Boyd Coddington

[427TJ]

So I guess the Boyd bashing will stop now. Funny how we humans love to attack someone while they are alive but then sadly mourn that person's passing.

I am guilty of this behavior myself.

Boyd definitely revolutionized hot rodding, as did John Buttera (who "discovered" Boyd), and some have grown to dislike Boyd's style because it pushed the price of hot rodding, for a vast majority of us, to unaffordable levels and away from the backyard rodder on a tight budget. One could make the case that Boyd was the father of today's "Rat Rod" (sorry, I know that's a stupid term) and low-buck hot rod scene through the backlash against his (and Buttera's) style of car and the ever escalating cost of that style of car. The GNRS can no longer be won with anything less than a Boyd-style half-million dollar (and up) car. So Boyd deserves both scorn and praise because overall he kept the "hobby" alive and pushed us, one way or another, to keep innovating. He innovated upward in style and cost while the backlash to his style forced innovation downward (in cost only, low-buck innovation is incredible these days) and the result is the low-buck "traditional" hot rod scene.

Either way, thanks Boyd!