A car lovers letter from Shanghai…

I’m over in China for a week of business, and spending some quality time in the mainland, or ‘Middle Kingdom’, has been a real eye-opener for me. I’m used to visiting Japan, where American hot rod culture is well known and understood, even revered. I’m now in a country over over a billion people that, for the most part, have only been buying automobiles of any kind in the past 20 or so years. Car ownership is still a relatively new trend here, and buying one is either about practicality (a family’s only mode of transportation, treated just an appliance) or it’s a status statement (the ultra-wealthy kids here buy luxury imports at TRIPLE what we pay in the U.S., so a $100,000 German sports car is about $300,000 with taxes in China). So yes, automobiles are indeed very desirable, but only new ones. The notion of nostalgia just isn’t here. Hot rods and customs don’t seem to exist whatsoever. Slowly however, they are getting the auto-related things that will create the next generation of gearheads: High quality car museums, premium car magazines, and classic cars are manifesting in advertising and toys. Can the hot rod be far behind? I don’t believe the Chinese are not allowed to import old American cars, but when will I see a lacquer black Brookville Deuce Roadster doing burnouts in Xintiandi or a scratch-built lead sled idling on the grid-locked streets of Beijing? There is a virtual ocean of new Ferraris and Rolls Royces around this town, but how cool would you be to drive something with real character?