Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to drive fast and aggressively; also in fig./ext. use.

1948		Daily Indep. (Murphysboro, IL.) 21 Feb. 2/2: Senator Alexander Wiley, Rep., Wis., feels that right now is the time to prepare to legislate by television in event some jet-propelled contraption comes hot-rodding through the heavens and lays a few atomic bombs on this fair land, beginning with the Capital.
1971		J. Simon Sign of Fool 53: After hot rodding it around the block.
2008		T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 16: He was one of the kids from the high school who used to hotrod around.

2. (Aus.) to modify a standard model autombile into a hot-rod n. (2)

2023

D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 8: ‘The blue-and-white one? The one you want to chop down, section and hot-rod?’ [ibid.] 269: [T]he numerous and valuable hot-rodded ’30s and ’40s Fords and Plymouths.