Have high powered factory cars ruined hotrodding???

[motorheadmike]

I'm somewhat surprised by the saltiness in this topic. Most of our beloved G-bodies were considered Granny cars and/or hoopties for much of the last 30 years. It seems that some of the owners of these beloved machines are upset that new cars are more than capable right off of the lot of putting these old cars to shame. I always thought the purpose of hot rodding was to build something capable of competing with the new heat from the factory or your buddy's hot rod? If you just want to build a cruiser, then be content with that.

By the way, the new muscle cars seem to turn a lot of heads too, especially this new Scat Pack Charger.

What? Me? Salty? Never.

I agree with you that the point of hotrodding is to express yourself through power and style, and to do it better than the next guy. The new stuff just sets the bench mark for what is commonplace. The movie Two Lane Blacktop is the perfect embodiment of this - racing hotrods against hotrods, and beating up on the new iron owned by bullshitting douchebags - it is a story as old as time.

I am going to disagree that the new stuff commands the same attention as an older car - side by each a hot rod is more interesting. Very few people have ever cared about my factory LS-stuff even with significant mods.

 

[gbodytoys]

Nothing makes me want a new car. NOTHING will ever make me want a Dodge...anything. There are about 25 billion Dodge Chargers/Challengers in Metro Detroit and leaving some dude in a stock Charger R/T at the light because he thinks his car is fast brings me great pleasure...and my car is SLOW.

I don't desire to compete with street racers, I just want to be competitive with stock cars in the SS and SRT trims from light to light (and pulls on the freeway). I want a sound system, I want leather/suede seats, I want A/C blasting cold air. I want a button that turns my exhaust from near silent to obnoxiously loud in 2 seconds. I think if you are in the 11's...you're safe. Not for street racers, but for stock dudes.

 

[zdeckich]

Nothing makes me want a new car. NOTHING will ever make me want a Dodge...anything. There are about 25 billion Dodge Chargers/Challengers in Metro Detroit and leaving some dude in a stock Charger R/T at the light because he thinks his car is fast brings me great pleasure...and my car is SLOW.

I don't desire to compete with street racers, I just want to be competitive with stock cars in the SS and SRT trims from light to light (and pulls on the freeway). I want a sound system, I want leather/suede seats, I want A/C blasting cold air. I want a button that turns my exhaust from near silent to obnoxiously loud in 2 seconds. I think if you are in the 11's...you're safe. Not for street racers, but for stock dudes.

Sounds like everything you wants comes in new cars, but you dont want a new car. You just want all the new technology that comes with the new cars. Thank goodness for new cars or you wouldn't have any of the cool technology. A lot of people dont want to buy an old car and have to spend years and thousands of dollars trying to make it nice and fast. That's why new muscle cars are so popular.

 

[pontiacgp]

Sounds like everything you wants comes in new cars, but you dont want a new car. You just want all the new technology that comes with the new cars. Thank goodness for new cars or you wouldn't have any of the cool technology. A lot of people dont want to buy an old car and have to spend years and thousands of dollars trying to make it nice and fast. That's why new muscle cars are so popular.

you lose thousands of dollars with depreciation when you drive the new car off the dealers lot and it depreciates each year unlike the G body which can be built and modified cheaper than the depreciation you loose with a new car plus the G body goes up in price each year....

 

[zdeckich]

you lose thousands of dollars with depreciation when you drive the new car off the dealers lot and it depreciates each year unlike the G body which can be built and modified cheaper than the depreciation you loose with a new car plus the G body goes up in price each year....

Haha there is some truth in that.

 

[Qdub24]

I love G-bodies, my first car was a G-body, but why all of the hate of "new muscle" when the "classic muscle" guys still don't even really respect our cars? Except for the GN/T-Type, G-bodies were just daily driver material off of the showroom floor. The essence of hot rodding is to build your car to be competitive. The "new muscle" has new technology which has raised the bar for performance. 400 RWHP is daily driver status nowadays. There are a lot of G-body owners building some very competitive and very reliable rides. It comes at a hefty cost, and usually ends up costing not much less than the "new muscle", but without the factory warranty.

 

[motorheadmike]

Do you know what new performance cars are good for?

Parts.

