If it wasn’t for Twitter I’d definitely miss out on a lot of news stories. Today I came across an article on the Wall Street Journal titled “The End of the Affair” – American’s love affair with cars that is. As a car enthusiast this immediately caught my attention. Apparently, I’m not an American because I love cars. In fact, most of my friends love cars, but we don’t count I guess. However, to be fair, the author does say:
In the far boondocks a few good old boys haven’t got the memo and still tear up the back roads…Among certain youths—often first-generation Americans—there remains a vestigial fondness for Chevelle low-riders or Honda “tuners.”
Well I’m definitely not a “good old boy” and my family has been in the states for the last 400 years. I went to a car meetup the other night with a bunch of my buddies from golfmkv.com. (We’ll be hanging out again next Sunday at the Starbucks in Santa Clara, so come on by.) Believe it or not, none of us are into Honda tuners either (not that we have anything against them, because we just aren’t). In fact, the only first generation American listed on our crew page rocks Adidas Sambas around San Fran. I was never a fan of stereotypes anyways.
The biggest group of enthusiasts are car enthusiasts
Some of the top forums on the net are car enthusiast forums, with the majority dominated by Americans. Check out our post on the most active car forums. US-based VWVortex tops the list with 500K+ members and 36 million posts. Its the 15th most active forum on the web, and it only covers the Volkswagon auto group.
America’s still got heart, just not cash
Our love affair for cars is still strong, but we’re in the middle of a major recession. Detroit isn’t in trouble because people don’t like cars anymore. It’s definitely more complicated than that. Government auto policy, business financing, and poor product design all play a part, despite the author, P.J. O’Rourke’s claims. It’s like saying the housing crisis is a function of American’s no longer liking houses. Although, if this were the case, then perhaps the next logical choice of residence would be a car and then GM’s investment in giant sized vehicles would pay off since there is far more room to live in a Suburban than a Japanese compact. Bailout aborted.
Hi Horsepower, meet your cousin Torque
O’Rourke talks about raw horsepower in old school muscle cars as the crowning glory, but lets not forget about torque. Pick up the latest European car magazine, and you’ll see an article on the new 335d. A diesel-powered car that has the handling finesse offered by BMW’s, 421lbs of rubber-burning torque, and a monthly fuel cost that would rival that of Japanese compact. You can thank Audi’s R8 TDI LeMans dominance for bringing diesel back into style.
And, lets not forget the Tesla roadster, the world’s first production all-electric sports car that delivers a perfectly flat torque curve. Tesla owners enjoy 100% torque from the second they step on the gas to the moment, 4 seconds later, when the car hits 60mph. Tesla will be delivering the more affordable Model S in a year or two. While horsepower represents the past, torque is the future.
Boomers still have a love affair with cars
Jay Leno’s garage is famous. I just went to his website and on the front page he’s got his latest cars – the 1951 Jaguar XK, Aptera Electric Car, 2010 Camaro SS (a personal fav), and the new 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. This guy appreciates cars, all cars. His first car was a Datsun 610. He considers himself an “old-school guy,” but he can still appreciate the pinnacle of technological prowess like the Nissan GTR.
Hobbies are social, welcome to the internet.
Welcome to the Internet, a medium where car enthusiasts across the world can come together and discuss their passion in ways never before possible. Enabling tools like Twitter, blogs, Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Delicious, forums, and online video games let people share their enthusiasm about cars which just creates an echoing effect of their love for cars.
Faster. Nimbler. Safer.
While the demand for American muscle cars may be on the decline, writing off the large amount of passionate car enthusiasts like myself is quite short-sighted. Times change. That’s the beauty of it all. Personally, I think the cars of the 50’s and 60’s are pretty bad ass indeed and I’m definitely not going to war with old school muscle cars. However, I do feel bad for those that can’t appreciate change (and I’m not talking about Obama) because that’s exactly what is on the horizon. In fact, change is the only constant. The car you love will eventually become outdated and obsolete. But fear not. As new cars, with new technology, better technology, are introduced they’ll make it easier to reach the end of a quarter mile. Not only that, they’ll do it with better fuel efficiency, more safety features, and all while taking a turn at more than 1G (a la Corvette ZR1) without ending up on it’s roof.
