We've been tossing around this whole "rat rod" thing pretty thoroughly lately. Here's how I see it:
Traditional hot rods (I'm talking late '40s-'50s era... the "true" hot rods to Bill and many others) were built by guys with more ambition than money. They built their cars to go as fast as they could go, using whatever parts their wallets could afford. The look of the car wasn't the primary goal... going fast was. These "real" hot rods wound up looking the way they did with very little, if any, intent by the builder to make them look a certain way.
Today's rat rods, on the other hand, are not necessarily built to go fast. Or go at all. They are built to look at. The intent isn't to create a fast car on the cheap, the intent is to create a visual statement.
Apples and oranges.