Re: [AMC-list] The Beginning of the end of a 60 year era?

[Marc Montoni <Freedom@xxxxxxxx>]

"Bruce Hevner" <scramblr@xxxxxxxxxxx> said:


>I see this very thing in my shop all the time. VERY few young cubs wanting
>to modify engines. I can remember working 60 hour weeks in a "speed shop"
>when I was 16,, and I LIKED it!! When they close the shop I run now there is
>no one waiting to take it over. All done and closed for good. Shame,,,


There are many different reasons for what we are seeing.  The car hobby is actually pretty healthy -- we're just in part of it that is slowly "aging out"; and as a result the type of cars we all like are being edged out by newer (or just different) hobby cars.  If anything, the car hobby is expanding -- just in many different directions as the supply of different kinds of cars expands.

The "speed shop" itself has changed.  RockAuto, Summit, and other online retailers have taken a lot of the business local speed shops used to cater to -- and the prices are far better.  I remember buying my first aluminum manifold for an AMC in 1978.  It was about $150, or about 500 adjusted for inflation.  Today, they're better quality and they're much cheaper:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-7530/

The service end of speed shops has changed, too.  Some things are easier to buy now than to develop.  If you remember back to the seventies, if you were into AMC, sometimes you had to get real speed parts custom made (like Herman Lewis and Wally Booth did).  Now you can spend a lot less (in constant dollars) and get some gee-whiz stuff we couldn't even imagine in 1980:

http://www.indyheads.com/images/price2012.6.pdf

About the crowd at cars shows...

Take a look at the people in the first photo on these pages:

http://www.tristatetuners.com/
http://garage.redlinemotive.com/story/tuner-jam-car-show-in-medford-oregon/
http://www.hotimportnights.com/
http://carpictures.cc/cars/photo/car_picture/8348/mazda_rx-8_tuner_car_model

You won't see anyone older than ~30.

Hmmmm....  I wonder if our wives would kill us if our "old guy" car shows started hiring slinky 18 year old models to crawl all over the cars?  But I digress...

The point is the crowd that attends these types of car shows is pretty much all under 30.  They often turn out by the thousands.

Incidentally, for anyone who thinks our part of the hobby is dying, you might be surprised at what you will find at many of those tuner shows.  More than a few real bona-fide antiques will be there as well.  Yes, some will have been modified, but others are as bone-stock and restored every bit as well as anything the older generation has done.

Find a show near you and check it out.

All of that said, yes, I will concede that there are *many* more reasons not to be in the hobby these days.

http://ericpetersautos.com/2012/06/24/lil-stinker-won-but-government-is-winning/

>From the local zoning nazi + whiny next door neighbor who doesn't appreciate our yard art, to far more complex & expensive technology, there are rather intense pressures against the car hobby.  That it continues to survive speaks to the persistence of humans.


Joe Fulton <piper_pa20@xxxxxxxxxxx>


>A similar thing is happening in the private pilot community.? Many of us 
>recreational pilots earned our licenses long ago?when flying was relatively 
>cheap and it was still exciting to lots of youth.
>Now, we are older, flying is more expensive, and the "youth" only want to be 
>involved if they have a career goal that involves aviation.? And there aren't 
>that many of those kids.?? The marketability of
>the older planes will decrease over the next 20 years and many will be scrapped 
>because of lack of demand and lack of willingness to sacrifice to include 
>aviation in the lifestyle.


Have the prices really gone up that much?  I seem to remember looking into flight lessons in 1980 when I was 18.  IIRC it was about $2500.  Now it's 3x that -- but then, figure in crappy inflated money, and $7500 isn't far off of what $2500 would be worth today: $6527.74 (see http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ ).  If it has increased, blame the lawyers and the insurance required to pay them.

Other pilots are talking about this too:

http://www.jetwhine.com/2011/03/2010-updates-pilot-population-highs-lows/

Maybe the same things are at work there.

One of the reasons people wanted to be pilots half a century ago was to fly to vacation destinations.  But the number of places commercial airlines now go has expanded exponentially since 1960.

Maybe the hobbies we love aren't dying -- just changing.

-- Marc


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