Back in MY Day! Car Culture Changes, CAN it recover?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2024
- Why, back in MY day... us old folks always drone on and on about car culture of our youth and how car culture in general has changed over the decades, almost all for the worst if you ask us! I've had these kinds of conversations with a number of people lately and it seems to be a serious topic many of us are concerned about. What DOES the future hold? Is there any hope?
Who remembers going cruising? Not doing anything dangerous of fast and loud, but just good old fashioned cruising up and down "The Strip" of your city or small town. Weren't those great times? Night meets? Or even just going out to the drag strip for some friendly competition in your ACTUAL street driven car, not something on a drag slick and a license plate running on moonshine like we consider today's "Street Cars".
IS there any way back? ARE there people who would like to go back? DO manufacturers care anymore about that sort of culture that built brand loyalty and drove sales for decades? I want to have a future conversation with Billy of Street Racing Channel, and it seems like Bill of The Old Man's Garage is throwing his hat in the ring to actually make something happen around this type of thing, but what do YOU think?
![เปิดใจ "อาจารย์เบียร์ คนตื่นธรรม" อดีตเคยสุดทุกทาง ถ้าใช้หนี้หมดไปบวชแน่ l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IxeE0xVhy08/mqdefault.jpg)
So I am a baby boomer. Graduated in 1977. I owned a 1970 Hemi Cuda,1965 Mustang 4 speed 302, 1967 Camaro all in High School. I worked my ass off to have those cars. My parents wouldn’t put up with nobody not working in their family. My family comes from IndyCar NASCAR sprint cars and midgets. On Fridays and Saturdays was go cruise and hang out in the Shop Rite parking lot tossing the frisbee. We had a secret place in Sterling Forest, New York, where IBM had their headquarters where we did little drag racing was so much fun then we go to Stateline diner to have breakfast such good times in my life. But I became involved with the sprints, midgets and modified and got away from the car cruise culture. I went to a car show last Sunday and saw some old friends that had their cars from high school and I reconnected with them .I had a blast. Some younger generation kids with Camaros big block El Camino mustangs and they were all into it. It was refreshing.
I actually think it’s gonna make a comeback. Oh, by the way back when we did stuff when we were kids, we didn’t do things to attract attention to ourselves and be idiots and have the cops hassles..we were respectful. Thanks Austin for bringing this up
I don’t believe it’s the ‘car culture’ it’s just the overall culture and population, the people are just not the same.
RIGHT!!! SIMPLER TIMES!!!
Man! I MISS those days I'm almost 66 and I started wrenching before I was old enough to get a driver's license! I graduated from HS in 1976 (at 17) and back then the kids that had cars (I didn't) had first and second gen Camaros, Firebirds, Vegas, and you name it! Whatever you had you did SOMETHING to it. Stereo's, engine mods, wheels and tires, you name it. Smokey and the Bandit came out around then and the Trans Ams were THE car every guy (and a lot of the girls) wanted! I was SO jealous of the kids whose parents would BUY them a car, or at least give them an older car to drive...
I spent a lot of time with my friends working on their stuff but I didn't buy a car of my own until I was in Jr. College. Saved up enough $$$ working at Sears to make a downpayment and one day in 1978 Pop and I went car shopping. I wanted a Vega because a friend of mine named Lee had a yellow panel wagon that he had put a built 350 in! That thing was wicked! Tubbed with "Bigs and Littles". He had a killer Camaro too!
So, the first place we stopped at was the used car lot of a Ford dealer. They had a Vega panel wagon and for about 5 seconds I thought I was going to get lucky! Then I looked it over and knew it wasn't for me. Four-banger, 5-speed, but the body had about as many dents as a golf ball! Then I looked down the row of cars and WAY down there I saw the back end of a silver hatchback Monza.
So, we walked down there with the sales guy and that Monza looked CLEAN! 2+2, Firethorn interior, not a scratch on it! The sales guy said: "This one won't get as good gas mileage as that Vega because it's a V6." As I look down at the front fender and see the V8 4.3L emblem! He's standing at the back of the car and Pop was standing with me. I popped the hood and there it was! A V8! Pop gives me this: "I don't know about this!" look...
