For a group of people that share a common passion, car enthusiasts are a very divisive group of people. Sports car nuts don't hang out with the offroading crowd who don't hang out with the tuner kids.
We're all guilty of promoting a right way to build a car and a wrong way. We talk about low weight and responsive steering and rear wheel drive because all those features are fading out of new production cars. Even the idea of driving yourself is on its way out.
But while we're still here, we should take in all the different kinds of gearheads out there. When we were talking about affordable and efficient upgrades, CobraJoe stood up for the muscle car crowd, which is too easily forgotten now that we're fighting the trend to make all cars high power heavyweights.
"Jalopnik readers agree that improving the handling and braking of your car should take precedent over power upgrades."
Nope. I disagree.
I grew up lusting after Muscle cars, and I ended up loving Fox Mustangs. They're the perfect hoon-mobiles for people who like to powerslide and burnout. That's what I like to do. Better brakes could be nice, but if they stop me then they're good enough. Handling isn't really important, I like to learn to drive to the car's limits (and over them) instead of wishing the limits were higher.
That's not to say that I don't enjoy a well sorted vehicle that handles and brakes very well, I just don't put that as priority over power. (I live in Nebraska, land of the straight roads. Do you blame me for thinking that way?
Well, to put it to the test, see if you can stare at this thing for five minutes and "appreciate the craftsmanship" involved in the build. If you pass that test, you can love any car.
Photo Credit: Garret Voight