34 year old
Male
from East Texas
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Its only worth doing if your willing to do it yourself.
sticker wall
will muscle cars always be allowed to roam the streets?
posted in: jc's garage, news on March 26, 2008 at 10:43 PM
Has anyone other than myself given any thought to the destiny of our gas-guzzling muscle-cars? It seems that the price of gas will continue to increase, therefore it only seems logical that a point will come when a new fuel will be adopted for the masses. Some may scoff at the idea that this will happen, but how much more can we Americans pay at the pump before the American life-style changes, and more importantly, how will this change in life-style effect the economy both here in the U.S. and also in other countries. Point is that America is a major consumer of goods from around the world. If we begin to not buy the stuff that we don’t need because we have to pay for gas, all of those countries that depend on Amercan consumers will be pushing to fix the problem, which brings us back to the price of gas. There is no way around the fact that if the price of gas continues to go up, there will be a change in how we fuel our cars. When that happens, what will come of the American V8? Will we be able to buy gas at the corner store or will we have to buy it from a specailized dealer? Heck, will we even be able to operate our vehicles on public streets? This is all just food for thought but I believe that we must realize that in the not to distant future, there will be a great change in the way we fuel our transprtation and in that change, the great consideration will be “cost effectiveness” and “effect on the environment”, not “what about the good ol’ boy in the 74 nova”.
Comments
Chromedome's Garage
March 27, 2008 at 08:39 AM
We have a couple of things going in our favor that support our “passion for power.” From a legislative standpoint there is the SEMA action network – www.semasan.com. This group works as our collective champion keeping tabs on law changes and lobbying to maintain the freedom we desire to modify and use our old cars (join now!). From a practical standpoint – we Americans are not on board with lifestyle changes that limit out hunger for power, convenience, and entertainment. Add to this the fact that the very infrastructure for travel of our nation is not designed in a way that allows us the luxury of not fueling up. I suppose some could squawk about the thirst of our ever-so-powerful old toys chewing up resources, but they would be misguided and hopefully outgunned by the facts. There are far more Cadillac Escalades out there sucking up gas than there are 74 Nova fanatics with thirsty big blocks. I know I don’t speak for everyone – but I’ll bet that most of the Novas out there are not daily drivers. They do not see enough street use to really create any noticeable impact on this nation’s fuel consumption. I believe the Cadillacs are a greater culprit and are at a higher risk for demise than our old muscle cars and hot rods. We are in a modern muscle car era and while it saddens me, I fear it will be short lived. I think the question is not whether we can build, drive, or even fuel our old machines (I’d kill the cable bill before I’d stop fueling my old iron), the question is what the can be done to be sure they are not scapegoated by some legislation blaming them for excess fuel consumption. The pile of brand new high horsepower, low MPG cars available today are driving our government toward tighter and tighter restrictions, but that doesn’t stop some Johnny Senator from Knuckleheadville from occasionally targeting our little industry as a problem bigger than it really is. SAN to the rescue! Honestly, I believe that the only way to take action on these kind of issues is to act locally. For my part, the way I choose to build and use these cars is my answer to both my hunger to make things, and my desire to remain environmentally conscious (and frugal). I build any old thing that occurs to me – Check out my garage – I have an odd set of vehicles to be sure – and they are (or will be) certainly very powerful. But I do two things to lessen their impact on the world at large. 1) I fuel inject everything. The complexity of EFI I believe is largely offset by control EFI gives for efficiency and cleanliness. The old 69 Ford was a pig with its 2 barrel carb. It stank, sucked gas, and hated starting in anything but lovely weather. By changing that truck to Accel’s Gen VII EFI system, the exhaust is much cleaner, it makes a TON more power, and it gets better mileage. Plus, if it has gas in the tank and a charge in the battery – it is gonna start. No fuss- no muss. 2) I drive a 2002 Grand Am “transportation appliance” for my grocery getting and hauling of my butt to work. I hate it, but I’d rather sip gas all week with that thing all week and go nuts with the toys on the weekend than try to feed the toys every day. Plus – the jokers on the road won’t smash their Cadillacs into my toys if I present them a less frequent target. BTW – I don’t hate Caddilacs – I just picked on them because they are easy to use to illustrate a point. My point with this rambling babble is not that my way is a good model for how to address your concerns – more that it is one way of reconciling an eco-friendly bent with a desire for a 400 horsepower Sunbeam Tiger, and an example of local action with a better long term global spin. We win this battle with singles and doubles – not home runs. It is the small steps we each do that will deliver the result of keeping our old cool cars in this world and on the road.
