Is The Car Culture Doomed?

[joe_padavano]

Apparently there's no one here old enough to remember the dark days of the mid-1970s. The first OPEC oil embargo hit, gasoline rocketed past $1.00 a gallon ( :shock: ), Detroit was building cars like the Mustang II and the Pacer, and Hot Rod Magazine was building conversion vans. Everyone claimed that was going to be the end of the "car culture" then. In fact, it was a major deal when Ford came out with the Fox-body Mustang with a 2bbl 302 and about 140 HP!

Meanwhile today it's not very difficult to get 500 HP from an LS-series truck motor (though I'd STILL never put one in one of my Oldsmobiles), my kid turns 10.67 from his street-driven EVO, and you can buy a Corvette with over 630 NET horsepower. I can buy a complete, brand new body for a Camaro, Mustang, or Tri-Five Chevy, and nearly a complete new body for a 1970 442.

Tell me again what the problem is?

 

[84GP455]

The problem is there are no performance orientated cars being built or have been built in the last 15 years or so except the $65,000 Corvette but who can afford that? Plus they are all front wheel drive! that is fine in the snow but who wants to put a V8 in something like that? I think all the cars of today look like jellybeans, all round with no body lines. When i was younger you could guess the make of a car just by one glance at the grille or taillights! Try that today it would go something like this, I see a Honda, no it's a Toyota, nawww it's a Nissan stupid!

 

[Blue86Monte]

Not that I really want to admit it, but when you see all those ricers, they are usually young kids into cars. It's bad to say you like them, but they are in fact the next gen comming up and you have to support kids that are into cars. I'm not saying that a huge bumper and big exhaust tip is cool, but alot of these kids have huge amounts of knowledge about little cars. These cars are to them what are our G body cars our to us and like it or not they are the next car people coming up.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I have no issue with imports. My next modified car will likely be an older import like a RWD Corolla, Celica, Datsun PL510, 240z, or even a early 90's Civic or Sentra. I want to cover ground I have not covered before, so I see no point to build another American car with a V8. Built several, now it's time for a new challenge. My issue is that the cars that we are getting today are too expensive to play with. A new intake manifold for a Ford 4.6 can run $400-800-way beyond the cost of an older car.

 

[1evilregal]

don't get me wrong, I don't have an issue with the ricer crowd, it seems to be the trend now that most used ones are somewhat affordable to the younger crowd. and some of them are tastefuly done... a guy that works next door at a local shop has done up a 00 civic si with a mild drop, no huge shopping cart wing, no ground effects, no gaudy stickers slapped all over, and a stroke kit w/larger turbo that puts about 400hp at the wheels... other than a larger eshaust tip and the sound of the blow-off valve, it could be lost in the crowd to anyone who's unaware of what's in it...

I've owned a few imports that I really liked, but most of them are a bit too uncomfortable to drive even medium distances for me(bad back,hips,knees), case in point-a 91 tercel that was a great handling car out of the box, and did have some get up to it,just hurt too much to drive it anywhere outside of town... had an 80 celica and an 83 civic hatch that I really liked...celica had the sportyness, civic had good handling and got about 40 mpg, even with 411k on the bottom end of the motor(original bearings,pistons,rings-new head) and would still bark tires in 3rd!

imports just aren't my cup of tea...hate front drivers, everything in my driveway is american RWD, and hope to stay that way.... don't count out the v-6's anymore, my wife's 08 stang has the 4.0l and has plenty of power to get it up and running, and there's plenty of power upgrades for it with more coming out all the time :wink:

 

[TURNA]

Speaking of old ricer's how could u forget the 82-86 Supra with there monster sized straight six 5 speed, posi rear and 4 wheel disc brakes.

I had one of these for a short time and I don't think I can say one bad thing about it!

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Speaking of old ricer's how could u forget the 82-86 Supra with there monster sized straight six 5 speed, posi rear and 4 wheel disc brakes.

I had one of these for a short time and I don't think I can say one bad thing about it!

Those Supras were actually the upmarket Celica as they shared more or less the same body and chassis. If I were to build one of those, I would use the 2JZ-GTTE from a Mk IV Supra in it for the ultimate sleeper! However, I want to build something light (1900-2300lbs) and small so I can use a small displacement engine with high output from a newer car and get a mix of good fuel economy and performance. The engines I am considering are the: Mazda Rotary 13B, Toyota 4A-GE 20 valve, Nissan KA24DE, Nissan SR20DET, or a hybrid Nissan SR20DET with the head from a SR20VE or SR16VE. If I did a EG Civic (or an N600...), I would use a B series VTEC engine, probably a B16B. This project is about having something fun to drive that does not cost a lot of money to run or buy gas for. I also have the original Mini on my list...but with a VTEC swap in it instead of the old BMC A series with the transmission in the engine's oil pan that they usually came with (Issigonis may have been a genius at packaging, but some of his ideas worked better on paper than they ever did in reality!).

If I build my old school import from the 70's, it will be done to a totally different set of aesthetic rules than my Cutlass. It would get Watanabe wheels in gunmetal gray or Panasports, wheel flares, lowering, a chin spoiler and a ducktail spoiler on the rear. Paint would be a fairly loud solid color (Lime green, Yellow, Orange, etc.) that these older imports were known to be sold in. No power options, but it would have A/C and a stereo. The interior would have some sort of old school seats like Recaros of the 80's, but would likely be trimmed in black vinyl. Cars I would consider include the MK I Celica, Corolla, Datsun 510, or maybe a 240Z (With an RB swap...), or even a Mazda RX-3. The basic idea would be to have a cleaner looking version of a 1970's aesthetic, but with a modern, high efficiency small EFI engine instead of the original. That way I would have style, reliability and low running costs. Plus, as nice as torque can be, sometimes it's nice to be able to wind out your car to 9,000 RPM in every gear.

 

[TURNA]

Well you can't go wrong with a rotary combined with a RX7 trans and rear!!!!!!!

 

[NY87SS]

Apparently there's no one here old enough to remember the dark days of the mid-1970s. The first OPEC oil embargo hit, gasoline rocketed past $1.00 a gallon ( :shock: ), Detroit was building cars like the Mustang II and the Pacer, and Hot Rod Magazine was building conversion vans. Everyone claimed that was going to be the end of the "car culture" then. In fact, it was a major deal when Ford came out with the Fox-body Mustang with a 2bbl 302 and about 140 HP!

Meanwhile today it's not very difficult to get 500 HP from an LS-series truck motor (though I'd STILL never put one in one of my Oldsmobiles), my kid turns 10.67 from his street-driven EVO, and you can buy a Corvette with over 630 NET horsepower. I can buy a complete, brand new body for a Camaro, Mustang, or Tri-Five Chevy, and nearly a complete new body for a 1970 442.

Tell me again what the problem is?

Well said and I am old enough to remember!!!!

 

[custom442]

There's plenty of cars on the streets now from when I was a little. I'm seeing more 3rd gen. camaros and trans-ams, c4 corvettes, etc from the late 80's early 90's. I've even seen some variation in fox bodies, I saw a t-bird done up a few weeks ago, and I've even seen a pro street mark VII. It hasn't gone away, it's just going into the next stage. 60's muscle cars are just a dying breed. And in 20 years there'll be another wave of muscle car revival with the newer gtos, camaros, corvettes, dodges, etc.