I could'nt make it threw the entire article but here it is for all to enjoy. Boy am I glad somebody knows the right way to build a RAT ROD

http://ottawasun.autonet.ca/2014/04/09/kod-rat-rods

Ratting out a new type of hot rod

April 9, 2014

The rat rod styling philosophy dictates that it's bare essentials only, and if it can be removed, it should be. If one were to drive by, onlookers would think "woah, how is that junky jalopy even moving?"

Have you ever heard of a rat rod?

It's a custom vehicle built from the ground up, with an aesthetic that appears un-finished and well, ratty.

Although vaguely similar in style to a hot rod (think 1930s-60s lines), the similarities stop there, because a hot rod is restored, whereupon a rat rod is created completely from imagination.

The rat rod styling philosophy dictates that it's bare essentials only, and if it can be removed, it should be. If one were to drive by, onlookers would think "woah, how is that junky jalopy even moving?"

But boy will it ever, because the engines are the opposite of junky. Rat rods are powered by massive, polished and pristine engines without any computers, just a lot of iron outputting ideally about 500 horsepower and as much torque.

Then, couple those specs with the niche's bare essentials styling, and the power-to-weight ratio of some of these cars is excellent.

They're also not easy to drive. In fact, the idea is that the harder it is to drive, the better the rat rod. They're "dropped and cropped" (dropped as in given a lowered suspension, cropped as in inches are cut off the windows), and a five inch visibility out the windshield is considered a success.

With that in mind, rat rods, unsurprisingly, usually aren't street legal. They're mostly collector or show cars, trailered to an event and sent the same way home.

And that's it. Those loose rules, plus an everything-goes attitude, make every rat rod totally unique.

It's a rather new niche segment that's gaining in popularity, enough that there's a new Canadian TV series launching soon on Discovery Channel.

I sit down recently with the show's star Twiggy, who says she loves rat rods because they're "absolutely ridiculous in every way."

She and the team built an alligator-themed car for a Texan, complete with gator skin seats and a dagger shift-knob mounted atop an actual gator head.

For the inventor of the e-brake, meanwhile, the team turned a 1928 Buick into an electric vehicle, complete with seats designed to look like electric chairs used in executions.

Recycling is also a huge part of this scene, and many of the builders are pack rats, because that random little trinket could be just the right thing a future dashboard really needs. I laugh and tell Twiggy, "you guys sound like hoarders," and she replies "actually, yes, so much that it's a topic regular of discussion the show."