Is Hot-rodding & Hotrods on their way out

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“Is Hotrods & Hot-rodding on their way out?”
No. It’s evolving as it always has, which you could argue IS hot rodding. Is “your” version or my version of hot rodding on the way out? Probably. But I’m a glass half full guy and I see a car culture bigger than ever. The after market is massive. Ever heard of SEMA? Drag racing (my favorite) is multi national. Ever seen the street races or for that matter the “hot rod” culture in Sweden? Or the Brazilians? Or God bless them, the Aussies?! They take hot rodding to a whole other level with their ingenuity. I’m also encouraged by the fact that the big three have been cranking out high hp, reliable and efficient v8 platforms for 20+ years. The Gen3 Hemi has been in production for 22 years now! How long did the Gen2 stay in production, 7?
At my local test and tune it’s a lot of modern muscle, Japanese and European cars and only a handful of classics but it’s 99% young folks…and they’re hot rodding in their own way with what they have available to their generation.
 
Go to Good Guys show and sit and observe. They’re a lot of younger people, mostly 20 through 40 that are driving old hot rods. There there is the rat rod scan. Lots of younger guys and gals.
 
matthon said:
If y'all are so concerned about the survival of the hobby, do something about it now, it's on you too.

Encourage someone, take a kid to a show, talk to the younger enthusiasts, offer to help someone.

Car clubs:
Have your car club lower the entry fee, or make it free to those under a certain age, or just free.
Club members get no rewards, God forbid. Around these parts they just give them to each other.
Pay it forward, not back to each other.

Sell a part or project car without trying to squeeze every dollar out of it.

Own it and get creative, or stop wondering.
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I would love to GIVE one of my project cars to an interested teenager to fix up, and to help guide them on how to go about it. But the problem is that they could give zero craps about cars... I've driven some younger people in some of my exotic cars and they had absolutely no interest in the car they were sitting in. It was kind of disappointing to see that younger generations have no appreciation for something that would have made my year, if some person gave me a ride in their exotic car when I was a teenager.
 
abodyjoe said:
1) they aren't joining "clubs" because too many are just filled with drama. I'm 56 and won't have anything to do with being in a club. too much bullshit.

2) kids can't afford to be in the hot rod/muscle car thing anymore. the cars we could pick up for 100-500 bucks are now closer to 10 grand and piles of crap. can't just go to a junk yard and get cheap parts for them anymore either. there are exceptions to everything but thats the jist of it.

3) kids understand the computer controlled stuff. they don't have an issue with it. and to be honest more modern cars perform better in every way possible.

kids are also more into what they grew up around. import weekend attendance would blow away any muscle car type of event when atco raceway was still around. there are plenty of young people into cars, just not the same cars you are into.
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Pretty much this. I’ve tried to join various clubs, but all are managed by retired folks who don’t understand us younger guys still have to work and the arrogance towards non traditional hotrods and restomods is a turn off.
 
tom999w said:
I would love to GIVE one of my project cars to an interested teenager to fix up, and to help guide them on how to go about it. But the problem is that they could give zero craps about cars... I've driven some younger people in some of my exotic cars and they had absolutely no interest in the car they were sitting in. It was kind of disappointing to see that younger generations have no appreciation for something that would have made my year, if some person gave me a ride in their exotic car when I was a teenager.
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You’re not looking hard enough….

I have 4 kids, 11,9,4 and 1. The three oldest each have their own classic that they picked and are helping me with. My son did Hotrod power tour and is HOOKED. My daughters go to Mopar Nats with me and love the smoke of the burnout competition and drag racing.
 
1MeanA said:
Lots of people are hot rodding cars but its the newer stuff. The local police just shut down some illegal racing last week. They tagged 100 cars.
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Yep & hot rod power tour and drag week both just had record numbers in attendance and participants.
 
AMC Diplomat said:
The younger generation is into Japanese cars from the 90s, because those were the cars that were around when they were kids and now that they're adults they're buying and investing in the cars they wanted growing up. There are tons of groups and meet ups for Japanese cars.

