Will hot rodding die?

As gas prices still rise I can help but wonder if hot rodding will come to an end. I'm just a youngster and i enjoy rodding around my small town on Saturday nights like the generations before me, but I don't how much longer it will last if gas is still at 4$ a gallon. Hot rodding isn't cheap and I can't help but think that the current gas crisis is hurting it. If the cost of everything keeps going up how can hot rodding survive. I don't know about the rest of you but I think things are in bad shape right now.

it won't die, but it will become weaker..

I don't think it will go away.

It will just have to evolve to the next level.

Hotrodding is here to stay!!! Ain't never going away as long as people have an interest in it. If you can't afford the gas to drive them, they make damn nice lawn art. :cool:

If necessary, propulsion devices (aka, engines) may be smaller, more efficient, etc., but the hobby itself will remain in some format. :D

Hot Rodding will only die if we let it. I'm doing my little part by building a hot rod!

I agree. The engines used to propel our outrods will have to change. Which isn't in my mind, a bad thing. I'm thinking it might be cool to find a flex fuel engine to transplant into one of my cars.

Z28Dylan, Don't panic. The economy goes up....and the economy goes down. In a few decades you will see that it is a cycle that keeps repeating.

When it comes to this hobby, you are right! It's not cheap, and never has been. You can do two things about it. Do as much as you can yourself, and spend less....or get a good trade or some extra work, and spend more. At some times of my life, I've worked three incomes, to make sure my family had a good standard of living, and I could still play. :-)

...or you could take up butterfly collecting, or hiking. They are cheap!

Been through all this before.... The good news is that a lot of the one's in the sport just for the $$$$$ will bail out.... Those of us who have Hot Rods cuz we luv them will still be doing it....

I see the daily driver thing declining and folks commuting in a gas miserly type of ride.... Besides, Hot Rod does not only mean a big gas guzzling V-8 in a muscle car. Maybe we'll see a bunch of V-6 powered rods, and probably some small sized roadsters and coupes (there is a build thread for one on here) on the street...

The real Hot Rodders will just continue doing what they've always done, building Hot Rods....

The sky is not falling, BTW

Will hot rodding die? NEVER!!!!!

Only if you let it.

When they pry the wrench from my cold dead hand :mad:

What was that he said ?........ the 70s had everyone selling their muscle cars, I was just wish I had had the funds to grab a few deals like those 150,000.XX Cudas you see selling at auction now.............. but this time around I am ready;) Can you say market correction.

I would say that the glass cars will take a hit on value..

Last time we went through the cycle Dave alluded to (unpopular war, crazy inflation, crazy gas/oil prices) dad traded in the '70 GTO for a '74 VW Super Beetle (with racing stripes :) ). I wish he had kept the goat and a few years later gas was "cheap" again. As for hot rodding, it was a bit before my time but I understand there was a period where folks were swapping in 6 and 4 cylinder motors into their rods if not building them that way at the time.

I guess in short, hot rodders will continue to be hot rodders but when times are tough they will either adapt, change the game, or bail...

Times today are looking very much like the crisis we faced in the '70s and I try to remain optimistic that we will pull through as we have before.

-Chris

looks like i have been right all along with my little mouses :D

Z28, I have been through this b-4 too (70's) but there were more problems back then : lines at gas stations and "NO GAS" signs. Like the others here, I predict car people carefully considering long trips. As far as local, we have a huge growing cruise area here in Akron - Cleveland area. Last night cars from every side of our hobby jammed Solon Commons (over 900 on a Tuesday). so activity remains good. Looking forward to traveling to Columbus for Goodguys
Hot Rod Nats one of their biggest and growing every year. It will be interesting to see if numbers grow again or stall. Last year 7,000+.
Note: Due to the general draw back of the consumer, I have started to see the price of some driver hot rods come down. It might be an excellent year to buy!

skids 72, I sold my 78 Trans Am (like the Bandit car) and bought a VW Scirocco! Yeh, it could do burnouts just like in the movie!

I'm not worried. Hot Rodding is thriving in England and the Scandinavian countries even though they have always had to deal with high fuel prices and sociolist governments.

Every time you hear a politition say "We can't drill our way out of this mess" or "It will take 10 years to see any results from new oil wells" you know who not to vote for.

I believe hot rodding will always be around in some form, but the availability of old tin certainly is changing! Witness loads and loads of it heading to the scrappers. Makes ya want ta cry! Perley

When that happens....'glass bodies will fill the void! Buy now while they are cheap! :-)

I really don't get the negative rap about 'glass. I am a practical guy, and have plenty of involvement with the construction and maintenance of a rod or custom. Maybe that's why I look at it differently.

If given the choice between a body that won't rust or dent, and trying to save a body that is badly stretched, rotted away, or difficult to repair, and costs more.....I'm sorry, what was the question?

I guess I am the exception to the rule. I respect things that have history, but I see hot rods as a personal statement, and a piece of art....but not a historical marker! If the car was a long-built "HOT ROD" with history, that is quite a different matter....but if it is thrown together with parts that were never popular (despite some perceptions)....features bad design....bad workmanship....and an inexperienced view of what good performance is (remember that is how it really started)....then I could care less if it was a "rusty pile" to start with.

...and these guys are right. There have been plenty of wars and recessions before, but the devoted (addicted) rodder never stops loving, and dreaming, and eventually resumes building his "toys"!

I think I saw this in Car Craft Mag, I believe it purdy much sums it up. License plate frame that said "Pride goth before gas prices".....I will drive my rod ,not some shoe box crampack!
Kenny

Lost your job yet?
Keep buying foreign.

Take a look on the highway and I bet you will be surrounded by $60000-plus cars. There is obviously no shortage of CASH here in the good old USA. And most of the cars on the road are still large gas guzzling SUVs.

Maybe a few poor-folks like myself are starpped for greenbacks, but it will not be the cost of gas that kills hot rodding or drag racing.

Not as long as i am alive! I will be talking, building or helping somebody presonalize there means of transportation till i can't do it no more. i see it as production cars will always be looked at with different eyes than any thing else, copies can be made but theres still is it real. cars built now will be looked at different in 50 years.

Shoot, I am just building my first blower engine for my 32. Might drive less, but won't stop driving. Ha! ;)

traditional hotrodding has been dieing in my parts for a while. there are still plenty of nice old hotrods around. nobody hardly drivers them anymore. mostly the ricer crowd and newer v8s are the only people that hopped up cars anymore. 90 percent of the the time ricers are slow
6 years ago i used to complain about so many muscle cars, now i am happy just to see one

I don't think it will die,but I do believe it will slow some as the generations change.Us older folks are becoming a thing of the past.When my kids come in on holidays,etc. they just casually say how's the car running,and no rides requested.They like the Sports cars mainly European.My guess is my coupe will go on the Auction Block when I make my exit.None of the 3 kids have shown a real interest in wanting it.

I hope it doesnt die anytime soon.......im just starting on my 32 Roadster ;)

i am 24 very rare amoung my age group nobody hardly likes older cars in anymore. i am like a dinosaur even though i am young