Thread: what will happen to hotrods, & the industry

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I have no idea what the future may actually bring, but to be safe I plan to order four electric motors to mount to each of my wheels to replace the existing gas engine, plus 5000 laptop batteries to wire in tandem to provide the power. I can put the batteries where my back seat is now, since no one uses the space anyway.

Until then I plan to waste a lot of expensive gas and drive the hell out of it.

Originally Posted by shine

as i see it the problem is not gas consumption. it is oil usage. be it power, heating, plastic or whatever. look at the plastics coming out of china. if our congress does not open up our resources we are doomed to deal with the likes of iran and that stupid chauves the moron. we are the strongest economy in the world. we stop buying for a month and the rest of the world will jump off building.
as for hotrodding i see our kind of cars going away for the most part. todays youth is into turbo 4cyclinders and v6's. they make a ton of horsepower and still get 30 mpg. to me this election is the most important one of my lifetime . imho it is going to make us or break us. if we cut tail and run one more time we will never have the voice we once had in this world. i for one am a little worried this time.

Dont worry about our hobby, Shine. As a lot of guys have said in this post, it's our creativeness and ingenuity that will keep us building. We can slap a turbo 4 or 6 into our old iron just as easy as the tuner guys can put em in their Mitsubishi Eclipses.

Originally Posted by shine

as i see it the problem is not gas consumption. it is oil usage. be it power, heating, plastic or whatever. look at the plastics coming out of china. if our congress does not open up our resources we are doomed to deal with the likes of iran and that stupid chauves the moron. we are the strongest economy in the world. we stop buying for a month and the rest of the world will jump off building.
as for hotrodding i see our kind of cars going away for the most part. todays youth is into turbo 4cyclinders and v6's. they make a ton of horsepower and still get 30 mpg. to me this election is the most important one of my lifetime . imho it is going to make us or break us. if we cut tail and run one more time we will never have the voice we once had in this world. i for one am a little worried this time.

Now if only we had someone worth voting for a lot of people I have talked with agree these are the worst choices we have had in years.The big $$ spenders and the media pick who we get stuck with and crucify the ones that actually might make a difference.

I was wondering, is it possible to have a voting poll here, just to see what people in this industry is thinking? No names, private poll, I'm just curious.
Ken

I posted this twice, I have halfzeimer's not Alzheimer's.
Ken

As Bob and others have said, we've been here before when gas prices jumped and emission controls were foisted upon us. As for gas always being cheap, that is realtive. When gas jumped over $1 a gallon that was a major shock when we were used to paying 40 cents for premium. Lots of folks reacted and sold their gas guzzling cars like Dave said. I was one of them. But the industry and hot rodders have adapted. Modern high performance cars are significantly faster than most of the muscle cars of the 60s and 70s, and they are easier to drive and maintain and get way better gas mileage. Shine mentioned the turbo 4 cylinder cars, how about the 400 hp V8 Corvettes that get 28 mpg? The need for speed and vehicle expressed individuality will survive, though it may take a hit for a while. I don't plan to sell my hot rod, in fact I just drove it 250 miles on Sunday just for fun and to show it to a friend. It was $50 well spent!

Pat

The "old Timers" have said it best....They (we) have lived thru this before. A lot of the "follow the current fad" and investor crowd will drop out but the ones with it truely in their blood will keep on.

Last night, at a cruisin, I saw a replica Dooms Daymobile from the movie Animal House. Those guys sure do not care about gas! Boy was it fun watching that drive around. What a great hobby.

i was dumb enough to drive a car on the street with 4:88 gears and a bb when i was younger. did not count mpg, did bpg's aint a whole lot changed. i dont drive to work so i can cheat some.

Shine, I'm with ya. 67 Chevelle, 427, 4 spd w 4.56. Before that, 68 Biscayne, 427, 4 spd, 4.10. 70 mph on the highway was 4,000 RPM. That was my only car and daily driver. I gotta say they sure were fun. I've mellowed now, my driver hot rod has 3.80 gears, but overdrive is a wonderful thing! See? I have adjusted!

Pat

I guess I haven't learned. My daily driver is a Jeep Cherokee with 5 inches of lift, 33 inch tires, 4.56 gears and a Detroit locker in the 8.8 ford rear-end. But it is a straight six 4.0L motor and not a big block V8.

How about a BB and 5:38's?

My 73 Jeep CJ5, very very NASTY!!

At the Super Chevy show last weekend. There were 115 show cars, and 105 cars registered to race. Along with 8 Vendor trailers and a handful of way over priced swap meet guys. Comparativly it takes a full 2 days (thats arive at 9:00 and leave at 8:00 to see all the show cars and vendor trailers and swap meet stuff and watch some racing. This year we drove in at 9:00 AM and left at 3:30 and saw everything.

I only run a Hot Rod around maybe 2500 miles a season, and most of the time that's on race gas.... I don't have any other hobbies, matter of fact I don't even have to drive to work, to the grocery store, or to the coffee shop. Everything is within walking distance. The big brown truck comes right to the door and the parts stores I do business with all deliver.... Don't really care if my hot rods efficiencey is measured in GPM, it's all in the name of fun, anyway..... When I have to go someplace, the Bonneville gets about 24-26 mpg and the old Escort gets 30.....

I think a lot of people are so disgusted with the choices they won't even vote this time, and just hope to get to the next round in four more years. Myself I will go to the poll shut my eyes and hit a button?????

Richard