High performance means a vehicle is modified, altered from factory production line standards, to go better, stop better, and handle better for the intended specific or multi-use an owner wishes. OEM offerings, ‘factory hotrods’, do provide high performance options and models to appeal to the desires of customers.  But ‘high performance’ has been traditionally used to designate owner improved characteristics of a vehicle’s abilities to function with increased agility and safety. Reducing weight usually improves all aspects of performance.

   In the general sense that’s a hotrod. As form follows function modified vehicles take on appearances in many levels of subtlety and boldness to where the presence of personal modifications give an ‘aura’ of appeal that, for many people, leads to envy where vehicles are then cheaply modified to look the part without having the attributes high performance entails. Those vehicles, though personalized by an owner’s (or factory’s) ideas about status and/or personal tastes, are not classified as, again in the general sense, hotrods.

   Oftentimes the pursuit for more power efficiently - and efficiently more power - loses the primary intent a person may have for his or her vehicle’s particular automotive niche. For some, ideals for extreme performance rests in traditionalist use of stock and aftermarket parts and equipment to functionally keep usable torque and horsepower rpm levels suited directly for responsive reaction in traffic on our roadways. Depending on weight, and its distribution, 200 - 400 horsepower might amply address characteristics desired. Racing orientated hardware is, then, finely adapted for better safety, enhanced stability and longevity confidence; with ‘goal achieved’ satisfaction as the consequence.