Quite a good opinion article eh.How true do you guys think it is in NZ!
smac,
Jul 2, 3:44am
I think the article is sentimental bollocks. Just my opinion.
Of course there are fewer rodders and they are generally older. Just like there are fewer model T's and fewer steam trains around these days. Stuff gets old. It breaks, somebody decides not to fix it. It's not rocket science.
However the car modifying scene is as strong as it's ever been. More money and more people than ever.
thejazzpianoma,
Jul 2, 3:44am
I think its very true with regard to the over-regulation and policing. This is what I have been banging on about for ages, its very difficult to enjoy your sports car/classic/hotrod when you are constantly having to fret about exceeding the speed limit by 1%.
sr2,
Jul 2, 4:27am
I have to agree with him saying Hotrodding is becoming an old mans sport. I put it down to what started as antisocial ???rebel with out a cause??? movement becoming a conservative, overly self regulated club scene that has more in common with the local Lawn Bowles Club.Big budget ???billet engineering??? rules supreme while ???pushing the boundaries??? is frowned upon; to the youth of today Hotrodding has not only become old and stuffy but quite simply is boring. Rat Rod??
pebbles61,
Jul 2, 4:40am
This topic has been mentioned before (on this board too, I think) not too long ago. Hot rodding doesn't seem to appeal to the younger crowd, myself included. Most people in my age group (20-30) prefer to get Jappas and lower them and make the wheels stick out at silly angles lol. Some do it in a decent, safe and legit manner. Some do half arse dangerous jobs. It's a form of modding, like hot rods, so it's still going on, just not like hot rods.
The appeal of a yankee doodle pick up with flames up the side isn't appealing to myself, but then again involved in the British car scene so I'm a boring knob =D
Yip, that reminds me. If you think the Hotrodders are aging. take a look at the vintage car club crowd!
I think people forget that just like the Lions Club if you go back a few decades these clubs had plenty of members with young families where as now they are like an episode of "last of the summer wine".
trogedon,
Jul 2, 7:31am
Clubs and Organisations by their very 'belonging' and at times 'us/them' nature are communities that have more mature/older people belonging to them and less 'young' people whose groups are more 'organic'. These are my words (and echoed by my sociology lecturer friend).
whqqsh,
Jul 2, 12:30pm
I agree, hot rodders (or the average age of them) are certainly getting old BUT car modification in general is still very strong. just in a different direction & form. Theyre only working with whats available & familiar to them, just as we did/are
mortonmob,
Jul 2, 4:32pm
Maybe half the problem is that young people can't afford to buy hot rods! If a young guy can buy a fast tidy jappa for 10k or a fast tidy hot rod for 30k, he's obviously going to go for the jap car (not that most young people have 30k to spend on a car anyway). It's only the older people that can afford to buy and run them.
twink19,
Jul 2, 4:35pm
same at some classic race meetings, could be that kids have left home and we can afford our toys now
budgel,
Jul 2, 5:02pm
Plenty of young guys spend heaps on drift cars.
Most of them have no desire to be wannabe yanks.
kazbanz,
Jul 2, 5:04pm
IMO the problem is that Hot rodding has become unbelievably over regulated. NOT by the law makers so much but by the "old farts" who run the clubs etc. In the 1960's those same guys were buying/building 1920's/-1940's cars to build their hotrods. The same guys are doing the same thing now. NOW we have the self same mind set as those first guys set out with modifying cars from the 1970's to 1990's. So No Hot rodding isn't dying. The issue is society loves to define and put rules on things. Including what a hotrod actually is
sr2,
Jul 2, 5:23pm
Well said mate, I couldn't agree more.
richardmayes,
Jul 2, 5:43pm
Wife's workmate drove his supercharged chev in to town from Newlands the other weekend - said the trip cost about $40 in fuel.
It would not surprise me if THAT STYLE of modified car was dying out, people have to live in the real world, and the price of petrol is an issue.
pge,
Jul 2, 6:10pm
Agreed.
We played with the vehicles that were available -- just like the young'uns do now.
I feel, also, that attitudes have changed.
My 51y.o. and 43y.o. daughters have their licences -- they couldn't wait to get them -
BUT!
- neither my 22y.o. daughter, nor 20y.o. son have their licences - go figure.
They appear to have different priorities.
We have our nostalgia, they will have theirs.
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