[tom406]

The same magazine (July '03 HOT ROD) has a great editorial by my favorite automotive editor, David Freiburger. He points out how, since the dawn of automotive tuning, people have fostered these divisions within the hobby. The Model A 4-banger tuners didn't think the flatheads were "hot rods", then the flathead guys didn't think the overhead valve cars were real "hot rods", then the overhead valve guys didn't think the factory musclecars were "hot rods", because any fool could go buy one, and that was a corruption of the hobby.

The language of the Sport Compact writer sounds about on par with how CAR CRAFT writes about the "ricers". Good natured or not, I don't appreciate the negative vibe from either camp. The hobby needs more cooperation to grow and defend itself from misguided regulations.

There's a new rush of people into the sport compact hobby, and most of them don't have "car crazy" parents or anything, so they're figuring it out as they go. Bolting stuff onto a late model is a lot less intimidating than restoring an old car. And for a 19 year old kid to try and find a real insurance policy on a 30 year old car (not just liability), particularly if their parents aren't willing to title it in their name and do some smoke and mirror job on who's the primary driver, is just about impossible. Hell, its tough for me, a 33 year old father of two, to get a regular primary policy on my old stuff, during the times when I'm "between" late model daily drivers.

The division isn't always money or age, its often experience. Some of the young guys will broaden their taste and do other cars. Many will leave the hobby in their mid-20's, like people always have. I try to be an ambassador for the old car hobby. In my time at the dealerships, several times we've sold an old musclecar to a young guy who drove up in a tweaked Honda. It's cool. The street rod and musclecar hobbies have enough cranky old farts, I encourage everyone I meet to try the wise old mentor thing instead.


Here's some common ground that everyone could appreciate. In AUTOWEEK a couple weeks ago, there was an article on a shop in Michigan that was doing Ford Focus SVT conversions. They were putting tweaked 400+HP Cobra Mustang supercharged 4.6 V8's into them and driving them through the REAR wheels, all without cutting the hood or floor. Looked factory and carried a warranty. Struck me as the true modern successor to the Yenko Nova [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]. It also cost $69K plus your Focus. (Clill, did you order one yet?)