When looking at coverage of a car show on a North Carolina news site, this caption under a nice looking T-Bucket photo said it all: Every show has to have some “real” hot rods. That perceptive writer captured the essence of it: T-Buckets truly represent the definition of a “hot rod”.

I cringe everytime a manic John Force hops out of his generic funny car representation of a modern-day Ford Mustang and refers to it as a “hot rod”. To me, that description is just as far afield as if Steve Jobs had unveiled the new iPad and referred to it as his “ham radio”.

But, back to “real” hot rods at car shows. All you have to do is observe where the crowds congregate, where the most pictures are taken and where the most questions are asked of the owners of the embodiment of a real “hot rod”, the T-Bucket. These fenderless, engine out in the open, roadsters with virtually all their mechanicals exposed are crowd stoppers everywhere, and have been since their inception. Why else do you think the high dollar Deuce, big buck Boydster, and other life savings sapping street rod owners look down on these innovative attention getters that can be put together on a working man’s budget?