How Do You Grease Lightning...

Speed isn’t something for all of us, however, some of us crave it... or have a ‘need for speed.’ The music of Rockabilly is fast paced, but so are the cars associated with the culture. For years car lovers and ‘grease monkeys’ have been making cars faster or building their own speed demons. A car that is built for speed and usually a custom built car or a supped up machine is called a Hot-Rod.




Some amateur builders take on a more scrappy technique to building and create ‘Rat-Rods.’


Speaking of Rat-Rods in the first weekend of April Guadalupe St. In Austin hosts the Rat-Rod races, which isn’t a race really, but a gathering of Hot-Rod lovers and Rat-rod builders and everything associated. Even Rockabilly.

Austin has its own car gang too, but this gang is more interested in positive activities; like coffee, donuts, and long drives in the Hill Country.

The Donut gang was started in 2000 by Gene Davis, and has had members since. They meet in North and South Austin on Saturdays to show off their cars and gain new members. Each month one member will host an event for the group and they also participate in local car shows and events.

You can also find custom car shops in Austin who focus on building custom classic car jobs.

Hot Rod Jim's is a shop in Lulling, TX. Russell Alexander, is a designer, builder, and handles the paperwork of the shop. He got into Hot Rods when he was young, because, "they were cool and fast."

He picked up his knowledge, which was extensive, by working in shops and gaining knowledge from experienced folks.


Building has changed only in the process of initial design. Instead of mapping out by hand and using a lot of guesswork, Russell uses a high tech design program called Solidworks. The program allows him to see every single part of the car down to the nuts and bolts, and fine tune the car and the logistics before the actual building happens. This obviously saves time, money and frustration out of doing something that is the slightest bit off.

Jim's has clients from California to right here in Central Texas. "Some of the customers are on their third or fourth Hot Rod model, and they've had experience," says Russell. The love and fascination of hot Rods is still alive.

With the smooth look of classic Hot Rods combining new and better technology, Hot Rods will be on the road for good.