The next "mopar generation" behind most of the people on this forum are mostly into modern Challengers and Chargers. Some goofballs are into Volares and Diplomats.

Mopar-ing is ridiculously expensive for what you get. You can buy a better, faster car off the lot for what a mint vintage Mopar costs. Even 20 grand will get you a lot of modern used car, so why would anyone buy an A body that they can't drive half the year and is slow as f--k.

Mopar-ing will go through the same crash Ford Model As did. They used to be ridiculously priced and then everyone died and 100k cars dropped to 20k.
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You mean I might finally be able to afford my E body?!
 
ALL of the shows up here in the frozen North have had record, or near record attendance this year. Not all of the people showing up are older. Many young people come to spectate. The vocational schools in the state are also setting record numbers of students, including my son. He wants to learn bodywork to get into the restoration biz. Just today we went to visit him m and in the parking lot was a VERY cool AMC Gremlin painted AMC red, white and blue. The young man driving it was a high schooler and super excited to talk about it. Btw, the Gremmie has a 304 and 3 speed.He absolutely loves to drive it and burn some rubber. I always try to talk to young people about their cars, whether they are my style, or not.
 
Pound said:
ALL of the shows up here in the frozen North have had record, or near record attendance this year. Not all of the people showing up are older. Many young people come to spectate. The vocational schools in the state are also setting record numbers of students, including my son. He wants to learn bodywork to get into the restoration biz. Just today we went to visit him m and in the parking lot was a VERY cool AMC Gremlin painted AMC red, white and blue. The young man driving it was a high schooler and super excited to talk about it. Btw, the Gremmie has a 304 and 3 speed.He absolutely loves to drive it and burn some rubber. I always try to talk to young people about their cars, whether they are my style, or not.
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That's good that you encourage them no matter what car they have and it should be that way
 
Have to agree that things aren't dying out here. Sunday has always been cruise night in our city as long as I can remember, with some venues setting up the evening shows where families and people show up to display, chat and experience all types of cars, trucks and bikes. Maybe it's because we have a shorter driving season, but attendance is always strong, and winter is time to work towards next year.
 
Dan the man said:
It's called common sense, apparently something that you don't have. You don't have to own a classic car to be able to see what's happening with the car hobby today. You don't want to admit that I'm probably right while you don't have a clue as to what is actually going on.
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The car screen is thriving all around the world, I'd say much more now than in the past 20 years. look at all the drag and drive events, imports, lowriders, off road vehicles, 700+ horsepower factory vehicles you can buy with a warranty, YouTube, even the giant auctions. At least I have enough common sense to buy and build the cars I want instead of wishing all day long. Your stuck in the past, most kids these days aren't into 50-60 year old cars.
 
OneOfMany said:
Have to agree that things aren't dying out here. Sunday has always been cruise night in our city as long as I can remember, with some venues setting up the evening shows where families and people show up to display, chat and experience all types of cars, trucks and bikes. Maybe it's because we have a shorter driving season, but attendance is always strong, and winter is time to work towards next year.
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Nothing here in my town. I heard that they supposedly went to O'Fallon mo. The local businesses didn't want them around
 
OneOfMany said:
Have to agree that things aren't dying out here. Sunday has always been cruise night in our city as long as I can remember, with some venues setting up the evening shows where families and people show up to display, chat and experience all types of cars, trucks and bikes. Maybe it's because we have a shorter driving season, but attendance is always strong, and winter is time to work towards next year.
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I was there on the September long weekend, did take in the Pony Corral on Sunday, it was a pretty good turnout, but a lot less than it had been 20 years ago. I also caught the Manitoba Mopar Association's Labour day show at Gauthier Chrysler, had a good crowd there too. Good to see that there is still a lot of people getting out and hitting the street, I did meet a couple of FABO members, that was really cool.
Here we have a huge event on the second weekend of July known as Street Machine Weekend, it's been going on for over 40 years, and draws well over 1000 cars and probably 10,000+ people. Plenty of classics, customs, some pro touring cars, late model performance cars, restomods, rat rods, and imports. There is no shortage of cars in this area, and we have a slightly longer season, plus the small towns in the region all have show and shine events, but most owners are typically not teenagers or twenty somethings. I believe that the car scene is evolving, much like it always has, and will hopefully continue to grow.

