I'm not a "hoods up" kinda guy where ever we rod nuts gather. It's just never been my thing, although I must admit the hoodless '30 roadster used it's engine bay to draw in most admirers. The rest of the cars I usually only lift the hood if an inquisitive observer asks. But I think there's probably more to this than our perspective in the street rod/hot rod ranks.

When I got my '05 Mustang one of the things that annoyed me was how absolutely disheveled the engine compartment looked with all the wires and hoses and plastic boxes that seemed to be just thrown under that hood like childs toys in a box. I must not have been alone in my angst. Over the subsequent decade the Ford people put some effort into cleaning up the appearance to the point that the under hood of the '13 'Stang has a lot of that stuff hidden or dolled up in appearance. For the 80 or so percent of people out there who see their automobile, factory or personally modified, as just another appliance in their life none of that matters. It's those other 20ish percent that care to some degree or other and have a personal stake in their automobile being an extension of their personality. I could go off on a marketing riff here, but suffice to say, those who care about that kind of stuff are a lucrative market segment.