Is Hotrodding dead?

• The police and the government are getting a little crazier about loud, fast and modified cars, flat black, lowered chopped cars, cars that don't have modern safety; air bags, crumple zones, ABS brakes and on-star to track/follow you! They have even tried to kick us off the road with vehicle inspections and put in clunker laws to get rid of cars that are old and not running, before you even get a chance to rescue them! (there are a few articles on this subject, like they will actually haul the car off to the crusher while you are away, from your own property!).
• A scenario like this could happen too: drug dealer gets himself a 1000 horsepower hotrod already built, never drove one before, never put it together, does not know how to drive it! He kills someone and or himself and this just makes it worse for those of us that actually build and drive our cars. Kinda puts a bad stigma on the hobby. The cars will get a bad reputation with the cops, when in fact it is usually an inexperienced driver. That was just a fabricated scenario but plausible...Actually seen it more than once! shhh!
• The newer generations are into the diamond earrings, Louis Vuitton man purses, Ed hardy and make payments on new Mercedes or BMWs etc, They listen to seriously flamboyant music, watch stupid shows like Jersey Shore etc. The bottom line for the first statement, the new gen is seeming to be a bunch of one-uppers! and they are not interested in hard work. Ok that was a bit of a rant! but really!
• It seems that not many people can actually get their hands dirty anymore, They couldn't fabricate things they need if their life depended on it. Instead they are buying every piece of billet crap they can find and putting together cars that are built from mass produced pre-fabbed stuff.
• Yes one can go in and buy a new Hemi car or a new Camaro but that is not hotrodding. This does seem to be quite the trend these days. Many hi performance parts are available from a plethora of aftermarket suppliers of the shelf, plug and play tuners, stand alone fuel management, horsepower adders and stuff. bla bla bla!
• Too many vintage cars are way over done and a lot of them are just ridiculous, a person could build four for the price of one of these! This can be discouraging when a newbie asks "How much did that cost?" when they hear what some guys have spent, their dreams are smashed! This is in no way to disrespect Von Dutch, Ed roth, Boyd coddington, Chip Foose and many more. They all have built cool stuff but we are talking about the guys that stayed up till three in the morning bashing their knuckles and still heading to work the next morning. These guys run on a tight budget and often build all of their own stuff, rebuilding what others would turf. This is far more admirable than some rich dude with all of the trendy new billet **** and a $40,000 ridiculous paint job.
  I mean everyone is entitled to do whatever they want with thier own money but the topic here is grass roots hotrodding.

There does seem to be a big change in the hobby but do not fear! there are others out there that are totally against the grain and still build their rides and drive them hard too. They often seem like introverts and keep to themselves but they are out there in a garage somewhere! Here is a video i found on you tube that got me started about this topic..enjoy :happy1:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/HZ3RnKLIpCE"