The beginning of the end of a 60-year era?

[Byron510]

Hi all,
My father fwd me this article from an Aussie web publication this morning; link below. But I captured the text and posted it as I do feel it’s relevant. As a teen, with my driver’s license fresh in my possession, I was eager to get involved with cars and soon after car clubs. I became an early member of the 510 Club of BC, 17 years old at the time. I was that young guy - full of piss and vinegar, and crazy ideas. I looked up to whom I felt were the old guys, watching, listening and thinking I could do better. Sometime I succeeded in at least matching others attempts, often I failed - the lesson being that you best learn from your own failure. This year I hit 40, and yet I look around and I'm often still that young guy. There have been a few guys in their teens and early 20's join our ranks in the last 15 years, but they are becoming few and far between. Read the article below, especially the last few paragraphs. And do us all a favor when some young buck jumps on this board - give him some room, let 'em try whatever they want. Stand back after a little advice, and don't try to pound them into the ground after their first post as often happens here. These young guys are getting fewer and further between, and they need some gentle support. Let's keep the posts friendly, and encouraging.
Enjoy the following read; I often feel the same way as this author does...

Byron

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The beginning of the end of a 60-year era?
If you love modifying cars, be sad
By Julian Edgar


I am starting to think that the recreational pursuit that we share – modifying cars – is dying.
A whole bunch of things leads my thinking in that direction.
I went to a country hot-rod show the other day. It was very well attended – literally, hundreds of cars on display. And the quality was pretty impressive. It was obvious that many thousands of hours of careful work had been done – on everything from the engines to the suspensions to bodywork. Owners were arriving at the wheels of their hot rods, smiling and proud. There was a real buzz among the participants.
But there was one aspect that fascinated me above all others: the age of the car owners. I would say that at a guess, the majority were past retirement age. The rest, if not over 65, would have been to a man (and women) over 50.
Now there’s nothing wrong with older people enjoying their hot rods – nothing. But it made me start thinking about the future.
Hot rods were invented in the late 1940s and early 1950s – many of the cars then modified were from an earlier era, but the idea of ‘souping up’ cars really started at that time. As did drag racing, salt lake racing, cruising and a bunch of other car cultures.
And many of the people happily showing their rods at the country day I attended would have been around (although perhaps only as infants) at the time that hot-rodding began.
But I didn’t see a single young car owner - not one. When the hot rodders at this show go to the big place in the sky, I don’t see anyone around to pick up their baton.
And then we move to the other end of the age spectrum – young people. It’s a truism to say that the young today are not like we were when we were young. But in automotive terms, the young today are increasingly unlike any of the young people of, again, the last 50 years.
Today, many young people don’t like cars. Or, even more disconcerting, many are simply indifferent to cars.
Whether it was the 1960s, where the car was a symbol of personal freedom – drive-ins, beaches and the like; or the 1970s, when the first thing any young guy did was put ‘mags’ on his car; or the 1980s, where the technologies of turbos and engine management took off; or the 1990s where cheap power and continuing low fuel costs meant everyone could play, in the 2010s young people are more likely to be social networking or simply catching up with friends.
I work for four or five days a month with a guy in his early twenties. He’s in a secure, decent-paying government job and he’s fit and personable. He doesn’t own a car – and he doesn’t even have a driver’s license.
“Yeah, gotta get around to that one day,” he says when asked about driving. But it’s obvious he doesn’t care much one way or another.
That is a radical change from an era when people showed up for the Learners Permit on the day of their birthday – something almost universal in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
General Motors in the US is so concerned about the lack of interest that many young people display in cars that they have experts studying its implications.
The great new move in automotive modification that I thought might occur - with the potential to interest a lot of young people – is the modification of hybrids. But here in AutoSpeed is the only turbo Prius I’ve ever seen, and modifying hybrids has not fired the popular imagination in the slightest.
However, chasing fuel economy is one area of growth in car enthusiasts. Hypermilers comprise the only group of ‘new’ car enthusiasts that I have seen come about in the last decade – and they have a vibrant (but very small) community.
But I don’t think it’s the move to green cars that has diminished the enthusiasm of those who would otherwise have become car modifiers. Nor do I think it’s the increasing complex technology. I think it’s the laws, rules and regulations – and their enforcement – that has taken away much of the joy of owning a modified car.
Why give a car more straight-line performance if taking someone on at the lights can put you into jail? Why give your car more cornering grip if going fast around corners is regarded, legally, as street racing?
For many, the only place they can drive their car hard is on a track. And it’s a vastly smaller group of enthusiasts who want to run a track car, compared with those who (once) enjoyed their cars on the road.
The amount that the driving world has changed would amaze many. Here in Australia, back in the 1960s we had unlimited country roads – yep, no speed limits. And that wasn’t just in the Northern Territory. In my younger days I drove flat-out in the NT – and often in lots of other places as well. I can remember averaging 160 km/h across twisting South Australian country roads, seeing 260 km/h in my Skyline GT-R, and ‘playing’ around urban roundabouts every single day of the week.
I am not saying that, from the perspective of overall societal wellbeing, the above behaviours are good; but I am saying that as a car modifier, you could immediately and very pointedly experience the outcomes of your modifications!
Jeepers, I remember, late at night, finally getting the turbo 660cc engine into my Daihatsu Handi and racing round the suburban block, sans exhaust, with the car torque-steering wildly across man-hole covers because of the (undiagnosed) many millimetres of toe-out that the swap had given it! Now the policeman’s list would read: street racing, excessive noise, dangerous driving, unapproved engine swap – and so on.
If you were a current young person, brought up entirely in a world where every public utterance is that ‘speed kills’, or that you should not ride in a car with your mates because your danger of dying is vastly higher, where there are peak speed cameras and average speed cameras and redlight cameras and numberplate recognition cameras – where driving is a highly regulated environment where enforcement is well funded and a policeman’s discretionary judgment has long gone – well, would you want to drive with pizzazz on the road?
And, if not, why bother spending money and time and energy modifying a car?
I reckon there are a few things we can do. It won’t change the tide but it may slow it.
The first is to talk to the non-believers.
Cars represent an extraordinary pastiche of social history, culture, mechanical engineering, styling, manufacturing technologies and innovation. Many people are utterly – utterly – blind to these ideas.
I work every day with people who know nothing of the challenge of modifying cars – people who would immediately agree that a creative product like a play or novel is a benefit to society, and yet are dismissive of the notion that creativity, skill and intellectual challenge can also all be shown in a modified car. Tell them!
The second is to actively encourage young people to get involved.
These days, the vast majority of modified car information is sought through the web. Typically, some young guy, often full of confidence and his own importance as young people are (and have always been), will pop up on a discussion group and ask a question.
Equally typically, a bunch of bored, expert and jaded old farts will slap him down.
Instead of doing that, be bloody glad he – or she – is there asking questions! Did you never ask stupid questions when you were becoming interested in cars? If you’d been publicly humiliated, would you have kept asking questions?
And if the world does move onto different things, you and I can be thankful that we were part of that amazing period when we were allowed to make (almost) whatever engineering and styling changes we wanted to our individual motorised transports; where imagination and skill and perseverance late at night in the shed could transform the next day commute to work….