I put the hood down quick before the sales guy could see it and said: "Can I drive this one?" So, he gets the keys and we got in. The interior was IMMACULATE! I fired it up and said: "I'm not real good with a stick shift." (Lying like a BIG dog)! It was SO hard to take it really easy on the test drive and even stall it (on purpose) before we got out of the lot!
Car had 30,000 miles on it and from the high heel mark in the floor mat it had been a girl's car. So, long story short I put $2000.00 down on it and drove it home. I stopped by a friend's house on the way home, and we gave it a REAL good looking over. Under the hood looked like new, A/C blew COLD. It even smelled kinda new on the inside (not sprayed with that "new car smell" crap either)!
So began my adventure! That little car had PLENTY of "Get up and GO" and I was already thinking about modding it. I drove it all over the place, cruisin', a few stoplight runs here and there, and PARKING! Yeah, THAT kind of parking! The 2+2 had a fold-down rear seat back and with it down there was PLENTY of room back there!
Over the course of the years I put alloy wheels and bigger tires on it, 200W stereo system, and started "warming up" the engine (eventually putting a "built", by me, 350 in it). Bolt in swap! 4-bbl and aluminum intake replaced the 2-bbl, headers and duals for exhaust. Repainted it #16 Buick "Pewter" (gunmetal gray, my favorite car color).
Here's the kicker: I STILL HAVE IT!
55 Chevrolet junk yard 348 my first basket 75 dollar car built 1963.
I meant to say for $35 you could have your car Dyno tested at HPC they used to run Dragsters down schlinger Avenue in front of the speed shop at 2:00 in the morning that was really cool I wouldn't change it for the world my next door neighbors are Outlaw Bikers they built custom Harleys wild metal flake paint jobs candy stripe paint you name it he did it I had a few bikes too but mostly cars my first car was a 61 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 tutor hardtop bubble window and that was a fun car have a great day I agree the culture has changed unless you got 1200 horsepower you nobody or more I built a 69 Camaro it made $612 horsepower at the crank that was pretty good for 1975 but now I'm just a geezer I can't build cars the rest anymore have a great day thanks for the video I'll keep watching it keeps me inspired
Hey! THANK you for being there for me. When you drove the AMX Last year through East Coast. Occupied me and I enjoyed it 😁
Every TH-cam car channel has there own style of making cars
If people like you don't fight for it then it will fade. Your love and passion for it has to be so bright that other people want to start doing their own build and meet you to continue the legacy go to high school and find young people to get interested in it most of them don't have access to the knowledge or mentors shadetree Granpas and dad's. And Uncles
I would throw in the fact too that cars are boring today.
Absolutely
Austin,
I had a blue 1970/71 Pinto in 1976 like yours only, It was a daily driver, modified by me: with Ford 302 V8 Boss engine, C4 Ford automatic, headers &
T/A mufflers and side pipes exhaust in front of rear wheels... I cruised this car in what was the "Legendary Crusing" of Delphos, Ohio on 1970's weekends... !! The car sold to my brother, who later sold it out West to Kansas Farmers/Hotroders... It was a clean Early model Pinto: as I purchased it off a kid going to College in Indiana, so not any rust... Next time, I go in to get maintenance done at the shop... I want to go back and see if it is my old Pinto... !! Previously, I had a brand new 1975 Nova 2 door, which I traded with the Ball State Student for the Pinto and cash to continue the quarter at OSU... I got the Nova because late one night cruising Delphos, my best friend "who later in early 1980 Road Raced Super Bikes" TOTALED my German built 1972 Capri 2.6 V6 4 speed Dark Green car, he not making the first turn of a perfect country "S" turn road... The car was purchased in November of 1975 for $800 at a Lima Pontiac Dealership, and because of gas shortage, concerns had gone back up in the insurance book value to $2,600 the window sticker price... Previously to that, in late winter 1974, I was junior in HS and bought for $385 a 1969 Road Runner, with 383 Coyote Package, "Basically a 383 block that Chrysler cramed all 440 guts into, including a 750 Carter AFB carburetor and factory 426 Hemi air cleaner, with big colorful sticker of a Coyote chasing a Road Runner... This car was a ringer: took it to drag strip, and NHRA rated it an "E" production pure stock Automatic with F70 14" Goodyear Redline tires... The others in class Fords and Chevrolet's were running 16s and 17s... One Standout was a 1968 Plymouth Satlilite with 440 V8, 4 speed manual, and he was running 15.3s... He lost two lights at the tree for 4 speed and 440 V8... My Road Runner was running 14.7s all day long.... Street race wise beat Mustangs, Pontiac T/A, and friend with 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge... That dang Pontiac wheel hop like "help" off the line, and he would badly drift over at the start, into my left lane, almost hitting my right rear quarter panel, I was always was out in front by then, but numerous times was literally on Road burm to avoid body damage..
