That's as opposed to moron different!

Last month we talked a little about the "different" mentality; http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...dare+different

This time my thoughts are on a less "excitable" level.

In observing the activity in the galleries, I've noted a few trends (or maybe just mini-trends). Frankly, I don't have time, or interest, to analyse the entire gallery section, mostly just my own and a couple others that have caught my attention over time (special mention to foorden). The galleries that seem to get the most hits are the ones with lots of car show pictures. That makes sense. Someone stumbles into the site when tracking down some info on the net, sees a picture they like, then spends the next half hour looking at a vast array of neat cars in one person's gallery. Nice entertainment. For some reason, taking pictures at events has never been my thing. Thankfully folks like Larry M. are around to record these images for posterity.

Not only don't I take a ton of pictures at events, but in my earlier years it was a rare car of mine that I shot (with a camera I mean, many were deserved candidates for bullets though!) I've been better at taking pictures over the last 15 years, maybe I'm getting more sentimental. As such, I've chosen to just post the cars I have, or have had, in my gallery. So based on that limited sampling here goes.

The past few weeks I've been scanning (pictures were taken before my enlightenment to digital cameras) pics of some of the cars that I did through the '90's and that have moved on to new, loving owners. And here's where an inkling of different vs appealing comes in. In four days, the picture of the '40 Ford coupe has gotten almost as many hits as the '41 Chev has gotten in 5 weeks. Why are '40 Fords more popular than '41 Chev's? My opinion is, because the Ford is gorgeous, the Chev isn't. People are attracted to better looking cars. The '40 Ford and '32 Ford represent two of the most popular cars for hot rodding of all time for that very reason. Now, I owned the '41 Chev and enjoyed it very much. I believe I took it from an O.K. looking car to a very good looking rod. The day I sold it there were two guys almost fighting over it. Both of them acknowledged the paint color and finish quality as it's most appealing features. The '40 on the other had was done in black suede. Sure, the tire/wheel combination, the stance, the sound, and the interior were common hot rod ques. But the body design.....................it's a masterpiece that can't be improved, only complimented. Both cars had pretty much the same things done to them, albeit in different styles, but the Ford hits more people's hot buttons. The '41 Chev is much more "different" than the '40 Ford and suffers in popularity for it.

As for what stuff interests people, my picture of a crowded two car garage with two '32 Fords is my personal hit champ. More people have been drawn to that one for some reason. You can't really see the cars very well, and there's not much detail of shop equipment, or vast hordes of vintage "junk" visible, but for some reason people are drawn to that picture. Is it because so many can identify with a messy garage? I don't know. But a crowded garage ain't different. Is it? Or is that the appeal? Most people can identify with a stuffed garage.

Then there's the real "different" picture. The one of the dash in the '36 roadster. The pictures on either side of it are of the overall car itself, posted about the same time, and they've garnered almost twice as many views. Apparently not as many people are drawn to detail items as they are to the whole of a car. Personally, I find the true "different" in the details of the rods at an event. Every so often we'll see someone on this site, or hear someone at an event, whining about "there's nothing here but '32 roadsters". Well, yeah, there are probably more '32 roadsters today (both glass and steel) than Henry ever built. That's because they are VERY appealing, not because they are different. But back to the '36 dash. I can be 99.99% sure there's not another dash in a '36 Ford like that one. In the comments of the picture I've invited folks to guess what it's origins are, and in 15 months there hasn't been a single one. Now what that really means is I've made a dog food that the dogs won't eat. Meaning, my little game hasn't appealed to anyone. I'm okay with that. I'll do something like that just to see what happens. But my point is, for all that folks keep touting different as some sort of nirvanah, different only has a limited appeal.