“The gearhead of today has evolved. People today want performance and fuel economy,” said Paul Goldman, the 46-year-old CEO of the hot-rod hybrid shop Juiced Hybrid. He sells more than 500 items ranging from suspension kits and chassis stiffeners to body kits and floor mats. Most of his customers are “educated people who care about the environment” and modify their cars “because they’re tech savvy, not necessarily because they’re car savvy.”
Like all automotive trends, hybrid hot rodding started at the grassroots with green gearheads wrenching at home. But it’s entered the mainstream, with big-name builders like Braille Battery bringing big-budget hybrids like the 440-horsepower “Hot Rod Hybrid Altima” to the annual Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association auto industry trade show in Las Vegas. As the number of automakers producing hybrids grows and the number of people buying them explodes, SEMA officials say, so too will the number of people demanding go-fast goodies for them.
“The green performance revolution is well underway,” says John Waraniak, SEMA’s VP of vehicle technology. “Bringing more environmentally friendly, responsible-vehicle technologies and products to the marketplace doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice performance and the coolness factor.”
The most ambitious hybrid hackers were converting their cars to plug-in hybrids long before there was a cottage industry to do the job, and they’re years ahead of Toyota and General Motors in getting these super fuel-efficient wonders on the road. Of course, the major manufacturers frown on people second-guessing their engineering, and some mods may run afoul of emissions regulations and void your warranty.
But hot rodding has never been about following the rules. People have been modifying cars almost as long as automakers have been building them, and no one expects that to change.
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