... The only one to ever beat me on the street was a 1968 Black Roadrunner with 426 hemi 4 speed... !!
I remember cruising with my now wife, in my first car. 1973 grand prix 400. Those were the days, we are both in our late 50s now and still reminisce about it. We both miss it. We are searching for a 65 gto to relive some memories!!!
I agree with everything you said. For it to come back we need places drive to and hang out. Like an A&W or Sonic and the owners don't mind us being there. My cruising days started in 1969. Lots of cool cars.
remember those days back in the late 70 early 80 we had a group of us would hangout cruse then go a shop and work on each other cars if you need a part someone would have it and just go and get it and yes why less he if you had 250 or 300 you where bad ass miss those Friday night in the shop and those guys but life i guess
Cruising to fun flushing Michigan ,A & W Restaurant . The drive- in theater was 5 in flint Michigan . Only one on fenten rd by Grand Blanc Michigan . The mundy township area . Gordon WALKER
Austin, you hit every point right on the money and i have thought the same thing as well in the recent times. It's a damn shame 100%. Im a HUGE get out there and cruise around kinda guy myself and that has died off around my area just east of Youngstown ohio in PA.That's why I absolutely love the Woodward dream cruise. Im a mopar guy at heart but it's absolutely amazing going to that and seeing all the varieties of old and new. I think we all need to be true to ourselves and keep getting out there and doing what we love and just put a stop to the idiots that ruin it for the good guys. And im glad you mentioned about the hoskinsons. Never met them but I follow them religiously and they seem like amazing people and want things to get back to it's roots as well. If we don't stick together as a culture then we fail as a culture. Good luck and keep up the EXCELLENT content. Looking forward to an interview with the hoskinsons and hearing some good honest input from some down to earth car loving people.
I would take my 72' Chevelle late at night summer time. Cruise slow up Ft.Lauderdale beach. 20 to 25 mph. All the way up to West Palm Beach. Great times.
It's over young folk can't afford insurance and there's no cars that last 20 years now
@ham4008 the GMT-800 truck platform is pretty solid. Young people can still grab a rcsb one and follow Happles's "Don't BS Me" formula for a 700hp beast on the cheap!
There are options and paths to getting it done on a budget, though not all options may be your style
It is still going strong some places like California. Still see it in Texas. However smog regulations and the expense of working on new cars and the difficulties of doing it. That hurts and of course true performance cars are hideously expensive nowdays. ❤
Social media has killed car culture. Back when we use to cruise and hang out in the parking lot we had stuff to talk about and catch up on. We talked about what the newest thing we did to the car was. Stuff like that. Now with social media it’s out there and there is nothing to talk about. So people quit crusin and hanging out.
Not to mention everyone wants to live a fast pace life no one want to just sit and hang out.
Side note. During the summer we still do an every Friday night cruise in.
