Too young, or wrong area?

Since high school I've been a car nut...as teenagers most guys love their cars, but it seems to fade away. I live in Northwest Arkansas, and most guys my age -37- spend their "HOBBY" money on fishin' or huntin'. When I go to cars shows (no offense) most of the guys are 60 or older. I know one guy up by Branson, MO who is in his 40's who moved here from Detroit and said our local car culture is dull (duh) compared to Detroit. Do most of you guys enjoy your hobby alone & online, or are there more of you guys who bench race at speed shops and car clubs ? No tear in the corner of my eye, just curious.

yea were a dying breed... I'm 55 and there are not a lot younger... I think its that it takes the older ones to have the $$ to build the cars they wanted when young... most of the young kids I've see are driving RICE... We just had our High School and Alumni DRags last weekend.. you should have see all the RICE compaired to the real Muscle cars... probuly 6 to 1... There was one Mitubishi all whee drive that was nuts.. 1ooo HP 4 banger pulled an 8.8 1/4 mile I forget what the MPH was ...
tim

I'm only 40 and LOVE it

Spent my 20's chasing and catching Tail and driving fast and traveling around the world

I blame bad parenting on why younger people are not into cars.

Imagine this for a second if you will.


Its 2008 your 16 years old you goto get a new car and your parent offer to help you find one but they dont know anything so you get something that gets possibly fairly decent mileage, and easy on insurance you most likley destroy this car but as a 16 guy you try to learn about it do oil changes your self, and maybe just maybe before you kill this car you grow to like it alot because of the fact its been good to you and its your first car.

Next time you get a car you remember the great experience you had with the last one and go for the same make of car but maybe something a bit faster or something that can be made to go fast, you know about muscle cars but as far as you know most dont run and get horrible mileage so you stick with what you know.

That is how it happens I will fully admit the only reason I love fords is because my DAD loves fords if he was a Dodge guy I would be into Dodges simple as that, most REAL car people regardless of age can still respect hard work and effort and the love of a car no matter who makes it or how many are on the road.

You guys talk about younger kids fixing up rice cars that suck and everyone has well guess what? I view mustang owners the same way for the most part they are everywhere even classic ones so for me they do nothing special, but I can respect people who take pride in their ride and treat other people just as well.

So if you want to educate people about cars and get more young people into classics talk to your grand kids and kids depending on your age because their friends also talk to them and influence them also.

But on the flip side classic cars are getting to be more expensive as time goes on and gas aint helping one bit and at 16 you wont me making much more then 8$ at hour at best and you cant usually have a full time job so you are kinda SOL

People in their 30's and 40's are raising families and can't afford hotrods! (they used to be MUCH less expensive)

I think a big part of the "problem" is that there aren't too many classics left these days for the younger people to get their hands on. I'm just a young man, 25, and I always wanted an older car to play with; specifically, a mid-70's Torino. I was thrilled and considered myself lucky to find my '75 factory-460 Elite and snatched it up for next to nothing. Due to our big local dirt track racing scene, most of the older rear-drive V8 cars have been raced to death over the years. Even fox Mustangs are becoming difficult to find.

Concerning the local classic "community," there's a lot of very nice cars around my area, but there's no clubs or anything like that, and it is primarily older and/or wealthy guys. Then there's younger guys like me in their 20's that work with what we've got. Not a lot of ricer types anymore, though. That fad passed pretty quickly around here.

Most of the guys my age that have 'classic' cars have had them since they were young, and never sold them. These cars used to be CHEAP compared to what they are now. 10 years ago, you could buy a 1965-66 mustang in NICE shape for $5k.... Then all the car shows on television started, and supply/demand took over. Too many people with money to spend got into it, and the prices went brezerk!

It used to be no problem to pick up a V8 powered non-mustang/camaro for a little bit of nothing, and fix it up. Now those cars are taking off. You just can't get into this 'hobby' with a decent car for 'cheap' anymore.

