bumper stickers. I've been known to sometimes stop on my walk from parking lot to store to read somebody's car.

Subject: RE: BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 08:34 AM

Around here, "hoopty" carries two distinct definitions. The Urban Dictionary "Hoopty = Piece of junk" definition Jeri linked to is, perhaps, the term's original meaning and is still in use. But it has also come to mean a customized full-sized American-made car of model years roughly between the late 1960s and early 1990s. Customization is primarily cosmetic in nature (fancy wheels, paint jobs, and interior work) instead of performance related. That's not to say a well-maintained 1969 Chevy Caprice hoopty doesn't run well, but its owner's main goal is to have it be visually impressive, not to see how fast he can make it do a quarter-mile.

Subject: RE: BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods
From: Jeri
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 10:34 PM

I never thought hoopties were rods. I like the first definition in the Urban Dictionary. I had a $250 primer gray Triumph Vitesse that the son of a guy I worked with "fixed". It ran, but it was something new every day. If you tried to turn the lights on, the windshield wipers started. If you hit the turn signal, the horn would honk. I am not making this up. (And it was already weird shifting with my left hand.)

Around where I live now, it's either motorcycles or pickup trucks, none of which seem to be visibly or audibly augmented.

Subject: RE: BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 09:52 PM

Out here it's pickup trucks that are altered. Some are quite well done, but it's the owners of others that should have been altered.

Subject: RE: BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods
From: frogprince
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 09:31 PM

Hadn't really heard "Hoopty" or "Hoopties" until the last few years here where I live now in Michigan; I took the reference as I've heard it to mean almost any older "jalopy". We have cruise night downtown each monday night in summer. The mix includes everything from the newer expensive muscle cars and "luxury sports" types stuff to radical custom "lead sleds", deuce coupes, a number of immaculately restored or well preserved true oldies from the 20's or 30's, a couple of the most rudimentary "rat rods" imaginable, and one old geezer who has the temerity to show up in a custom painted Ford Focus with a home-made grill . The locals are a tolerant bunch, and haven't run even him out of town.

Subject: BS: Hoopties... Boxy American Street Rods
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 08:49 PM

Okay, I'm a motorhead but...

...here in NC there are a lot of cool hoopties... I mean, mostly Checy Caprices and Ford LTDs that ride high and have 20 inch wheels (at least) and low profile tires...

My local favorite is called "Pillsbury Doughboy"... An LTD and it is hot...

The ones I don't like are the $300 cars ( mid 70's ) with $3000 worth of wheels and tires...

How 'bout it in ya'll's neighborhood???

B~