This is such a great subject. I'm 48 and I certainly have seen the change some good some bad.👍
So growing up about 40 miles north of Greensboro NC in Danville Va we did the exact same thing you talked about. I graduated high school in 95. Drove a 1971 Chevy truck and had a blast street racing and cutting up. In early 2000 decided to go drag racing at Piedmont Dragway. Still had my truck that I cruised on Friday and Saturday nights. Fast forward to now I have a 1963 Nova and we fight to have a cruise in or get together in our area. We have something on Saturday evening but lucky to get 25 cars to show up. I don’t see it ever coming back. With the new EV cars and the woke government, what we grew up with is a thing of the past.
Edgewater, Muncie, tri-state dragways used to host evening grudge match racing. Those were great street car, high school aged racing events. Maybe try those again? Dad's bring out the hotrods and teach their kids to race what we drove.
I graduated in 1976. My first car was 1969 Camaro. My second car was also a 1969 Camaro. Used to "cruise the Fe" (cruised Sante Fe Boulevard in Overland Park, Kansas). Next car was a 1973 ('74?) Mercury Capri. Then on to a handful of Mustang GTs. My daily is still a Mustang GT. But as far as kids nowadays...if they can drag themselves away from their phones, soon the only cars that will available to them will be EVs. So, yeah, we're a dying breed.
class of '95 87 Ford Ranger 2.9L V6. Long bed. CD player.
Hello Austin! I'd like to have the 70's Capri. How much? Is it for sale?
High school late 80's central NJ. spent friday nights at Englishtown - Fox bodies everywhere. probably 300-400 cars with possibly half or more mustangs & 3rd gen camaros. had a 351W powered 79 Capri. In NJ it was Englishtown, or go down to Seabright(shore) and hang out on the water. then go to the windmill for a late night burger. street racing happened up in Newark, down in the pines or out in Freehold. hot rods and goomba's everywhere! Now in Chicago, car season is definitely shorter due to weather. the culture is different, more options for hobbies that are not car related and limits on money/laws/difficulty in modifying and the higher level of capabilty of cars right off the showroom floor. my 93 fox body was a low 14 second car, now a strong minivan or my Ecoboost 2.7 is probably faster than a stock 5.0. Japanese import culture was not originally focused on drag racing, drifting came here becuase of what they could/would/did do over there. structured burnout competitions came from Australia for the most part. road racing? been all over since the beginning. Love the discussions, I am in the auto industry and will take any/every level of enthusiast buying parts/being interested because the industry needs the numbers. we do not need the A-holes causing public ruckus but that does come with it unfortunately.
Jeff
Columbus,Ohio street racing in the mid 70's.. meet at Children's Palace on Morse Road starting 9PM racing on Morse Road starting 11 PM or Children's Palace at Brice and Livingston in Reynoldsburg and race on Gender Road or meet at the Pizza Hut on Sullivant Ave and race on Georgesville Road.🎉 You just showed up and hung out or raced when the streets cleared. I drove a 74 SD-455 Trans Am which ran 12 20's at National Trail Raceway on street nights. So, I won much more than lost on the light to light drags.
I'm from a small town in WV in the 80s we cruzed at the mall got kicked out from there so down town let us go it was on the radio I got my Plymouth fury all clean and my dad's Dodge truck too it was me my friends and mom dad and my next door neighbor so much fun
This is why we can't have nice things: idiots have to show off and civilians get hurt. My nephew was killed when a drag racing fool -with his lights out- ran into him as he made a left turn on Milwaukee's traditional cruising strip [Highway 100].
Its an interesting topic. I think culture in general has changed. I personally see car culture is still alive but is massively different than we ran the streets, just like the generation said about us and our fuel injection, turbos, "big rims", lowered suspensions, etc.
You mentioned big lifted trucks that the kids are going to in your video, thats correct because its what is attainable for them to mod and be "competitive" with each other and show off a new mod. Where for us, we could afford a Mustang, Camaro, Nova, Monte Carlos, etc. and able to modify them on a part-time grocery store budget. And they were also simple enough that us youngins could work/modify on them. Now that is not the case, to be competitive in the streets or track is way over budget for the average teenager/ young adult on a part-time or entry level job. So, in theory these kids that could/would of built a street machine are now going towards the lifted/squatted trucks because that is what they can afford to buy and to modify.