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_112816/article.html

[finn]

Great article. Additionally, Our own push for safety brought about these laws making everything we love illegal, yet number of accidents still rise. at some point in the near future, every vehicle will be inspected. That means my car will have to be parked.

[two_68_510s]

Yeah, very good point Byron. excellent article.

I have a slightly different experience here in Santa Cruz County California, there are quiet a few young guys racing in the hills up here at 3 AM.
They do most of their own work and are interested in improving the handling and power of the cars, focusing on "drifting".
It is mostly plug and play though, very few "real" modifications/metal work.
A good percentage of these guys lose their licenses as a result.

I plead guilty to an occasional loss of patience, I will attempt to correct my ways!

[jason]

Hah, I didn't get started back into 510's until I was in my early 40's. However, it was something I wanted to do ever since I owned my first 510 back in the '70's. What I do these days is learn to work on them as best I can and the small group of fellows around the local club have been the best inspiration. However, I've always been slow at it, but, keep motivated with the group activities that we do. I like the younger fellows like Cam and Denis, they've been a great help and inspiration over the years! Octoberfast time yet?

[butters68]

no jason but we need a september medium to slow cruise.

[okayfine]

And many of the people happily showing their rods at the country day I attended would have been around (although perhaps only as infants) at the time that hot-rodding began.
But I didn’t see a single young car owner - not one. When the hot rodders at this show go to the big place in the sky, I don’t see anyone around to pick up their baton.

