hot rodding 10 year forecast...

Not much is different now than it was ten years ago, other than it takes longer for my old body to "wake up" in the morning. Why would another ten years make a great difference?
We're making hotrods the same way as fifty years ago, in ten years we'll be making them like 60 years back.
Barring the government gang banning "old cars" altogether.
Then I'll take up a different hobby, maybe blowing up stuff, for fun...
Who knows what the bored will do when not allowed to play at relatively safe games?

 

It's too funny that you mentioned that. You should take a trip "up north" by me and see that all of this shit is happening right now. Pseudo-muscle cars with pumped up air shocks, Keystones and side pipes have never gone out of style up here in red neck central. I can't even count how many times I've been told by locals that my GTO would look nicer "Jacked up in back with some big fat Cragars on it".

 

Man, that is straight-up east coast style right there. I never figured out why people would put tacky graphics, a stink-bug stance, ugly wheels, and SIDEPIPES on their rides.


I wish people wouldn't do that to good cars...

 

I'm 20, but with every year I learn more about how things used to be done. So, for me, I'll be able to do more "traditional" stuff as the years pass. It's not so much tradition that I'm after, but rather the do-it-yourself spirit which will always be important in the car hobby. Only the good stuff will pass the test of time and hopefully I'll be able to pass what I've learned onto another generation

 

I think the "tuner" thing is dying out. it keeps getting more and more ridiculous and stupid and i think even the people involved are starting to realize. sales on that stuff is decreasing and that market is starting to die out. Once the next big trend comes along it will be gone just like vans and pro street. muscle cars are getting hot right now and i think factory muscle (new mustangs, chargers, things like that) will be the next big trend. Hot rods will still be around but the will probably look different then they do now. i think the traditional hot rods and kustoms will still be around because people are so dedicated to them.

 

Thanks to the Capt, I forgot about the 2hr discussion on this topic until you mentioned it. I think you are right, didn't we agree there will be plenty of Douschebags in the future.

 

Haha - Yep, I see quite a few can-rollers whenever I drive up dere beyond the Cheddar Curtain, same thing back home in small town Iowa.

It's sad how muscle car collectors have pushed the market for stockers to insane levels -- I've been at auctions where rarer models regularly pop over $100k. I think a Hemi Cuda fetched like $200k and a Shelby GT500 $300k+ at Barrett Jackson this year. What's saddest is that their value almost insures that their road time will only be inside an enclosed trailer, and God forbid anybody would put on a aftermarket speed part that violated the Sacred Protecto-Plate.

I'm old enough to remember the REAL golden era of the muscle car, the mid to late 70s. That's when the original owners (who were usually gents in their 40s and 50s) were dumping them on the used market for the first time. All those SSs and GTXs and GSs and Boss Mustangs could be snatched up for cheap, usually $1000-$2000. I remember a high school pal bought a pristine 20k mile, 302 angle-plug head '69 Z-28 in 1976 for $3200, and we all thought he was farking nuts to pay that much. But nobody kept 'em stock. At a bare minimum, you had to have rims and headers.

 

Mini-trucks, teal mini-trucks with 2LO4U plates.

 

I guess you've seen my Chevelle huh?

 

Tuner cars are the new Muscle cars of the 60's and 70's.
It won't change a thing. I bet a few of the old timers thought at those times every old A, T sedan and coupe would be lost, scrapped and forgotten.
As long as the cars we create and bring back are here.
There will always be a young boy and girl who dreams about the old bygone days of what it was like to hotrod a car and run it on the track or on the flats. 'The Hamb' is one of the biggest instruments during our times to provide those dreams.

 

amen that was said good .weeds

 

I agree, 70's vehicles are next. It won't be too long that second-gen Firebirds and Trans Ams go sky high.

I was 10 in 1986, and I remember thinking how stupid Pro Street was, yet it continued on and on forever it seemed...people will always have bad taste, it will continue.

Maybe because I am still young, I seem to find something I like in almost any genre of cars and trucks. I like musclecars, old hot rods, resto rods, 50's trucks, 67-72 and 73-87 Chevy 4x4's, and yes, even the new all wheel drive turbo Subarus (especially on the gravel ).

Just like 32 Fords, the aftermarket is now making reproduction steel bodies for 69 Camaros (and 60's Mustangs too, soon). This stuff will live on.

Guys like me raised around musclecars and hot rods will continue to live and breathe them. I hope to get my kids just as interested and hopefully work on stuff with them.

If you want your interests to survive in the future, mentor a kid now. If some kid in an flat black S-10 with red wheels were to be "taken in" by a rodder, he might grow to like old hot rods....but if you crap on him, he may as well go buy a Honda.

