Thread: what will happen to hotrods, & the industry

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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.....

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

I think we are in for some big changes, both by our choice and some that are imposed on us. There is already some whisperings about things like 55 MPH and limitations on unnecessary driving, so I think as this thing evolves we are going to have some tough battles.

Some will say that there are too many of us and that our economic clout is too great, but if you look at some of the stuff that gets passed as laws, they kind of do what they want for the most part and we have to go along with the program.

I do think major events like the Nationals, Turkey Run, etc will start to decline because the cost of getting cars and vendor goods there will be prohibitive. I sure hope I am wrong, but I think we have seen the peak of our car hobby already.

Don

Yup. I hope you/we are wrong too.

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

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

Originally Posted by falconvan

That early 90's blown V6 T-bird is a pretty cool setup, too.

My dad had a Super Coupe back in the 90's. I've never been much of a V-6 guy, but that motor would rev and produced good torque for a daily driver. Decent mileage too.

-Lee

www.atomicpinup.com
Atomic Radio

There is a guy a few miles east of Richmond who specializes in converting cars to electric motors but the straight electric ones have a very short range of maybe 50 miles or so per charge. I chatted with him and he thought removing about 600 pounds of engine and transmission would make a Model-A roadster light enough to put in a Doug Nash five speed and a 100 pound electric motor and then add batteries, but what I did not like was that he said you don't need a clutch, you just feather the electric throttle to shift but I wonder what sort of synchromesh can handle that over many shifts. Then other folks say you just put the transmission in second or third gear on a five speed and just use the rpm range of the electric motor and never shift and just reverse the current in the motor for reverse. I suppose we will each go our own way as either stuck with the old images in our head or adapt what we can. Although the Buick V6 was maybe the answer in the '70s, 28 mpg may not be enough in the future and I really like that Aptera and the three wheeled low drag aerodynamics with plug-in electric power and an auxilliary gas/diesel engine for charging the batteries when away from a power plug, BUT (!) I still like the look of the traditional roadster even though it is an aerodynamic brick. At the moment I do not see any reasonable way to yank out a SBC and replace it with batteries and an electric motor even though I have seen a swift Porsche 911 with electric power on TV, because when you are done the range is too limited and the cost of the transition is too high. Some Hot Rod ingenuity will probably lead some into the low drag Aptera plug-ins but many of us will just drive the traditional rods for good weather weekend events. Actually it is hard to tell what will happen but there will be some changes. The political situation may result in short term increased drilling but I think the point has been made that there will be more electric cars in the future. The political situation is indeed frustrating with a lack of the desired leadership on the one side and the other side saying anything and changing every day or so. Actually I don't think GM will go under and maybe the Cobalt will save GM for a while longer but why oh why can't they build a plug-in hybrid that will justify more electricity from nuclear plants?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Back in the 70's while building the panel truck (BBC), I worried that I wouldn't be able to afford the predicted 50¢ a gallon for gas.

Now 30+ years later I wonder the same thing about the $5.00 a gallon gas.

oh well........ I'll keep building.