Whether it was the 1960s, where the car was a symbol of personal freedom – drive-ins, beaches and the like; or the 1970s, when the first thing any young guy did was put ‘mags’ on his car; or the 1980s, where the technologies of turbos and engine management took off; or the 1990s where cheap power and continuing low fuel costs meant everyone could play, in the 2010s young people are more likely to be social networking or simply catching up with friends.

Couple things. The author seems to ignore the huge movement of young people in the import scene.
That scene is certainly alive and well in Australia as it is here in the States. Imports aren't seen in the same light as old-school muscle by those involved in the old-school muscle, but they're essentially the same at their heart. Also there doesn't seem to be any consideration of the very high cost of entry to the polished hot rod shows the author likes to visit; there doesn't seem to be any consideration of the "rat-rod" movement which encompass both the younger generation and hot rods.

The other, larger impact to car-as-hobby world doesn't seem to be discussed at all. The last few generations of parents/children have been increasingly growing up in a disposable culture. In any arena where time is money, it has long been cheaper to replace than to repair. Be it home electronics or auto mechanics, and just about everything in between, people replace. When a modern car needs work, busy parents take it into the shop and pick it up on the way home. No longer is Junior out in the garage at evening passing dad tools, being introduced into the automotive (and handy-man) arts. Where are kids supposed to get their love of things mechanical?

I think it’s the laws, rules and regulations – and their enforcement – that has taken away much of the joy of owning a modified car.

Couldn't disagree more. EVERYONE said OBD-II was going to kill the aftermarket modification world here in the US. Not only did that not happen, but the performance world has exponentially exploded with all of the easily-available electronic methods of modification...through the very access port OBD-II required.

The second is to actively encourage young people to get involved.
These days, the vast majority of modified car information is sought through the web. Typically, some young guy, often full of confidence and his own importance as young people are (and have always been), will pop up on a discussion group and ask a question.
Equally typically, a bunch of bored, expert and jaded old farts will slap him down.

That's a two-way street. People (and not just kids) think everything on the internet should act as Google acts - type in a question, get a response. People need to do their due diligence when coming into a new hobby or coming into a new community (The Realm, et al.). There IS a simply massive amount of information available to the new-to-510 owner today. And there are dozens of Realm members who are online very day and willing to help new-to-510 owners. But when faced with people like Nealeigh510...all of us collectively can't tease out one single coherent sentence from him/her. Then what?

[okayfine]

yet number of accidents still rise.

Fatalities per miles driven was the lowest in 2010 (last year reported) than in any year since at least 1994 (first year available on the link below).

http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

How many of the accidents and fatalities that occur every year on our roads could be eliminated by proper driver training?

at some point in the near future, every vehicle will be inspected. That means my car will have to be parked.

I don't see any indication that this will happen in CA. And even if you were required to adhere to the CA BAR regs for your car, you could easily make a KA swap CARB legal. It's been done.

[duke]

I agree with what Julian said. As a younger guy in the car scene many of my peers gravitate towards the newer car scene. As the years go by I predict that the attendance of car shows won't drop off, but the genre of cars will change. As the generations of the attendees change, so will the cars that they thought were cool when they were young, and therefor the cars that they have as hobby cars when there are older. I think without a doubt in 30 years we will see guys restoring Honda Civics, Nissan 240sx's, Subaru WRX's, etc, just as people do with the cars of their youths these days.

The one thing that I really see changing is the attitude toward true DIY fabrication. IMO, many young guys would rather order something off the internet, bolt it on, and go than take the time to learn to make something themselves.

[RonM]

I totally agree with the author's message that some older guys might be a bit too impatient with the bushy tailed upstarts, but I would have to say this is not unique to car culture. it's just a generational thing. That being said, I so have a bone to pick with this guy's narrow perspective regarding modern car enthusiasts. The very term "hot rod" speaks to a specific time, and group of American cars. It stands to reason that rods are owned by guys in there 60's, because these are the cars they were wrenching on as kids. That scene as they knew it saw it's "beginning of the end" 40 years ago. But to suggest that we are seeing the end of interest in cars and modifying them is ludicrous. This guy needs to pull his head out of his own reality.

