QOTD: What Hot Rod Would You Buy With a Lotto Money?
What pre-war hot rod would you buy given the vast sum of money won in the Powerball jackpot Wednesday night, considering a $250k build is less than one percent of the winnings?
According to USA Today, the $730 million golden ticket came from Coney Market in Lonaconing, Maryland. As the point of sale for the winning ticket, the store will also receive $100,000 from the Maryland Lottery. Maryland law doesn’t require the recipient to identify themselves, so we may never know who that lucky person is. In case you were wondering, the cash-only lump sum payout would be $546 million if you didn’t want to spread it out over your lifetime.
While there’s no telling what the winner will do with the spoils, we’re going to assume they like cars and would like to own a truly distinctive ride. Let’s pretend you were that person, and you have your sights set on a pre-war hot rod. What would you buy, or have built for you?
[Images: © 2021 J. Sakurai/TheTruthAboutCars.com]
With a father who owned a dealership, I literally grew up in the business. After college, I worked for GM, Nissan and Mazda, writing articles for automotive enthusiast magazines as a side gig. I discovered you could make a living selling ad space at Four Wheeler magazine, before I moved on to selling TV for the National Hot Rod Association. After that, I started Roadhouse, a marketing, advertising and PR firm dedicated to the automotive, outdoor/apparel, and entertainment industries. Through the years, I continued writing, shooting, and editing. It keep things interesting.
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Would a Duesenberg Model J count as a hot rod, seeing as the bodywork was built to owner preferences? If so, that's my pick.
One of my recurring nightmares is to get stuck driving a typical hot rod across more than one state (i.e., great in town, tiresome and vexatious cross country). If forced to go 'pre-war,' would do a 'replica' one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Jammers Replica because the original frame would not be able to handle the copious amounts of torque from the new powertrain (TBD, but no shortage of cylinders and an overabundance of torques). Also 'replica' because we will not be following the original body lines exactly. In cherry red with huge metalflake. First three rows would be flexible passenger seating, 4th row of doors would provide additional access to the immense luggage space. MagneRide. Exhaust cutouts [spare me the Interstate droning!]. Hot Licks exhaust (shhhh). Air conditioning. Performance preview: https://youtu.be/3Nv7_w5L9tg