Plus, the quality of the average hotrod is going up. There used to be a lot of 'drivers' out there that people drove daily. They were mostly stock with maybe a cam/intake/exhaust, etc. Not highly detailed, etc. You could buy those reasonably, and have something you could drive as you worked on it. It was fun. Nowadays, you either buy JUNK for big money or something NICE for HUGE money.

Hopefully they don't go the way of the EARLY cars. Model A Fords, 1930's Fords, ect used to be EXTREMELY popular among the working class in the 1960's and 1970's as a CHEAP hobby.... then people with money got involved, and the cars pretty much priced themselves out of existence. The 1934 Ford Phaeton my dad purchased for $600 back in 1961 suddenly became worth $20-$30k!!! He still has it, but most sold out, and the average guy just couldn't afford to participate after a while. Antique car shows, which used be held on a constant basis in small town, America, just don't happen anymore. Classic cars are probably headed down that same path.

'Not too sure about the complaints I'm hearing. I have to wonder if its a case of instant gratification?

I can't begin to tell you of the kind of junk I drug home...to fix. Seats that needed 2 blankets to sit on, if you didn't want a broken coil worming its way up your backside, windows that would not either roll up and stay up or would roll down. Doors that you had to either climb through a window or go through the passenger door (or backdoor - my first "hot rod" was 4-door Fairlane). Rusted fenders, rusted roof (also dented from local kids using the roof, hood and trunk as a trampoline)...I or actually my best friend and I would drag these POS junkers home and get them running, one way or another.

I'm not trying to hurt anyones feelings, but I can't help but think kids are turning their nose up at stuff they can afford - then complain about not being able to "anything". What they want is fully finished car for free or just enough that they can brag about the "steal" they got from some low life, who didn't know the value of what he had.

Well, wake up Cinderfella - with constant information, available everywhere - even backwoods hermits know what is popular and have a fairly (if not exaggerated) idea of how much its worth. My advice is either lower your standards or save your money. The internet and e-bay has changed everything. If you are doing all your treasure hunting on the South Side of town or cruising through the "mall adjacent" Slick Sam car dealer and cell phone office - you will get ripped off. You will have to get out and actually look for cars not wait for one to be dropped in your lap.

Maybe it boils down to not being stupid enough to take on a hopeless, un-salvageable project..., then making it work against all odds and all those friends that ridiculed your efforts. I remember working all summer, saving my meager money to buy a factory 4-barrel manifold, Then spend days and nights working with a hand file to port match it to the heads. My mom and litle brothers would come out in the back yard and laugh, asking why I was wasting my time on that old car. When I finally got it running, I could also hear my Lil' brother bring his friends by and tell them how he helped his brother put that car together. To this day, when I go by to visit him and his wife, the conversations sooner or later come back to that car ... maybe we raised a generation of kids that are too smart?

There are cars out there, at least once or twice a month i see, on these pages, some guy that found a decent project car at a decent price - maybe it wasn't running, had 4 flat tires and needed body panels, but like they say, if you want rabbit stew, first find a rabbit, it gets easier after that.

Note: I do have to say I realize that the "code enforcement" folks and changes in neighbors and neighborhoods make it difficult or impossible to keep an inoperable car in the driveway for months, years as you build it but if there is a real desire, you can find a way.

I literally drug my Elite out of a soybean field where it had sat for 10 years... it's nowhere close to a finished car! :P It just happened to have been kept in the shade so the interior isn't faded, avoided that 10 years of driving on salty winter roads (although there's still plenty of rust), and was owned by a nutty old codger who has so many old vehicles laying around his property he doesn't even remember what he has.

I hear ya Mike. My dad bought his 32 Ford Woody for $250 in '62. Now it's worth a rediculous amount of money.

I think a lot of the younger generation, at least around here, is focused on the import hot rods (term applied extremely loosely) and not so much on Detroit iron.

Andy