Lament: where's the young people at two Cobra christmas parties? | FerrariChat

Lament: where's the young people at two Cobra christmas parties?

Discussion in 'American Muscle' started by bitzman, Dec 17, 2019.

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  1. bitzman

    bitzman F1 Rookie
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    wallace wyss
  2. LBBP

    LBBP Formula Junior

    Unfortunately the newly minted types cannot be bothered to put down their iPhones or Game Boys. Their interest is in euphoric Latte's, posting on FB and tweeting. They don't have to skills to row a manual transmission, trail brake or desire to take in the fumes of the now demon GASOLINE. Their top down experience involves the latest fashions, getting that nouveau tattoo or piercing. No convertibles for them unless it's automatically retracted for them, no rumble of big or small blocks for them, they cannot hear them anyway over their noise cancelling headphones.
    It's up to us "old timers" to revive what Hollywood cannot reprise of those long lost days. I did my part today... I drove my 427 Cobra, side exhaust pumping out that lovely sound through my rural area. I like to think I woke up the late sleepers, scared a few dogs and made old ladies incontinent with a few quick runs.
     
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  3. INRange

    INRange F1 Veteran
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    Hopefully it is just a phase. To some extent, the gas automobile is under siege from woke social justice warriors and climate crisis morons....so it isn't cool to be into cars anymore. When I was in high school we still had shop class and tried to make everything we touched go faster and be better. Those days are gone. I expect there will be those that still want the experience of driving a classic but there is a growing trend just to buy something that is already restored or new.
     
  4. JP365

    JP365 Formula 3

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    One small correction, environmentalists didn’t kill shop classes, the republicans killed shop classes with NCLB (No Child Left Behind). NCLB changed the requirements and designations for teachers. Great in theory, horrible in practice for industrial education. Prior to NCLB, an ASC mechanic could go to night school and pick up a general education teaching degree. The state would honor their ASC cert for the content area, and he or she was certified to teach auto shop. Likewise, most of the other shop teachers in our district were former tradesmen who followed a similar path. After NCLB, you had to have a minimum of a minor in your subject area to be “Highly Qualified” under NCLB. As a result, to teach auto shop, you had to have at least 18 credits in automotive engineering to be Highly Qualified. It got so bad by the late 2000s, that two of Chicago’s oldest tech schools sold off their tools at pennies on the dollar. One even had an aircraft mechanics program. While the certification process has been amended to remedy this “oversight,” it will be another ten years before the industrial education teaching corps is rebuilt. Sad.
     
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  5. INRange

    INRange F1 Veteran
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    Thanks for that. I never understood why it happened....it just seemed to be a woke trend of getting rid of home economics and shop classes which actually provided life skills. I hope we can get back to giving kids life skills so that they can feel the sense of accomplishment that comes along with solving things on their own.
     
  6. JP365

    JP365 Formula 3

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    I’m a current English/Social Studies teacher. And a former HS administrator. Many schools are rebuilding their programs. In fact, on the plus side many schools now have CNC machines so students are now using modern equipment. However, it is a slow and costly process to rebuild the infrastructure.
     
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  7. gtjoey

    gtjoey Formula Junior

    Aug 12, 2014
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    How many of us are maintaining a HORSE, like great grand dad did?
    Its only 100 years ago that 85% of all transportation locally was a horse.
    As ALL cars are tanking, its the enthusiast that is left and in ten years you will stick out like a cancer in a gasoline car.
    Yes eurosprts cars will be a Picasso or a Cobra but the rest will be worth nothing
    Anyone want my father in laws DUMONT TELEVISION TUBES?
    GTJOEY1314
     
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  8. INRange

    INRange F1 Veteran
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    Great granddad? My wife has horses and they require a wide range of life skills to deal with them.

    In regards to gas cars.....plenty of other threads on Fchat which show that they will be around for a very long time. Those threads detail that we would need our electrical grid to produce 100 to 500 times the power it does today to make "everything" electric. Given that most of the US electricity comes from fossil fuels and the woke hate nuclear......we would simply be shifting pollution from the cars to the generating facilities in a massive way. I just don't see that happening since delivering and consuming gas is way cheaper than delivering electricity for an automotive application.
     
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  9. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    It’s not all bad. The component car industry has never been healthier or made better product. We’re past kit cars into recreations.

    69s mustangs and Camaros you can buy while new bodies for.

    the hobby may be smaller over all but it’s healthier than ever. This site is an example of that.

    the kids, those that are gear heads they’ll be making those Tesla’s go faster or further.
    It’s going to be a lot easier to keep gasoline cars alive than steam trains.

    the horse analogy may be apt, and there are still lots of horses for those still inclined.

    I do t see roadside gasoline disappearing for 39 years and it will probably be around in to order batches a lot longer than that.

    fact is today’s crowded and policed roads are not much fun. Even most enthusiasts idea of old car use is a slow cruise to a cars and coffe.

    On the positive we’ve seen an explosion of track events. It’s also a good enough business for manufactures to build cars that are supposedly track able. Even ford kept one car, the mustang.

    enthusiasts are still out there, maybe there’s less of them, but many are really dedicated.

    ask yourself why would a young person be into cars. Roads suck, traffic is everywhere,
    I surace is a big burden, Socialy it’s not where the women are etc etc. Those young people into cars are the real thing, and there are enough of them to sustain the hobby.
     
