In the United States they say sidewalk, in Britain we say pavement. They say cookie, we say biscuit. They say stock car, and we say hot rod, which is especially confusing for ‘car guys’, but that’s another matter.
That’s simplifying it, but in essence National Hot Rods (NHR), one of the most popular and quickest of the United Kingdom’s many short oval formulae, can be compared to NASCAR, or its lower divisions at least. The main reason they’re not actually called stock cars over here is that another, older, British category uses this name.
To muddy the waters even further, in the US, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) governs drag racing, not short oval racing.
Nomenclature aside, there’s no doubt NHR provides great racing, and the hot rods themselves are very interesting machines.
The class grew out of the hugely popular hot rod scene of the 1970s, which featured production-based cars, usually Ford’s Anglia and then Escort, that developed into more specialised machinery through the subsequent decades. The cars are now rear-wheel drive, full spaceframe, silhouette racers, weighing 700kg with around 260bhp on tap, which translates to top speeds of over 90mph and cornering speeds of about 60mph around the tight asphalt ovals they race on (usually a quarter mile or 440 yards / 402m, but some are as short as 380 yards / 347m).
Interesting mix
There are plenty of hot rods competing in different series throughout the UK and Ireland, with grids of 34 not unusual. There’s also an interesting mix of base cars, including Vauxhall Tigras – these small sports coupes have been winning races for many years – Peugeot 206s, Ford Fiestas, and even Ginettas and Lotus Evoras.
Paul Wright, who at the time of writing was leading the points standings for the run off-style World Championship Final qualification, is one of the many who competes in a Tigra, made for Spedeworth Fabrications by renowned racecar constructor, Sonny Howard’s SHP Engineering concern, which builds the chassis for the majority of the NHR cars.
‘The Tigra is still just a
