Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Little Deuce Coupe

I have been listening to this song lately on Sixties on Six on Sirius. One of the great Beach Boys hits from the early sixties.
This song is so loaded with California hipster jargon, it is almost a foreign language. I am trying to figure it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g1HtpTonJI
Beach Boys singing Little Deuce Coupe live in concert, 1963.

Do y'all know what a "Little Deuce Coupe" is? I just found out, it is a Model A Ford manufactured in 1932. The "Deuce" refers to the year of manufacture.






Little deuce Coupe
You don't know what I got
Little deuce Coupe
You don't know what I got

Well I'm not braggin' babe so don't put me down
But I've got the fastest set of wheels in town
When something comes up to me he don't even try
Cause if I had a set of wings man I know she could fly
She's my little deuce coupe
You don't know what I got
(My little deuce coupe)
(You don't know what I got)

Just a little deuce coupe with a flat head mill
But she'll walk a Thunderbird like it's standin' still
She's ported and relieved and she's stroked and bored.
She'll do a hundred and forty with the top end floored
She's my little deuce coupe
You don't know what I got
(My little deuce coupe)
(You don't know what I got)

She's got a competition clutch with the four on the floor
And she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar
And if that ain't enough to make you flip your lid
There's one more thing, I got the pink slip daddy
And comin' off the line when the light turns green
Well she blows 'em outta the water like you never seen
I get pushed out of shape and it's hard to steer
When I get rubber in all four gear


"Walk a Thunderbird." Can't find this one on line exactly, I guess it means the Deuce Coupe is faster than a Thunderbird.

"Ported and relieved and stroked and bored" Refers to engine modifications. I can't find what "relieved" means.

"Purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar" Lake pipes are chromed exhaust pipes that run on the outside of the car next to the running board and are quite visible
The Deuce Coupe in the photo does not have lake pipes


"There's one more thing, I got the pink slip daddy" In 1963, the title of a car in California was printed on a pink piece of paper.
Challenging someone to a drag, if someone said "I got the pink slip" it meant he was betting the ownership of his car on the outcome of the race.

I believe the "deuce" was a Model B.......IIRC 1931 was the last year of the Model A.

relieved i think is refering to exhaust modifications.

A Deuce Coup is a two seater.

I always thought a “deuce coupe” was a 32 Ford 3-window coupe. Much like that 5-window above. That 5-window above is a beauty, for sure

Deuce 32. First year of the v-8

They're still pink.

Walk away from a T-bird.

Heads are relieved around the valves for airflow.

It's really not California jargon.
Drag racing was big in Cali. So...

It's just gearhead/drag racing jargon.

Perhaps, but not the explanation I head about 45 years ago:

Lots of hot rod donors from the 30's and 40's might have been resurrected from the wreckers or found essentially abandoned - so not so quick to get a title. Hot rodders, being mostly kids would concentrate on hopping the thing up before dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s when it came to registration. Later it would be easy enough to fall afoul of the law and lose the car. In this case the singer's stating that in this case, it's owned outright and legally.

Great song, one of my favorite beach boy songs!

Speaking of 3-Window Coupes

Very underappreciated group.

Notice how the girls in the audience are going wild. Jumping out of their seats.
The boys look like they wish they were somewhere else.

he deuce coupes pictured above are really nice - looking a lot like the originals. But, many of them in the 50s and 60s, when "rodded," were cut-gown and without some of the original aspects - like fenders - and eventually could be seen in all sorts of reduced/altered configurations. Probably can find a ton of such examples on the picture net.

In the case of those with some jingle to toss, the flat head V8s were replaced with later year OHV Ford and other OHV engines. Lincoln Zephyr gears, bigger headers, dual quad carb setups, radical cams, etc. etc. Lots of jargon did accompany that scene. Porting was opening/smoothing the fuel intake pat, relieving was doing about the same for the exhaust. Do you recall "chopped and channeled" - and "shackles"?
Good old times.

exhaust ports on the heads.

and early Hemis in the 50s 392

Us older folks know more about them old wrecks than we care to admit.

Maybe should be us old wrecks know more about them old cars than we care to admit.

Got a 32 Ford... A tank full of gas...A mouth full of puussy and a hand full of azz...And I'm movin on...

stroked and bored.... using a crank with a longer throw and different length rod and piston, bored mill out the cylinder a few thousand, all to get more cubic inches, all the 440s I built were stroked out to 498 cubic inch.

Are you guys talking about chopped and channeled? Be Well, Rustyzipper.