Detroit Iron vs. Imports - and Street Racing

My brother likes to soup-up cars. In the early 70s he drove a 1940 Ford Coupe that he'd transformed into a primo muscle car. The damn thing got about 4 miles per gallon and had a blown hemi under the hood. The blower was illegal and stuck out through a cutout in the hood. The car was primer gray, but on weekends he'd pull the hood off to show off all the work he'd put into the engine. It was all chrome. Everything. Even the hoses had that stainless-steel braid. In the slang back then, it was cherry. The cops hated him.

"Could this be a backlash against the foreign automakers ..."

More likely a backlash against crappy-sounding street trash. If I'd had the chance I would've loaded a car I saw/heard yesterday into the crusher myself. It sounded like a weedeater on speed. Contrast with my brother's car which had a deep, throaty rumble when idling. Step on the gas and it was like crackling thunder.

We were crusing Main Street when a yellow 'vette pulled up at the light and revved 'er up. My bro opened the exhaust gates, let the horses run free and put that 'vette to bloody shame. The guy was humiliated "An insignificant speck in my rear-view mirror" as my bro described it. Talk about a rush! Nothing like today's tinny, loud, gutless weed wackers.

I have a 55 Chevy pickup just outside my shop, the plan was to stuff a Edelbrock 555 c.i. big block in it. Very nice engine, and a great HP to weight ratio, at just a hair over 800 hp when you stomp on the angry pedal. Unfortunately being rather under employed and the economy in the dumpster it will be years before it makes it back to the road. Other projects have to come first rather than all at one time. Bummer.

It's just a sign of the times.
Old gits forget what they did as kids.
We've had some decent snow in the UK and the police & emergency services have had people phoning them 'cos kids are throwing snowballs.
Shock horror some kids even threw them at passing cars...

Rewind to when I was young I remember throwing some (quite innocently) at cars... This woman stopped around the corner and gave me a right telling off...I stopped.

Life just isn't that simple these days...
If a kid threw a snowball at my car I'd wave or laugh, or gesture as if I was shooting him....
Some people are just paranoid miserable gits.

Del

"...as if I was shooting him..."

Just show him your crossbow and everything will be fine.

I like thi splace bring back all sorts of long forgotten memories.

I remember when back in high school I was working part time for the local cable company, we were driving down a street with huge snow banks when a bunch of kids popped up and pelted us with snow balls, loud noise in a van. They had picked their hiding spot poorly however, a very large puddle in the road right in front of their hiding spot. We went around the block and just as we were approaching their hiding spot we gunned it and hit the puddle. The kids popped up just in time to catch the HUGE splash as it topped the mound of snow. We were laughing so hard we almost cried.

"We went around the block and just as we were approaching their hiding spot we gunned it and hit the puddle."

So it was YOU!!! <arming ICBM...>

Those muscle cars of the 60/70's were awesome, i was born in the wrong age.

Well boys racing in an FR car is somewhat of an heresy :p

But new cars like Mitsubishi Evo 10 and the Nissan Skyline are cars built for racing.

And most foreign imports give you more bang for the buck than American cars.

It seems like the whole world i get more Conservative and less tolerant.

I grew up in the era of muscle cars, had (and still own) a 64 1/2 Mustang with a small block that is built to sound and act like a drag car. Every time I fire it up, my heart pounds and I twitch a little, almost orgasmic! Well, so to the modern day.......watch the fast and the furious, the work is being done, there are at least still V8 engines putting out gobs of power, and at least in my neighborhood the young lads are still tinkering under the hood. They may no longer swap a cam on the weekend, more like swapping a computer chip, but the work is there, and the cars are safer and sometimes just a s fast. I know my daily driver, a Mitsubishi Eclipse, will still push me into the seat when I want it to. Progress, such as it is, hasn't stopped the gearheads, it has made them change the way things are done. Now, as for the zero tolerance snowball thing, well that is another subject.

I remember the 67-69's Chevelle SS, that was a nice looking and running car. They were very simple machines to repair as well back in the old days of carbs. and points an such.

I think the reason there are so many -not just imports, but FWD in general- is that is all that's available at a decent price. When I was young, late 70's early 80's, we could get a well worn 383 Road Runner for $700. Try to do that today. Granted, the silly exhaust tips they put on are a bit much, but it's all just a sign of the times. Remember when air shocks were all the rage?

On a side note, I own a little 4 cylinder FWD car. It runs about 14.5 at close to 98 mph on the strip. And I did it like the old days. Drop a bigger engine in a light car.

Ian.

The lack of tolerance for the street racer may have a lot to do with the congestion in cities these days. Back in the day, the muscle car was about all that was out at night, these days the roads are full of cars all the time, just no room for the racerboys. Could have a lot to do with the stereo that has more HP than the engine as well. All that thump thump and rap music, reminds me of my parents and my music, I must be getting old.

The political types, who after all are very reactionary, have gone too far with the vehicle crushing thing though.

Dances With Trees:

Most of us old farts from the 60's-70's knew what it was like to drive/ride in a muscle car. Now we see street racing as a mortal sin, something we did ourselves! The reason there is such a backlash is because we had cars with a literally a ton of metal surrounding us. So if instead of dancing with trees, if we hit a tree, we could survive a 100mph crash. Now with most cars being made out of plastic and even with "crumple zones" (be careful of your knees), traction control and ad nauseum, there is no physical substitute for solid metal. Thus, most young people are dying in these 100mph crashes in newer cars and their families are crying out for it to stop and rightly so. We old farts must mentor these young people and get them to take to the track.

I have alot of respect for the younger people who are building these cars. We old farts might not like the "style" but the amount of hard work and effort put into these cars shows us that these young people love the cars they build. They are the next generation of true craftmens and women.

These are the type of young people we should be supporting and mentoring because they are the ones that will keep the automotive engineering spirit alive and well.

UFG

I could not agree more, I love to stop and talk to the current crop of gear heads.

the problem with getting them to the track is the lack of tracks. I sent a detailed proposal to the Ontario Government outlining a way to keep the racers off the street and onto tracks. I included a how to, including sponsorship, insurance, and publicity.

I got a very short note back stating; the Ontario government cannot get into the business of running race tracks. They totaly missed the point, and the only way to make is any simpler would have been to write it in Crayon. They just do not understand the value of the aftermarket in Canada.

I drive a silly little import so that's the side of this story I'm coming from. I can honestly say I've NEVER raced on the street. Of course I've hit the gas hard many times but I knew what I was doing.

I do go autocrossing a lot, whenever I am free, it's so surprising how people many people have never heard of it, or how many have never even heard of or been to a dragstrip or any road race track it's sad.

I will have to disagree with the comment about crashes made a few comments back. I would put money on the cars of today keeping you alive better than the cars from the era you are talking about. The whole safety aspect and the way the person is kept in the seat has been completley redesigned 180 degrees.

Think about hitting a tree at 100 mph with just a lap belt, you will die. Even if you have a full race harness that can still be very harsh since it has no give.