Have high powered factory cars ruined hotrodding???

[online170]

They haven't ruined the industry at all. This is what it was like in the 60s. Competition drives innovation and I'm glad we can have 600hp now with 30mpg or better.

These new cars are far from minimalistic and have to contend with fmvss, epa, and a bunch of other regulations. Any price offset advantage they gain, we can always match in hot rodding because we don't have to contend with the same rules.

But a $3000gbody, plop it on a fully outfitted Schwartz chassis for $20,000 and put another $20,000 into the lt4/t56 combo with more boost. Then spend about $5000 on luxury items like interior. So for $50,000 you have a new car killer. I think the hellcat is $64,000 for the charger version.

If all you want is hp, you can cut $20,000 from the price for a competent enough handling upgraded gbody type suspension.
If all you wanna do is spank a new car with a hotrod, check it the "vette kart". You get the idea...

As for "impressing anyone". I pulled into a gas station behind a hellcat with my ratty looking wagon to fuel up. I had a crowd of ppl swarm me asking about the car and giving me compliments. Only 1 guy was orgasming over brochure specs with the hellcat owner.

When it comes to "cool", nothing impresses like a classic.

 

[Jeff L]

I think the new factory high horsepower cars are just part of the cycle of change I have seen since riding in or driving cars since the late 60's and early 70's.

In the early 80's the fastest car I owned was my 74 Nova. It had a 350 and 4 speed with roughly 400 horses. It had plenty of power and was quick. With the gearing it was a steady 13-14 second car at the strip. This was on open car nights, stock street tires, just some fun times with friends and trying different tune ups to see how it affected speed. Nowadays if I still had this car my Sister's Camry would give me a run for my money and out corner me without much effort with the ac on! But back then with the available technology and cars available, the Nova I had was competitive and equal to many other performance cars on the street.

Back in 85 200 hp or close to it was becoming the norm as far as performance cars were. 10 years ago 300-400 hp seemed to be the norm. Now anything with 500 hp is looked at as "oh thats all" kind of mentality thanks to ZL 1's Hellcats, Demons, etc.

Unless something catastrophic happens to the economy I see the factory performance market growing still. There is always room for improvements and is there any true ceiling for hp when it comes to the true car nut?

My favorite shake my head moment is how some Hellcat owners are all bummed out because of the Demon. My goodness you think the world was coming to end. All of a sudden words like inadequate, not good enough, just not the same anymore, were being said about a 707 hp factory car! I never in my life thought I would see the day a 700 hp car was inadequate! This just begs to ask if many of these Hellcat owners are true car guys or just spoiled brats that have to have newest and best of everything and are never happy or satisfied? The cars themselves are not ruining the hobby, it is the type of owner getting these cars and by their stupidity on the road making all of the true enthusiasts look bad.

Most of the above is just my opinion based on seeing cars change since the late 60's until now and just like many other trends in society today, we can see the good in most of it, but there will always be something or someone to give it a negative turn. I am just waiting for the day I can put a 600 hp electric motor in my SS that weighs 100 pounds total with batteries and charges the battery packs in 5 minutes. Sounds crazy now, but 10 years ago I never thought I would see a factory built type car like a Hellcat or Tesla that can go sub 3 second 0-60 mph times with a full warranty and high tech systems. And with cup holders!!! lol

 

[lilbowtie]

By no means, not at all. What they have done is start a revival of the good old days. If there wasn't any money to be made they wouldn't be doing it which tells me hot rodding is well and alive - doing well.

 

[shawn1112]

I think the new factory high horsepower cars are just part of the cycle of change I have seen since riding in or driving cars since the late 60's and early 70's.




My favorite shake my head moment is how some Hellcat owners are all bummed out because of the Demon. My goodness you think the world was coming to end. All of a sudden words like inadequate, not good enough, just not the same anymore, were being said about a 707 hp factory car! I never in my life thought I would see the day a 700 hp car was inadequate! This just begs to ask if many of these Hellcat owners are true car guys or just spoiled brats that have to have newest and best of everything and are never happy or satisfied? The cars themselves are not ruining the hobby, it is the type of owner getting these cars and by their stupidity on the road making all of the true enthusiasts look bad.


Those would be the spoiled brats that don't know better. For about $7500 in mods, a Hellcat will run mid to high 9's.

 

[shawn1112]

But its to hard not to get caught up in the HP race. At least its fun lol. My V makes 600rwhp right now and im considered the slow guy at the track running 10.70's.

Lol, was in the same boat my friend.
Had a Pro Charged 08 Jeep Cherokee SRT that also had heads, cam, headers and other goodies. Was just north of 600whp on pump gas and it ran very consistent low 11's and on good days (-DA) I could crack a 10.90. I was also one of the slower guys at the track, lol

 

[UNGN]

The Hellcat owners I know aren't car guys but are all midlife crisis guys. They aren't that attached to them, this isn't their dream car they always wanted... it is just a thing filling the current void in their egos. A few have always owned mopars, but even those guys never had "classic" mopar muscle cars. An SRT10 truck would be about as close to a "classic" mopar as they have owned.

This bodes well for buying cheap hellcats (and other supercars) in the future. As Hellcat prices drop, the lesser cars have to drop, too.

When I began looking for a newer car in 2010-2011, 2003-2004 Cobra guys still wanted $24K for a used Cobra (6-7 year old), so at the point in the life cycle I start looking at a car (after they are paid off and the warranties have expired and dealers don't give crap for them as used cars but before they are COMPLETELY ragged by the second/third owners) they were still "too high" and I bailed on buying one. Today you can buy a low mile 6-7 year old GT500 for about the same money as the '03-04 Cobra guys wanted at the same point of their lifecycle and get way more car.

 

[zdeckich]

Lol, was in the same boat my friend.
Had a Pro Charged 08 Jeep Cherokee SRT that also had heads, cam, headers and other goodies. Was just north of 600whp on pump gas and it ran very consistent low 11's and on good days (-DA) I could crack a 10.90. I was also one of the slower guys at the track, lol

Yea its getting crazy. Id love to make my V a 9 second car, but to be honest im not that attached to hit to dump more money into it. What i really want is a 99 Viper ACR and build it for the 1/2 mile races. My V does ok on half mile but being heavy and not very aerodynamic doesn't help it lol. Plus i always been a Mopar guy at heart and when the Viper was announced in 89 and released in 92 it was always a dream car growing up. Just like UNGN said, most hellcat guys and several other car guys, they are just driving whats new and popular right now. They are not real car guys.

 

[tc1959]

The car shows around her all look like a Dodge dealers sales lot. I built my car, so sick of *ssh*les with 100,000 cars looking down their noses at me and my old Chevy.

 

[motorheadmike]

Situations like these always remind me of this::

 

[Wraith]

I don't think they ruined anything other than those with some money have access to cars they may or may not be able to drive, doesn't mean they all appreciate or have the skills to drive said cars, it's always been that way. Then I get on sites like Gbodyforum as it's an enthusiast site for those with a sickness for cars that most hate. That is a true passion for cars, spending metric dollars on a throwaway car that is just now starting to be recognized by the aftermarket OR maybe it's a treatable disease that I don't want the cure for. I blame the internet and the access to almost every car build done to making most people feel inadequate towards their build.

Situations like these always remind me of this::

That Monte is one of my favorite F&F cars.