The U.S. Postal Service® celebrates Hot Rods, the fast, powerful vehicles that thrill-seeking enthusiasts have been modifying for nearly a century, with two eye-popping stamps.
Hot Rodding first took hold in the 1920s, when young men began modifying cars. Aficionados souped-up engines, lowered chassis, chopped bodies, and cut excess weight, to create fierce machines, unlike anything that had rolled off assembly lines.
The Ford Model T and the Ford Model A were popular among early hot rodders, but the 1932 Ford® roadster or “Deuce,” with its graceful body shape and distinctive grille, was considered the hottest of them all.
First Day of Issue: June 6, 2014 in York, PA
The United States Postal Service, with the help of Velocity TV’s “Car Crazy” host, Barry Meguiar, released two Hot Rods Forever limited edition stamps on Friday, June 6 in York, Pa.
In an exclusive interview with Historic Motor Sports, Barry Meguiar said that he could think of no better “affirmation” from the United States government that hot rods “are an important part of American culture.”
Barry Meguiar was on hand in York, Pa. at the National Street Rod Association (NSRA) Nationals East plus Conference for the release of the two new stamps that are available now.
According to the USPS website, the “deuce” of Hot Rods Forever stamps “depict two of the fast, powerful vehicles that thrill-seeking enthusiasts have been modifying for nearly a century.”
“Hot Rodding first took hold in the 1920s, when young men began modifying cars,” the description continues. “Aficionados souped up engines, lowered chassis, chopped bodies, and cut excess weight, to create fierce machines unlike anything that had rolled off assembly lines.”
The USPS describes the stamps further, “The Ford Model T and the Ford Model A were popular among early hot rodders, but the 1932 Ford roadster or ‘Deuce,’ with its graceful body shape and distinctive grille, was considered the hottest of them all.”
For his part, Meguiar grew up with cars and is an enthusiast of hot rods and car culture, in general. “There’s only one Deuce Coupe,” he said and noted that the stamp with the black car and flames on it “looks just like my roadster.”
The car hobby is “a wonderful hobby,” said Meguiar. “It brings out the best in people.” Cars “break down all barriers” he said and he even thinks that if more people were “car guys” (by which he said he means both male and female), there would be fewer wars.
There are 30 million “car guys” in the United States, he said, and of those 40 percent are hot rodders. Car technology raises the bar when asked to by society to be cleaner and more fuel efficient, as well.
Asked what he might like to share with readers about his own enthusiasm for cars, he said, “If you are raising kids, you need to get into the car hobby.”
“We need ways to connect with our adolescents,” he said. The TV host is not only also President of Meguiar’s Inc., a company that sells car care products such as wax, but he is also a Christian who loves God and speaks in churches.
In that vein, he advocated buying a car to work on with a 14-year-old, telling that young person that if he or she will help fix up the car, it will be his or hers at age 16.
Working on the car together for “hundreds of hours,” he said, gives parent and teen an opportunity to spend time together and to also talk about all kinds of subjects, including issues that involve the passing on of values.
Working on cars helps young people learn a sense of responsibility, the use of tools, applications of mathematics, and other skills, he said.
About the stamps that celebrate hot rods and the car hobby, he said he could think of no other salute with more “breadth of influence.” Car people and non-car people alike will use them, and since they are of the “Forever” variety, they will not go up in price.
He said the new Hot Rods Forever stamps illustrate that hot rods are “really special” and “integral to what makes America wonderful.”
