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Detroit, 8:29 PM
Mon Nov 9
23 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/19/09
08/19/09
I mean, if a civic can run a 7 sec quarter, anything's possible. Right? Right.
08/19/09
08/19/09
Tuning a drivetrain will require certainly more knowledge of electric components than it does today, but car CULTURE doesn't change just because the cars do.
People love speed, shiny things, feeling a sense of accomplishment, making things their own, and sharing it with others. So unless cars become made entirely of wood, a blanket speed limit of 25 is laid down across the country, and people aren't allowed to associate in groups of more than 3 people (bring on the Soviet-America jokes), the car culture isn't going anywhere bad. Just different.
08/19/09
However, I do believe that the "spirit" will evolve. For my age, I suppose I'm one of the more "old school" car guys, I'll take something older, modify it, drive it around with crummy looking paint knowing it runs 12s and pollutes to high heaven and be damn proud that my socket wrench has touched nearly every bolt and fastener on it. I am the minority today. I have friends to lazy to change their own oil, fuel filter, air filter, or anything else. I practially run a shop out of my garage performing menial maintenance tasks for a few of my buddies and I stop and ask, "can you really not handle rotating your tires yourself?"
With all the greenwashings and bogus politics today, many near classics are seeing the crusher. The car forum I frequent has already seen a number of threads with regard to "clunkering" what for many, would be a perfectly good performance vehicle to modify. This is our perfect storm - joblessness, inflation, debt - all aligning to make the cost of entry prohibitive, and coupled with the social climate, the act of modifying - a sin. However, I retain the hope and belief that we will press on, sinning as it may be. The only reprieve from our "sins" coming when the we shut down for a fill up, or tear it down for that next modification.
Live on my brethren, live in.
08/19/09
Mavericks.
/facepalm
08/19/09
I think the idea here is that America is all about individualism, and that Americans will always feel a connection to their cars, using them as an instrument to express their individuality.
I do applaud you for changing your own oil, but it is possible to see that as a means to save money, not as an expression of your love for cars.
08/19/09
Are hobbyist cars of the future going to look like a fastback mustang with chrome Cragar SS's? Nope. The thing is, that's okay. Each generation gets to define itself for itself. The next generation doesn't care what we think.
In the '20s, guys were tweaking Model Ts into "speedsters." Right now, older-middle-age guys with potbellies who grew up listening to "Pet Sounds" think there's nothing better than muscle cars. In 25 years, their grandkids may be cobbling up battery packs and soldering homebrew circuit control boards to hotrod old jalopy Priuses.
Does that sound like as much fun to us old guys? Of course not. But you can stick it, old man. They won't be building them for you, anyway.
08/19/09
(But the muscle cars are better, right?)
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That era might be going away for cars, but I think the distinctly american traits of that phenomenon: individuality, ingenuity and passion, aren't going anywhere.
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08/18/09
As for the future of motoring in general, the primary question is how willing we are as a nation to trade freedom and excitement for safety and responsibility. All we can hope for is that we've learned from our mistakes and can avoid repeating them. Let the pessimists complain and the old timers reminisce; the rest of us will look onward to the future and whatever it has in store.
I don't believe that anything could quite replace the joy and liberation of the open road, and I hope nothing ever does.
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08/18/09
Maybe it's something set deep into most male and some female psyches that madly enamours us with those in the world that are meticulous engineered, precision crafted, and astonishingly physics defying. So much so, and so mysteriously so, the science of making cars (and technology) becomes an art. An art to be savoured, to be gawped at, to be showed off to admiration and adulation.
An art to be loved. I love cars. They are so much more than boxes on wheels that I use to get from A-to-B. They are alive, they are among us, they complete us.
08/18/09
Just like how grunge 'music' totally fubar'd radio, it'll go away, eventually, much like malaise bumpers and 120 HP 400 C.I.D. V-8 engines did.
If you ever think cars are gone, go listen to Red Barchetta by Rush.
Personally, I'd like to save a very low-mile, loaded (i.e. sunroof but no fake convertible crapola) 1993-1996 LT-1 powered Fleetwood. If gasoline goes away, I'll just have to Mad Max it for juice, that's all.
08/18/09
The inertia of the definition of "Classic" meaning the 60s and early 70s is only just starting to corrode.
But we see it now; we see it here.
We are the gearheads of the present and future, just as the nostalgites were the gearheads of the past.
What do we drive? What do we lust after? We hang onto our aging GTIs, Volvo Bricks, Impala SSs, and our XJ Cherokees. We unwisely pick up Jaguar XJRs, lured by the siren song of a stonking V8.
The motoring public forgets how much chaff was discarded to yield the GT390s, 440 Challengers and Chevelle SSs that have survived.
Memories of 1-barrel six cylinders, 2-speed autos and 14x5.5" bias plies fade while an armada of Camries (or Armadas, for that matter) stares us in the face every day.
Rest assured, 40 years from now the Camries will be forgotten, but the Supras, the EVOs and the CTS-Vs will be causing gearheads to avert their gaze long enough to walk into a post just the same.
And maybe then, after walking through parking lots of electric self-driving commuter-bubbles will we have this discussion again.
08/19/09
You don't need too much to keep yesterday's GT's going. They're very simple animals until you get into numbers correct restorations. Here's a holley carb, heres a junkyard full of small block V8's, here's a tub of bondo.
In 30 years when you need one of 12 electronic control units in that Supra replaced, you are going to need a freaking time machine.
08/19/09
I have an easier time getting parts for my modern cars than I do for my '67 Ford Country Sedan.
I had to read a book on carburetors to figure out how that mechanical clusterfnck on top of the engine actually works. EFI has long made perfect sense to me.
Circuit boards are cheap and easy to replace. Carburetor parts require precision casting and machining: increasingly expensive processes compared to electronics.
To be honest, I'm willing to bet electronic engine controllers will be easier to come by than carb parts 30 years from now.
08/19/09
At the very least, folks like AEM, Hondata, MoTec, and the like will be able to supply engine ECU's for a lot of our beloved rides. Body controllers are another thing, but I'm sure someone out there will fill the need.
Hmmm, now that I think about it...
08/19/09
You might be hard pressed to find jets for your holley 750 in 30 years, but you really won't need to, you just need to find something equivalent. I can't buy a new stromberg carb for my 45 year old dodge, but I can get an edelbrock.
At any rate I certainly hope you're right because I'm not giving up my twin turbo without a fight.
08/18/09
Maybe the music analogy is oversimplifying things a bit. For America, the car still means a great deal to many. And for a large swath of the population, it is still the best way to get around. Sure, not many may care deeply about driving, or what is in their driveway. One only has to look at the vast quantities of "appliance" vehicles populating the roads today. If being a gear head goes a little more underground, so be it. I, personally, would prefer it. As with the music, the quality of the players and fans goes up, and a community is fostered.
While a part of me secretly hopes my Evo will become a collector's item, the rest of me is too busy driving it into the elements from whence it came. All I know for sure, is that whatever comes after it must be fun and engaging. I'm sure there will be something to choose from.
Nice writing, John. I liked the contemplation it provoked.
08/18/09
Many of them will be turbocharged. That right there, in the hands of a mod-minded owner, will take care of the "less powerful" part, at least per pound.
Smaller and lighter can only be good things.
We're gonna be fine. Remember, it's not about horsepower numbers, it's about having fun with cars.
I say all this as the owner of one of the last of the dinosaurs (a G8 GXP). I feel sure my next hot car will be radically different, but just as fun in its own way.