The name Hotrodiningrat sounds very Javanese or Yogyakarta. It is logical, however, since this community does base in Yogyakarta. Hotrod is a style of the car while diningrat is the Yogyakarta-type of words, which is why this community get its name from. It is indeed a unique name for an auto & car community.

Hotrodiningrat is a community for a custom classic American cars lovers. There are currently 40 to 50 classic American cars of various types are involved in this community. This community has gained popularity and even routinely held an annual gathering for its members.

COMING FROM THEIR LOVE OF ANTIQUE CARS

This community was initially founded by three people only, Arif Jamir, Fari, and Walik. They were initially collecting antique cars as their hobby. Slowly, they started to share their interest in classic American car with their friends. Slowly, one by one their friends show their interest to classic American cars as well, especially those manufactured before 1965.

With the new interest in classic American cars, the three friends then build a classic American cars community and called themselves the Hotrodiningrat. It was at the beginning of February 2010 that this community is finally born. Today, the Hotrodiningrat become the oldest hot rod community in Indonesia.

They intentionally hunt for classic cars anywhere, and slowly the community grows. With their love for classic American cars, it comes with no surprise that many members of this community have three to four classic American cars.

Not only beautiful to look at, but classic American cars are also known as smooth, have high power, and comfortable to drive. Despite being an old car, these antique cars are still in their best condition.

Up until 2015, there are about 40 classic American cars of 4000 cc in Hotrodiningrat. Hotrod itself means a modified car that uses engines with a stronger power than the original engine. Which means this car is really powerful.

MEMBERS HAVE TO MODIFY THEIR CARS

As a custom car community, the members of Hotrodiningrat have to be brave enough to modify or custom their car before joining the community. For example, they can cut the right and left side of the car, lower the car height, or cut the spring. They build their car with art, so none of the cars in this community is standard manufacture. All of the cars have been modified in one way or another.

Low-rider also becomes one of the trend popular within this community. This 60s-70s style of modification to these American manufactured cars make them even looks more classic. Combined with vintage polished cars, the result is a cool and sexy looking classic car.

However, modifying this car can take a lot of times and even up to one year. This is because the original spare parts have to be directly imported from the United States. Additionally, the interior, dashboard, and even the rims or tires are not always available in Indonesia, making the owner have to wait for several more times. However, the end result is amazing. Modifying a car can cost a lot of money too. To modify one car, it can cost from IDR 150 million up to IDR 300 million or even more, depending on the level of difficulties.

Not only modify the cars, but members of this community also love to play with art and make their car even looks more classic than before. This auto & car community even have garages that become the place where they modify their classic car, one of which was located in Kotagede.

WINS SEVERAL CONTEST

Not only gathering around, but this community also routinely joins automotive contest like car art, car modification, and many more. In 2012, this club even wins the Djarum Black Classic Showdown in Jogja Expo Centre in classic car contest. To this day, the Hotrodiningrat has collected dozens of trophy from various classic car contest.

AN ANNUAL GATHERING CALLED HOTROD WEEKEND PARTY

In addition to joining the classic car contest or modified car contest, and also classic car shows, this community also has its own gathering events. Their annual event is called the Hotrod Weekend Party where they gather the members of the community and also invites all classic auto & car lovers from outside Yogyakarta. The last Hotrod Weekend Party was held in 3-4 November 2018 in Kampung Mataraman.

In this event, they still promote the same spirit, a custom made American classic cars. In the last year event, around 80 cars, or about 80-90 percent of the cars exhibited were from Yogyakarta, while the rest was from outside Yogyakarta, such as Bandung, Lampung, Surabaya, Malang, and Bali. In the last year event, American motorbike also appeared in the exhibition.

Around 60 modified motorbikes appeared in this event, although it was not the main star of the show because the purpose of this event was to unite people with similar hobbies, that is American custom classic cars. The last event contains several supporting events such as pinstriping exhibition, die-cast exhibition, low rider contest, dunk tank, and also music show from several famous bands in Yogyakarta. This events gain a lot of attention not only from the classic car lovers themselves, but also automotive lovers in general.

This event was meant to be the birthday of the Hotrodiningrat, therefore they invite the public to enjoy the events. The main obstacles in holding this event were the fund since they have to fund this event themselves. Hotrodiningrat remains one of the prominent classic  car community in Indonesia. Their annual event is one of the events most waited for car lovers especially those who love classic American cars.