As you sit there watching TV, in your favorite chair, thinking to yourself “Why doesn’t MTV play music videos anymore?”. You suddenly hear that young neighborhood kid coming screaming by your house, driving way too fast in his smoke-blowing Datsun two-hundred ess-sex or something like that. You can hear the timing is off, and it’s having some knock issues, you also think to your annoyed self “Maybe I would help him if he liked real hot rods” Guess what? He does.
He is driving a hot rod, and it’s doing one of its intended purposes by pissing you off. You’re just in the wrong generation now where the music is bad, the trends are terrible, the cars cheap, and the motorcycles too loud. Nothing changed, you just got left behind…MTV doesn’t play music videos because music videos don’t market anymore. Everyone gets their music online and believe me if they did play music videos it would be Miley Cyrus not KISS like you want. You’re no longer their demographic. Sorry to break it to you.
Hot rods started out as dangerous experiments to go as fast and have as much fun as you could, with what you could afford and do it with style that attracted tail. The formula hasn’t changed, the resources have changed. No 16 year old kid is going to go pay $5,000 for a hunk of rust and door frame someone calls and 32 ford, or go to the local yard and find a good condition flat head or 442.
They get last generations entry level cars just like you did. Those used to be the Honda Civic and Pontiac Sunfire and by being FWD, fashion become more important then performance because modifications weren’t as plausible. Still every Honda had an exhaust because the quest for more power and attention is universal, just the platform wasn’t the same. So lights, body-kits, and flashy paint took over for a bit but now the next generation of cars is here again. Some are FWD, some are AWD, some are even RWD once again, but also at the same time the 3rd generation sports cars are now affordable and they drift!
So the drag strip is no longer the main street. It has transferred to industrial corners and mountain roads, The naturally aspirated V8 was replaced with the sound of a hissing turbo and the scream with the RPM given by less cylinders. But the root is still the same; teenagers and young adults expressing themselves and having fun learning to love cars like you did. Its just a different age, and scene.
Shooting flames out of loud exhaust, rebelling with smoking tires that don’t quite fit right, throwing in a bit of danger, race parts and some outright “fuck you” to standards of society. You have yourself a hot rod and hot rodders. I don’t expect my opinion to matter, or even be right, but next time that “ricer” fly’s by, remember that we all love cars and it’s just a different time.
Maybe you can turn that irritation into a positive and give him a thumbs up instead of a call to the police…
This article was written by Mitch Anderson oF Rii Projects more than 10 years ago. We stumbled across it while researching modern hot rod culture. The words are as true today as they were a decade ago.
Excellent points. I am north of 60 and will confess I do not love loud mufflers. But I know some people do. And more power to em.
There was a family that lived at the end of our cul De sac. Several late teens/early twenties kids lived there. The noise didn’t bother me but the speed did. Yes I did drive too fast when I was in that demographic but the fact is there are small kids on our street now so the speed was a bit of an issue.
I think there should be a place for this immature teenage behavior (which I at 49 still take part in) but it ain’t on the street in front of my house.
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I think that the parking lot at the local movie theater or Tim Horton’s should be considered neutral territory. Like Switzerland.
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Gearheads shouldn’t ‘overdo’ it there, but police also shouldn’t interfere there.
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Give the kids some space. Let them play their music. And rumble their mufflers.
Yes I agree. But life is SO SERIOUS these days. I give all the credit for that to social media. Life should also be fun.
I read an article on CBC this weekend where a local municipality is raising bylaw infraction fines to over $1,000 for playing music or hanging out in a parking lot (if police determine that you are a “nuissance” to the community).
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I’ll post something about that article later, but it was just the incendiary, intolerant language that made me ask where that town expects people (gearheads) to go hang out?
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I’m not sure if social media has anything to do with that, except that every Karen now has a platform to complain that “these dang kids” were keeping her awake at 9:30 pm and the police need to crack down kn their fast and furious behavior.
I think that is exactly what social media has done. Now everyone can yell “get off my lawn” and get reinforcement from the rest of the keyboard warriors.
(Not very far north, mind you.)
No matter the age, there will always be “Karens” complaining about something, that in the grand scheme of things genuinely isn’t really all that important compared to far worse atrocities going on around them. I say let them enjoy themselves while they can before adulting takes over their lives and they no longer have a reason to smile and laugh at simple things.
Phoebe, I think that some people get dumped on at their work/home life that they LOOK for opportunities to complain. They seek conflict. Especially if they can play the victim and use authorities to prevent other people from being happy.
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Hell, if I am miserable, why should others be happy!?!
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Just leave the other guy alone to live his life without interfering with it.
Some people seem to thrive on creating drama or finding something to gripe about. It’s like a hobby for them.
It’s exhausting when someone’s always looking for a reason to stir the pot, especially when it has nothing to do with them. They just need to mind their own damn business.
Agreed. And I think I’m gonna write something positive next. No more complaints…I’ll be a freakin’ ray of sunshine.
You always are to me 🌞🌞