It's difficult to judge the attitude of a million people, even if those million people share a common interest in the form of tens of thousands of amazing cars. There was no question everyone was having a blast at Woodward. People were happily falling all over themselves to tell you when they'd bought their cars or where they'd found them, explain what they'd done to them, and tell you stories and lies about them. But although there was no question they were having the time of their lives, there was an undercurrent of pessimism, and perhaps even a little anger. In addition to the usual They-Don't-Build-‘Em-Like-This-Anymore and The-Golden-Age-Of-Cars-Is-Over-Forever harangues you get whenever classic car guys get together, there were a lot of angry jeers directed towards Cash for Clunkers, hybrids, environmentalism, safety measures, and other carpocalyptic trends in the broader society — not to mention a strong undercurrent of Kids-These-Days-Would-Rather-Play-Video-Games.

It hardly needs repeating that no — the evident immortality of the small-block and the solid rear axle aside — they don't build ‘em like they used to. And this isn't the place to go into how, with more reliability, efficiency, and survivability, this isn't all bad. What's worth discussing is whether any of today's cars are the sort of machines that will patrol Woodward in 30 years, God willing, and some folks just don't see it happening. A look at the showrooms is inconclusive, because while you can get a meat-eating monster of a Camaro or a Mustang, can you really afford it if you're just out of college, the way you could with many of the originals? Looking at it another way, in ten years the young rodders of the future will have the opportunity to buy and mod the cast-off new cars of today. What will they have to choose from? Next year's new Fiesta, maybe, but what else? And make no mistake, customization is key; even the folks behind the Scion offerings recognized that, never mind that their kits were oriented less to performance than making sure the driver was dramatically lit. If you can't make your car absolutely your own, demonstrate some creative ownership instead of just being a car owner, you aren't part of the scene.

And will there be a scene at all? You may have noticed that the Dream Cruise took place on an Ozone Action Day, an air-quality alert thing declared by regional governments; as forty thousand engines idled proudly beneath signs telling us not to fill up our car's tank during daylight hours. Easy to laugh it off, but you had to be prepared to do so coughing and with watery eyes, because the air was soupy with unburnt hydrocarbons and we don't mean the smell of bacon. Sure, gasoline is the next best thing to bacon for a lot of us, but not to everybody, and certainly not to the people who keep going on about how the petroleum is running out while we're trying to have a good time. Which is annoying, because so many of those people are so young, and so many people keep telling them cars are evil.

And in the end, that is the big worry. If we're honest, we care more about car culture than we do about cars; says so up top there. Will car culture survive all this?

We say yes, it will. It will get harder-face it, when gas was cheap and cars were somewhat cheap and they taught driver's ed and auto shop in almost every school, it was easier to be a gearhead, and you could fall into it almost by accident. But kids will always love cars. We're not all that worried about today's kids having nothing to work on, not after the love we saw Pacers and Pintos and Vega wagons getting at Woodward; people are adaptable, especially car people, and they will modify anything. We're not too worried about people giving kids the message that cars are evil, because kids love evil. But we're not worried at all, not the least little bit, about the "kids these days" because of this fact: Throughout history, whenever anyone's disparaged the "kids these days," they've been wrong. They've just been afraid of being out of touch, of the world going on without them, and of change, technological and otherwise. The car guy you hear complaining about Today's Youth at Woodward is feeling the negative part of nostalgia-that realization nothing stays the same-and down deep, he's probably just worried that someday they'll stop making replacement jets for his Holly double-pumper. Car guys don't get much more afraid of change than that.

We've seen nanotech help devise anti-fog glass and play a part in fuel-cell technology, but some of the German Ford designers have even gone as far as creating nano-particle spray-on coating for cylinder liners that reduce friction and more. [Autopia]

WILLWARN: a project using different wireless communications tools to warn other drivers about upcoming dangerous situations like wrecks, obstructions in the road, etc.

MAPS&ADAS: similar to WILLWARN, but uses satellite navigations to prepare for upcoming dangers and hazards like sharp bends in the road and more.

SASPENCE: a project that analyzes safe driving speeds and distances. This could essentially calibrate the perfect speed and distance from upcoming cars to compensate for sudden braking and more.

LATERALSAFE: a solution to the blind spot conundrum that is as old as Henry Ford himself.

APALACI and COMPOSE: two projects that address the surrounding vehicles while driving. The two technologies will actively track the speed and trajectory of the other vehicles and objects like pedestrians around you being able to react to sudden movements.

For some odd reason this reminds me a little of Nascar's "Car of Tomorrow" but with a lot cooler technologies. Also, I hate it because it reminded me for even a moment of the motorsports shame that is Nascar, but whatever, currently the technologies being implemented by PReVENT are being tested in a Volvo FH12, BMW 545i, Fiat Stilo, Alfa Romeo 156 and Mercedes E350. [Science Daily]

Will the elaborate setup have any affect on the buyers of the unnamed vehicles? More than likely not, but it's still a nice helper for planning out a lean manufacturing strategy. [Christie]

While the hybrid reminds us of the epic horror of the AMC Pacer and the electric car looks nothing like the upcoming Tesla roadster, we have to give it to the books writers for their accuracy. Take a look at the super huge version here for all the thrilling details as well as a peek at the semi truck of the future. [via Pointless Museum]

Many claim there's little doubt the current 3-series is the ugliest car in BMW's history. Furthermore, those same folks claim it's awkward and not aging well. Realizing that, and according to the lads at Motor Authority, BMW is changing course big time. Most notable in this design preview are the cues borrowed from everyone's favorite Shanghai surprise, the CS Concept. Note the front end is lifted almost exactly from the CS, though the renderings for the 3-series have much sharper, 5-series influenced headlights. The hood is also inflated to protect the pedestrians of Europe, only it doesn't look awful. The rear is a best-case evolution of the 7-series's bustled butt. The proposed 3 looks good in profile, too. Is this preview accurate? Who knows, but boy oh boy would it be a big step in the right direction. – Jonny Lieberman

Preview: Next-gen BMW 3-series [Motor Authority]

Related:
BMW Bosses Greenlight New 3-Series Crossover, AutoWeek Says; Hybridnomics! BMW to Put Hybrid Tech in 3-Series Next [Internal]

Futurists have been hot on the robotic urban pod model of transportation since the last flight of Laika, the dog cosmonaut. But with technology catching up with ideas, researchers are starting to come up with tangible prototypes. Take, for example, this folding-car concept from MIT Media Lab. Less a car than a CPU with a windshield, the City Car is propelled by in-wheel electric motors and can achieve omnidirectional mobility via swiveling wheels. It can also fold to take up a fraction of its footprint, and can be stacked like grocery carts at designated parking lots that would double as charging stations, according to The Boston Globe. No word on whether these would encompass some kind of quasi-public car-sharing system, or if they'd be privately owned. All we know is that having one's car stuck under a mountain of stacked pods at the supermarket would make being trapped by a double-parked Tahoe seem like the better choice. – Mike Spinelli

The Car, 2.0 [The Boston Globe]

Related:
Mitsubishi's Latest MIEV: Concept-EV Urban Capsule; Between the Lines: Automobile on the Future of Cars [internal]