Thread: Will hot rodding die?

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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.

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

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

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

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!