When my wife's LS1 Camaro had reached the end of its serviceable life (didn't meet our needs any longer) and didn't sell as a whole car - we parted it out. Then used all of the speed and technology to refresh a car (the wagon) that did meet our immediate needs (granted it has taken over 3 years to build it). What do you think we have to show for it? A hotrod in the purest sense.

Hot Rodders have been pulling the go-fast goodies out of crashed factory performance cars for nearly a century (slight exaggeration for effect) and sticking those parts into older (and usually lighter) and more interesting platforms. This is the basis of everything we should be aiming to do.

Honestly, I really respect everyone's perspective on this topic - because if we all saw and did things the same way the world would be pretty boring.

 

[L92 OLDS]

you lose thousands of dollars with depreciation when you drive the new car off the dealers lot and it depreciates each year unlike the G body which can be built and modified cheaper than the depreciation you loose with a new car plus the G body goes up in price each year....

My G body holds sentimental value for me and I haven't built it to be "king of the hill" I have less than $12,000 into my latest LS build which is a fraction of the cost of a new Mustang 5.0, Camaro SS, Audi or BMW. What motivates me is pulling up next to these guys at a light and blowing their doors off. The Olds 403 swap I did back in the early 90's was built with the same intent....humiliating those smack talking fox body Mustang guys. I have been blessed financially through the years and could go out today to buy a new Tesla or Dodge Demon in cash but wouldn't get near the satisfaction. My wife often asks me why I don't go this path but the answer is simple. Any douche bag can buy modern muscle off a car lot. Most of those guys have no idea how to build a car.


http://thewelloff.blogspot.com/2015/03/11-cars-that-douchebags-love-to-drive.html

 

[UNGN]

I love G-bodies, my first car was a G-body, but why all of the hate of "new muscle" when the "classic muscle" guys still don't even really respect our cars? Except for the GN/T-Type, G-bodies were just daily driver material off of the showroom floor.

It took years for even the GN's and T-types to get respect from "muscle car" guys. Even though they ran 13's in 1986 at one of the first Muscle car review shootouts, people still didn't believe they were really that fast into the late 1990's.

Darlington, SC, in the cradle of NASCAR racing, had a 1/4 mile track but apparently didn't have a Buick dealership. My Wife drove my T-type down from Greenville to a big Mopar Car show, while I drove my Ram pulling my trailer with our Super Stock AMX. The Car show had a "Mopar vs. The World" drag race event so it wasn't just a sit around and stare at cars deal, so I entered the T-type.

People checked around the T-type because they had never seen a white GN (it was 1998), a guy came up to me who overheard a group of people talking that "buicks really only run mid 14's" so he wanted to know what it will run. "We'll find out" I told him.

First run off the street was a 12.84@103, laying down on top (because it had straight pump gas). When I got back to the pits, I was mobbed by people wanting to know what I had done to it, this was the first time they had seem something like this... Well, I put on a K&N Filter, I put in a race chip, I have a test pipe for the cat, I have drag radials, I recovered the seats, redid the headliner...

My point is there were still doubters that GN's were fast nearly15 years after they came out (even by muscle car people), because they hadn't seen it with their own eyes.

 

[gbodytoys]

you lose thousands of dollars with depreciation when you drive the new car off the dealers lot and it depreciates each year unlike the G body which can be built and modified cheaper than the depreciation you loose with a new car plus the G body goes up in price each year....

agreed

I love G-bodies, my first car was a G-body, but why all of the hate of "new muscle" when the "classic muscle" guys still don't even really respect our cars? Except for the GN/T-Type, G-bodies were just daily driver material off of the showroom floor. The essence of hot rodding is to build your car to be competitive. The "new muscle" has new technology which has raised the bar for performance. 400 RWHP is daily driver status nowadays. There are a lot of G-body owners building some very competitive and very reliable rides. It comes at a hefty cost, and usually ends up costing not much less than the "new muscle", but without the factory warranty.

I don't hate new cars...I just don't want to buy one. I rather have a 1996 Imapala SS with an LS swap than any car domestic car that is made now (well except a Vette). That doesn't mean the car is better, I just like it more. It's true, you may see 100 of them in the streets around here, but you'll see 100,000 new gen Hemis.