Events like Sick Week, Power Tour, Drag Week, etc are all amazing events that give everyone an opportunity to experience the sights, sounds, and smells that got all of us hooked.
 
I think some kids will just be into the cars they're into cause they like them. I grew up in the 80s, I don't want any of those pieces of junk. I hardly saw any 60s muscle cars in high school just a few. But dang as a 44 year old I daily drive my B Body and take many road trips a year in it, no AC no radio. Yes muscle cars are priced way out of reach for what you get in the eyes of a late teen or 20s kid.
 

abodyjoe said:
1) they aren't joining "clubs" because too many are just filled with drama. I'm 56 and won't have anything to do with being in a club. too much bullshit.
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I agree with that. In about 2005, about 10 of us Mopar guys who always got together at Cruise Nights started a Mopar club in Topeka. We started off with about 25 members and grew to about 75 after a few years. It was great for a while. We had all Mopar car shows that always had good turnouts. Club members were not allowed to win trophies. There was a core of 8 guys and their wives who always did everything. I'm a retired USAF officer, and I am used to coordinating things. So I always took care of trophies and either completely planned the car shows or helped a lot. I was friends with the GM and several other people at the local Chrysler Jeep dealer, so it was pretty easy. Anyway, the same people did all the work all the time. We would not have minded it so much, but the people who did nothing complained all the time. They complained about how much trouble the car shows were (even though they did Jack ****), they complained about the food at the places we met, they complained about the $20 per year dues, they complained about the venue for the annual club picnic........ Eventually, the ones of us who did all the work got tired of not only the constant complaining but being unappreciated. So we stopped doing everything, and the club died.
Dan the man said:
The younger people today are more into computers anything that deals with technology. They like eclectic vehicles. I said not to long ago that the car hobby is fading away.
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AND glued to their phones. When we go out to eat. we always see at least one table with two adults and two kids, and the kids faces are glued to the phones. There is not talking, and usually the kids don't even eat their food.
 
Dan the man said:
It's sad that people don't hardly even communicate among themselves anymore. I don't think that many even make phone calls either, it's either by a text message or a email. To a certain point I believe that our cell phones and computers have split people up as far as direct communication goes. I don't think that kids should have cell phones in the classroom or a computer, I think that they would learn more by figuring things out on paper, I know that computers are a good learning tool but I think that they are making the younger generation rely on them way to much.
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laughable. the guy who can't string together a coherent mission statement and misses the most obvious of jokes wants to talk about other people and their ability to communicate.

yeah man, go get a job where you have to be on the phone all.the.damn.time and see how much you wanna yuck it up on the handpiece after hours. y'all can miss me with that, i don't need to know about the weather. send me a text if you wanna talk.

this meeting could've been an email.
 
I fully agree with Dan. I don't do Fakebook. It's fake socializing. Therefore I get no happy birthday, no get well soon, nothing. I remember calling people to tell them happy birthday. Some would call me too. I didn't need a app to tell me, hey, it's so in soes b-day. I marked them on our new calender every December. It was like a tradition to pick up a calender while returning some Christmas gift for exchange. Today I return the gift cards for exchange. That reminds me,,,
One morning Regis Philbin read that Americans will spend around 33 million on gift cards that holiday season. Then he said, "Seems strange. Joy used to send out quite a few cards each year but not so many today. Just dwindled down for some reason." That guy over in the corner had to tell him, "It's cash cards you're reading about. Not greeting cards." Made the man look foolish on TV.
I recon I'm an old fool too.
 
I've seen a fair amount of 20 and 30 somethings driving c3 and c4 corvettes.
One of the few 70's cars you can still afford. c4 is pretty good on gas, too.
 
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