A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been altered to either improve its performance, change its aesthetics, or a combination of both. Some automotive enthusiasts in the United States want to push "styling and performance a step beyond the showroom floor - to truly craft an automobile of one's own." A custom car in British according to Collins English Dictionary is built to the buyer's own specifications.
One of the famous custom cars in the classic American custom style, the Hirohata Merc
1916 Ford Model T modified into a speedster, an early form of customized car
A 1923 Ford T-bucket in the traditional hot rod style
1959 Chevrolet Impala Art car
Hot rods are typically American cars that might be old, classic, or modern and that have been rebuilt or modified with large engines optimized for speed and acceleration. One definition is: "a car that's been stripped down, souped up and made to go much faster." However, there is no definition of the term that is universally accepted and the term is attached to a wide range of vehicles. Most often they are individually designed and constructed using components from many makes of old or new cars, and are most prevalent in the United States and Canada. Many are intended for exhibition rather than for racing or everyday driving.
3-window highboy Deuce coupé with a traditional chop—dropped front axle, sidepipes, bugcatcher scoop (with Mooneyes cover) over dual quads on a tunnel ram—as well as less-traditional shaved door handles and disc brakes
A 1923 Ford T-bucket in the traditional style with lake headers, dog dish hubcaps, dropped "I" beam axle, narrow rubber, and single 4-barrel, but non-traditional disc brakes
T-bucket with early hemi, but aluminum radiator (rather than brass), rectangular headlights, and five-spokes (rather than motorcycle wheels) mark this as a later incarnation.
1932 3-window with a classic-style flame job and Moon tank, reminiscent of Chapouris' California Kid