  10. gtjoey

    gtjoey Formula Junior

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    #10 gtjoey, Dec 19, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 19, 2019
    Respectfully , I DONT SEE THAT AT ALL...…..Penske brought in to SAVE INDY , Nascar is dead and F1 is so boring nothing even happens.
    Most of ALL the DRAG tracks are closed, Bridgehampton, Englishtown just to name a few.
    The Quail is now offering rooms for Pebble....
    Amelia Island is still wonderful with a DROP OFF of so many early cars.
    All the auction houses are off HUGE and last but not least Hershey which I love ,you can walk into any hotel and there are rooms where 5 years ago you were on a 10 year waiting list.
    We have all been involved with clubs and all, THEY are dying overall.
    Im dying with Petrol, but like INRANGE, Im going to pay for it!
    IMHO.
    GTJOEY1314
    Young PEOPLE OVERALL ARE GOING SOCIALIST....FOR US, We enjoy and survive, it wont be the way we know it much longer....Its just change.
     
  11. MotorMouth

    MotorMouth Formula 3
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    Well I hope you’re right because I’m 30 and I want a 300 SL for under 100k.
     
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  12. PaulK

    PaulK F1 Rookie
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    I think part of the problem is that cars today are so boring. The industry has taken the character out of them.
     
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  13. spicedriver

    spicedriver F1 Rookie

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    At some point in our history, the government decided that cars are bad. Since then they've been doing everything they can to stifle privately owned vehicles. Insurance and safety check requirements. Huge increases in registration fees. Long waits for licensing tests. Where I live, you have to wait 6 months to get a licensing test appointment. A friend of mine (younger person) failed for "cutting into the bike line" when turning onto another street. Now he gets to wait another 6 months for another try. Make no mistake, the government wants you to ride the bus or take the light rail. Forms of transportation they have complete control over. And I wouldn't be putting the majority of the blame on the Republicans.
     
  14. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    #14 boxerman, Dec 21, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2019
    in Europe gov isintentionally killing the private car. Here it’s no so much intentional {depending on state) so much as a consequence of gov action.

    The automobile is a massive revenue source for statal entities. Everything from registration to sales tax to gas taxes to insurance taxes, parking fess, fines, road building etc the list is endless.

    is gov stupid enough to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, absolutely.

    gov never thinks that regulation will alter behavior in unintended ways. Fact is modern cars are boring g appliances, something young people need to get somewhere depending on where they live. For you g owning a car is a cost and a burden, not an aspirational choice.

    that’s true for most. Yet there are still some cool cars and people across the age spectrum desire them. The one car ford didn’t kill was the mustang which is an emotional choice for the buyer not a practical one. Even safety mommy Subaru still makes the WRX.

    enthusiasts existed in the Soviet Union.

    the thresholds are higher now, and that just makes the enthusiast more dedicated even if there are less.
     
  15. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    #15 boxerman, Dec 21, 2019
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2019
    there is also the argument that auction houses have done more to debase the hobby than anything else.

    is someone with a fat checkbook and an auction ego really an enthusiast.


    The car thing was in many ways a hobby for those so inclined. Auction houses, concors etc have turned it into something like the art world meets investment.

    I’m trying to think of a desirable cars these days not touted as somehow “collectible and an investment”

    this site has endless debate about what cars will increase most and how little mileage one should do etc.

    we want you g enthusiasts
    Where should they go to car recreate
    What cars are there for them.
    what’s their gateway.

    possibly all those video game cars, when the youth are older and have $$$ they’ll want those cars for real, just as we wanted the poster cars.

    aution houses overhyped cars and monitised a hobby to an obscene degree. Moneyed not real enthissts came into that fertile ground and drove up prices. In the positive lots of old cars got saved.

    yes racing got formalistic and boring. It also got divorced from any connection to real actual cars.

    but we have seen an explosion of track days, where real enthusiasts go to exercise their steeds, not parade.i see more than a few young people there.

    then there are all those fart can civics. The drift scene. Are those not the riders of today.

    gor sure regulation and cost makes it harder and there are less youth into than before. But there is a solid core.

    travel through the south, I’ve just been through wva Tennessee NC Georgia. Most cars are Japanese Korean ****boxes. It’s what working people can afford to get them to work. Yet get off the highway and drive through some towns, people love their used challengers and mustangs.
    In cities it’s slammed fart can civics and vws.

    Are these folks different to kids who made ropey rods out of old Ts or kids in the 79s/89s who drone 60s camaros.
     
  16. MotorMouth

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    I think that’s pretty much the main argument for the possible crash that I am hoping for. Problem is you have to hope for a very similar social and economic climate worldwide, which is unlikely. So as traditional western classic car culture dies off, a huge chunk of cool cars could wind up in the Middle East and China.
     
  17. MotorMouth

    MotorMouth Formula 3
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    replace the word cars with “people “
     
  18. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    Chicken and egg, who came first, lol
     

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