In terms of the next generation and what they'll do to their cars, the only thing you can be sure of is that it will always be different from what came before. One archetypal component to being a kid is the need to rebel against convention in order to define their own independence. Case in point, back in the day a low rider was the ultimate in inner city style. Today's gangster fad is the absolute opposite. Instead of narrow wire wheels and dragging on the ground, the "new" trend is jacking the car in the air atop 29X12" chrome rims and low profile tires. What's common about these two extremes though is their unwavering commitment to form over function to the point of an almost suicidal driving experience. I must admit, when I was building my first 510 I was totally snubbing my nose at those old stick in the mud straight line mussel car guys. I was focused on making a car that was light and nimble. but I was certainly taking my cues from them in my desire to make the stock car go fast.

In the Bay Area as in other regions, hot rod culture is still alive and well with many spinoff iterations, but it is all inextricably frozen in time. Most of the real hot and heavy modifying and innovation is going on in the neo-tuner / drifting community here. In this crowd I'm seen as the old stick in the mud. Like the old school early tuners, in the drift scene power is good, but "performance" is judged subjectively on an idealized cornering style rather than being objectively measured in an old school race. The first time I saw drifting I thought it looked cool, but I was sure it's days were numbered; that was 15 years ago. In the future who knows what's next, maybe high performance will be measured in watt hours per mile and who can go the furthest without a charge.

The only constant will be change, oh and cops chasing after kids in their souped up cars. This general narrative is as old as time itself.

[510rob]

Anyone ever heard of the Sex Pistols?

Anyone ever hear of Malcolm McLaren?

Here is a speech he gave at the 2009 Handheld Learning conference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-wtmV0fAAg

It takes time to learn to beat metal into the proper shape. It takes time to learn to weld properly. It takes time to do things right.

It takes money to buy flashy parts.

Authenticity vs. Karaoke Culture.

[datzenmike]

Plastic blow up woman vs. real woman..... hilarious.

[two_68_510s]

10,000 hours=expert

[RonM]

Yes I've heard of the Sex Pistols. They are the trumped up punk rock equivalent of the Monkeys. Malcolm didn't discover the Pistols, he manufactured them as his automatron karaoke puppets. Nothing about his contribution to music could ever be described as creatively authentic. He stole Andy Warhol's playbook, shanghaied and packaged up an underground music scene that was anti mainstream, then sold it out to the mainstream as a fashion statement. And he did this for his own personal gain. For him to stand there and take ownership of punk rock as his creation is the height of self absorption. Malcolm is the Aaron Spelling of the UK POP scene and he is right at the tip of the spear that harpooned the soul of real punk music. In all reality, for him to try and speak to creative authenticity is like Hitler telling the story of the Jews.

In 1975, McLaren finagled his way into promoting the New York Dolls. He designed red patent leather costumes and used a Soviet-style hammer and sickle motif for their stage show, as a cheep provocative tool to promote them. This ignorant political showmanship crap was so out of sync with the actual punk ethos the Dolls soon broke up disgraced In April 1975. By 1976 he went back to the Uk and manufactured his own political production show and the rest is history.

Malcolm embezzled from the early punk scene the one thing he lacked and that was authenticity. Ask bands like the Troggs, Stooges, Iguanas with Iggy Pop, the Velvet underground, Electric Eals, DEVO, Patty Smith, Ramones, and the New York Dolls what they think of Mr Mclaren. They'll all say he's the ultimate poster child for POSER.

Sorry, but I just had to get that off my chest. Societal shifts happen with a pendulum effect. Punk was a swing from the 70s hairless over produced bastardization of rock. New wave was a swing from punk and grung was a swing from that. Had it not been for George Bush, Barak Obama would have never been elected. with respect to DIY vs. disposable the pendulum is swinging the other way. The size of the Makers Fair has doubled every two years, and Burning Man has finally had to cap it's attendance at 60K. If you want to see some real creative authenticity in metal fabrication come to the Bay Area and I'll show you some seriously eye opening stuff.

[510rob]

Ron, that is all nice, but it is not why I posted the video.

Be more open-minded and don't let your personal preferences shade your opinions before considering the views of others (hehehehe...)

[RonM]

I most have missed something. I thought we were talking about societies divergence away from gaining skills and doing things for themselves. Given the speakers history and self obsorbed perspective on this subject I didn't think he had the right representative credibiiity to deliver such a message. I guess the cats out of the bag, I dislike Malcolm... intensely

He know he's seen as a charlatan, he said it himself. This speech was not his "perspective", at best it was a feeble attempt to redeem himself to a bunch of educators. If it were a room of artists he would have been booed off the stage.