Next thing that has changed is us, our generation of Dads seems to be less interested in fixing things and more into replacing things. (Part of that is due to things aren't built to be fixed any longer, but are designed to fail for replacement) I remember as a kid in our neighborhood, garage doors and shop doors were up almost every weekend and almost every late weekday afternoon with someone "working" in the garage fixing a broken lawnmower or changing the sparkplugs on their truck. Now, I rarely see any garage doors open with some type of project in any neighborhood.
There are so many other things in our culture that I believe has changed affecting the traditional car-culture but this comment on YT is all ready to long.
Thanks for video, always enjoy you content.
Used to cruise Kmart in Maysville ky which is now rural king. Used to cruise west union Ohio. Used to cruise Hillsboro Ohio. Used to cruise Wilmington Ohio as well. This 91-93/94
Ah yes we had some good times back in the day , I'm 54 so the late 80's and early to mid 90's we used to cruise the strip , I owned a 1972 Nova SS and still do , but I got pulled over almost every time I came into town , I was a metal head , long hair , brooks leather jacket a d concert T-shirt's , never been arrested but sure got treated bad by the local cops . Had a lot of good times for sure , amd I have seen some young kids who are into older cars and hope they keep it up because these new cars just aren't going to be that cool years from now , some might be but it's not the same . 👍
Breakfast meets are the future cheap breakfast cars different every time
Yes
Yep the good old days I'm old timer I was a teenager in the 60s my neighbor is raw deer heads my dad was a Gearhead my neighbor bought a brand new 67 Z28 man I got a ride in that thing I knew I needed one of them cars with that chainsaw motorWhat a cool car that was I used to cruise the boulevard every single night in the summer up and down Highway 100 it was a long straight 2 Lane Road about 4 miles stretch we all have on a big boys and the Clark gas station just cruising it was fun once in awhile to get into a race late at night cops just like the other way we didn't do anything stupid one of my buddies dad's was the chief of police so that helped his dad had a really nice 55 Chevy with a big block cruising pretty much died in the 1980 they crack down I remember one night my buddy had a 65 Nova with a big block and a tunnel ram and four speed 9 inch for a link he was racing a 68 rotor on her he hit second gear and hit the curb and put the car on the roof cops are happy about it there was some other roads in the area not too far away it was no houses all heavily wooded two lanes we had a quarter mile set up I built a Christmas tree with a 12 volt battery it was fun you just went up there and drove what you owned it was a blast if you had a 11-second car or high 10 second car you're a king of the street there was one guy named Gary reith he was little older than us he has 67 Belvedere 426 Hemi dual quad for Speed Sure Grip red with black interior that car was pretty fast it had a better cam milled heads ported heads headers Haze clutch Zoom gears it was pretty damn fast I learned a lot of cars in my day Camaros Nova Chevelles Etc my Dad ran a body shop so of course I had to do something my dad was a flathead guy there was two 48 anglia's one out of 348 one had a 302 Chevy I knew both those guys they were cool guys about six blocks from my house with a speed shop called HPC High Performance Center you could take your car there in for $35 they would dine away
I agree to point and people needs not to spend to much on a car an least to stay on a bug.
I was a teenager in the mid 80 I bought a lot of nice cheap hot rods those were the days
Thankfully, there are still quite a few classics on the road. The modern cars don't do it for me. Four cylinder cars with fart cans are not cool like an old Mustang, Chevelle or Charger.
I do give Ford credit for the revival of the Bronco. My 24 is made in Michigan! USA!
We got a pretty decent car culture here in western Washington. We do cruises in centralia every weekend during the summer .