 

I dont like to admit it but this ol' boy is right. Hot rodding will never totally dissapear. But it wont be on the level it is right know if the big timers walk away or (More likely) Die off.

I'm first to tell you whats wrong with any hot rod(In my oppinion) but I dont want them banned cause I dont like them.

As for one of the thing I see happening in the next ten to twenty years... The true "Rat Rod" way of building a car. As far as the rusty, cobled up, trinket laden Theme cars. Where you see Found objects welded on to look like teeth and shit, Goofy intake and exhaust set ups that dont do anything, and DUAL TIRES!!!?????? I see these cars and people becoming the next T-BUCKET (Type) Crowd! Think about it... They hang together, somtimes wear wierd hats and decorate their cars with goofy shit. The rest of the Hotrodding comunity accepts them but laughs at them bihind their backs. Sound Familiar?
At a recent "Hard Core" Rat rod only show I got neumerous reports of Goofy rigged up piles taking home the trophys while REAL traditional Rods went unoticed. I'm not a trophy guy, never have been. But these stories gave me a heads up that a lot of so called Hot Rodders are loosing sight of the main objective.

Preserve the past, secure the future.

A huge amont of young rodders involved right now were Mini-truckers. This is FACT. I hear more and more admisions to Mini-truckin pasts every day.
A large part of todays Rice burnners will do the same. All we can do is try to get to them before the Show dogs do. Set em straight and spread the word.

DILLIGAF.

 

Hopefully filling up my ever expanding garage.........

Who cares what the mainstream thinks, do it for your own spirit, and it'll always live.

 

my '28 Roadster pickup will remain un- rat rodded and will be worth even more to me in ways other than monetarily, fuck what goes on outside my doors, until they bring their shit to my front door, I'll fly 'em the one fingered salute....
I'll be the old coot who has guarded his precious hotrod goodies so that some new, young torch bearer of hotrod ways can look around, pick out some parts, put them on his crate and keep the fire going....even if that never happens, at least I've got my hotrod right now, today to enjoy and remember.

 

The ricers are gay, but you cant ignore the other scene that has taken hold.
I dont think they all have a name but the best way to describe them is mini-truckers
the problem is they arent limited to mini-trucks
they do cars, full-size, suvs, vans you name it

they do some serious work on the chassis, body, suspension, interior,everything and they get my respect and have almost always given me theirs.

just my opinion
but forget comparing ricers to hot rodders
and start looking at the othe style of customs

 

I know exactly the kind of guys/cars you're talking about, but I can't put a name on them. I have 3 friends who have air-bagged 90's Caprices and one with a slammed out Buick Roadmaster wagon. Can't call these guys ricers, but what would you call them? Late-model customizers? I like their stuff a lot better than big-wing Civics, for whatever reason.

 

i believe the term would be "lowrider".

 

I have had several 90s caprices. Two of them bagged and currently a 91 wagon that we go doing a huge 3-wheel up front with bags
gonna shave it all up soon but I still wont call it the lowrider scene
in Phoenix that scene is taken by some amazing 50s through 90s mexican cars


these guys dont just limit themselves to low cars anymore
I have seen lifts with bags and shaving

 

resto-rods

just like the seventies. stock riding stances but with wire hubcap wheels. no chopped tops and goofy styling in general.

my bet anyways

 

I wanted to post a thread about something like this last week.
I was waiting in line to grab some grub at the local university, the line was real long and i got to talking to the chick in front of me, real preppy nor-cal girl. Anyway, we got to talking about cars, go figure, and the different styles out there today. She wasn't interested in the 'Pimp my Ride' kinda cars, instead she told me that she loved 'The loud black cars that looked dirty and unpainted all the time with the red wheels'... my heart skipped a beat. She was the most daddy's ittle girl-volkwagen jetta driving-Von Dutch hat wearing prince i'd ever talked to and she liked rat rods. I dug a little deeper and found that she had seen them on Rides one night and liked how they were unconventional, and the people dressed cool.
Anyway, that whole experience kinda opened my eyes to the future of traditional hot rodding, both good and bad. The good thing, more people in the hobby, more people to meet and more interest in our beloved past time. Bad thing, more people in the hobby, a drying up of parts and shells, exactly what is going on in the muscle car world right now; come on, a six figure hemi 'cuda, wtf.
So, as always, no one knows what the future holds, but we can only cross our fingers and cover our butts for whats to come.

 

Ten years from now someone will be complaining about how some guy builds his ricer/muscle car/4x4/motorcyle...etc. Then when that guy joins the ranks of the "traditional" rodder, he will be called a poser or a wannabe. Some things will never change.