Before its 2010 rule change, the NSRA limited traditional street rods to bodies from 1948 or earlier.
That cutoff became one of the defining boundaries of American street-rodding. It generally meant a qualifying car had to be based on a vehicle manufactured in 1948 or before, though replicas modeled on eligible older cars could also fit the traditional concept.
The rule helped distinguish street rods from later custom cars and muscle cars. As owners began building attractive hot rods from early-1950s vehicles, the NSRA created a separate street-machine division and held events aimed specifically at those cars rather than immediately abandoning its historic cutoff.
The 1948 date can be confusing because people often describe the rule as “pre-1949.” Those phrases mean the same thing: 1948 is included, while 1949 and later bodies fall outside the old traditional boundary. In 2010, the organization replaced that fixed cutoff for event eligibility with a rolling 30-year standard.