Austin you have to euro slam the capri with turbo
I think it would do your soul good to go to the event that Bill and Edgewater are doing.
we still have what's calledMetro Cruise in Michigan once a year
It’s unfortunate, the evolution has turned into a revolution and ruined the good ol days.
I am a teenager and I herd it changed a lot.
I currently own a 1974 MGB, on its best day it made 87hp
I have an 80 Spitfire. Not fast but handles great.
Sure miss the old days lol 😊
I remember in the late 1960's on Friday and Saturday nights we'd cruise through Jerry's (restaurant with car hops" looking for friends. Then north into town around the yacht basin back up through A&W then back to Jerry's. The van craze was just getting started and I was helping a buddy build a 1965 Chevy van. Buy the mid 1970's both Jerry's and A&W got rid of the car hops and the city passed an anti cruising bill. If you passed the same spot more than 3 times you were considered looking for sex ie: prostitutes. Another factor I think is manufacturers started to get into the game. Offer ready made custom vans or Saturday night drag cars off the lot. Then anyone could have one without getting their hands dirty. Cars have gotten to complicated. My wife will only let me work on my 1980 Triumph Spitfire. She won't even let me change oil in our daily drivers.😡
The night time car culture is for youngsters now sliding and doing burnouts and such. The cars shows for us older folks is daytime. Usually Sat or Sun lol. They call us old heads now
The problem we have here is every cruise in gets shut down because of some of the younger import crowd insists on doing burnouts and speeding through the lots where the meet up is being held.
Before I catch shit, yes us muscle car guys do burnouts etc but we never did it at these meets, we always did it off property. Don't shit where you sleep
If it has a battery, it’s like a blender, not a car. Sorry, I’m old.
Real cars weren't classics back then. Average kid could afford one and work on it. Cruising was "our" cellphones. Cars and kids are different now.
Austin I'm from the 70's generation and had my fare share of fast cars and trucks. We use to cruise in Charlotte mi. and Battle Creek mi. We always had a good time and tried not to get the attention of the police. We would go out on the back roads where there was no traffic and race. Sadly I'm not in the position to build a true street car anymore and what good would it do when most 6cyl. cars make as much horsepower stock as we did in our hot rods. But those were the days. I think that the car culture hasn't changed that much. Just the toys got better. I think that street cars in small tire should be just that a street car no tube chassis cars make a class for them like super street. Idk what the answer is but tube chassis cars have no place in small tire.
It's very sad what life has become. Yes I graduated in 98 and I was kind of at the tail end of all the cool stuff. I always idolize the older high School guys that had the chevelles Camaros mustangs and they were just cruise around with their girl next to them. Kids are too lazy now they rather game. I'm 45 years old and I still like to go Cruise after a car show but nobody does they go straight home. They build these 500 horsepower cars and just take them out for people to look at and go straight home.
Gas was a around a buck a gallon you could get a pretty good used car for cheap parts were cheap and available and anyone could work on a car with regular hand tools car insurance was cheaper and now not so much that's what happened ☹️🇺🇸
But modern stuff does not have the class the cars back then. I'd rather have a slow old school then a new 1000 horse newer car.
The cars of today are unapproachable even for those of us who have been in this game for decades. Back in the day, many performance cars were based on mundane models with easy parts interchange between them. Today? Not so much. Most people drive crossovers with complex CANBUS setups that lock you out of engine swaps and modifications without extensive coding knowledge. Plus, no matter what you do to an Equinox or Evoke, it's still an ugly crossover. At least a 6 cylinder Javelin or Chevelle was easy to swap a V8 into, add wheels, etc.
Any thoughts on the Dodge Charger Daytona?
Would you consider a Tesla model S performance variants American made performance?
I think they are kinda revolutionary like your Syclone!
The Porsche Cayenne and it's ilk are to blame. They ARE minivans. They are UGLY. They SUCK. Everything is a minivan now ... errr 'CUV'. Mommie vans are not cool. A slow V6 Mustang from 1983 is much cooler. A 4 cylinder F Car Firebird is much cooler. Fast vehicles need to look good. Not be a mommie van.