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By definition, every hot rod is unique, configured and constructed to the ideas and ideals of an individual owner. At the same time, hot rods are tightly constrained by a set of not-quite-rigid rules tacitly agreed on by participants. The car featured here is a Platonic ideal of a hot-rodded 1932 Ford roadster. It's not real-not an authentic Southern California car from the immediate post-World War II period when old Ford roadsters were still being used as daily drivers, changing hands for a hundred bucks or so. Rather, this is a surrealistic evocation of all that was considered cool in 1945-54, i.e., before the small-block Chevrolet V-8 changed everything forever.