Was reading some interesting topics, reminiscing and realizing the obvious decline to the car scene that I've been raised up on.
I've noticed that most of my old school buddies have not only grown up, but have sold their cars, or just don't take them out often. Most of the new kids I see don't do anything more than new rims and a stereo. Most are more into the mods on their iPhones vs. their vehicles. I do think things have changed drastically from 10 years ago.
I used to find a race almost everytime I took my car out. I used to see tons of riced out Hondas prowling the streets (and we're talking about Newark, NJ here). Now adays, I can go out for a cruise, late night/weekends through the typical streets or hang out spots, and not find a single modified car around.
Any comments?
http://mikerioux.com/is-the-custom-car-scene-dying/
".Is the Custom Car Scene Dying?
.
In one very short descriptive word, Yes. Look at it however you wish, the custom car scene hit it’s heights in the late 90′s and shortly into the 21st century. You want to know why? Well let me tell you…
The custom car scene, whether it be domestics, imports, V8′s, turbos, bikes, etc lives on innovation and design. Through the past two decades we have pretty much done everything we can do to a car. From electronics to engine mods and swaps, it all has been done. I sat down with a couple of friends recently, with whom I used to street race with years ago, to discuss what we though about the current “scene”. So to satisfy our curiosity we headed to the local hang out spots to see how things looked.
The parking lots that used to hold hundreds of cars weekend after weekend now hold maybe a 1/4 of what they used to. Now the size of the crowd wasn’t the real concern, it was the lack of quality in the cars, their modifications, and over all passion for REAL tuning. In order to be a tuner back in the day you had to know how to really work on a car. You understood what made a car faster or a stereo louder. You knew how to read a dyno chart and how to shift to stay within your car’s power band. You took the time to learn subwoofer box design and how to squeeze an extra few decibels out of them.
And again, what honestly can we do to cars that have not already been done? Much like fashion we find ourselves making several trips back to the well and hoisting out old looks and mods. We’ve swapped all kinds of motors into everything. We have put all available A/V tech known to man inside of a car with limitless amounts of speakers and TV’s. We’ve built beautiful pieces of art with sheet metal and composites. Rims have gone from small to big and now back to small. Paint has gone from crazy and wild, now all the way back to the matte black finishes of rat rods. There is nothing else. If you can think of something that hasn’t been done I would love to hear it. And don’t say putting a beer keg in the back of a Civic is new, it’s been done already. Hell we even have cars that transform into mobile DJ booths and tailgating centers.
Now you cannot completely blame the current generation of tuners. New cars I believe have advanced in sophistication to a point where the home tuner can only do so much with them. Computers and technology have done some amazing things for us in the auto industry, but at the same time have out paced the learning curve of most. Things have become plug in play with computers controlling more and more functions within the vehicle. This kind of checks the typical tuner out of the game.
Which leads me to my final piece. I think the majority of those who were in the game in its glory days have simply gotten older. Our lives are more complicated with an ever growing amount of responsibilities. The torch was never really passed along because the car scene’s flame burnt so hot, that the flame quickly faded. The unwritten rules and traditions did not transition over.
Sure there will always be an underground car scene. But I think that the trendiness, if that is even a word, has finally worn out. You won’t find groups of hundreds, you will find small groups in their secret spots no longer out in the open for public display. The real tuners will never go away. We still meet up every now and then, grab a beer and talk in a language laced with motor codes, specs, and times. That fortunately, will never die."
I've noticed that most of my old school buddies have not only grown up, but have sold their cars, or just don't take them out often. Most of the new kids I see don't do anything more than new rims and a stereo. Most are more into the mods on their iPhones vs. their vehicles. I do think things have changed drastically from 10 years ago.
I used to find a race almost everytime I took my car out. I used to see tons of riced out Hondas prowling the streets (and we're talking about Newark, NJ here). Now adays, I can go out for a cruise, late night/weekends through the typical streets or hang out spots, and not find a single modified car around.
Any comments?
http://mikerioux.com/is-the-custom-car-scene-dying/
".Is the Custom Car Scene Dying?
.
In one very short descriptive word, Yes. Look at it however you wish, the custom car scene hit it’s heights in the late 90′s and shortly into the 21st century. You want to know why? Well let me tell you…
The custom car scene, whether it be domestics, imports, V8′s, turbos, bikes, etc lives on innovation and design. Through the past two decades we have pretty much done everything we can do to a car. From electronics to engine mods and swaps, it all has been done. I sat down with a couple of friends recently, with whom I used to street race with years ago, to discuss what we though about the current “scene”. So to satisfy our curiosity we headed to the local hang out spots to see how things looked.
The parking lots that used to hold hundreds of cars weekend after weekend now hold maybe a 1/4 of what they used to. Now the size of the crowd wasn’t the real concern, it was the lack of quality in the cars, their modifications, and over all passion for REAL tuning. In order to be a tuner back in the day you had to know how to really work on a car. You understood what made a car faster or a stereo louder. You knew how to read a dyno chart and how to shift to stay within your car’s power band. You took the time to learn subwoofer box design and how to squeeze an extra few decibels out of them.
And again, what honestly can we do to cars that have not already been done? Much like fashion we find ourselves making several trips back to the well and hoisting out old looks and mods. We’ve swapped all kinds of motors into everything. We have put all available A/V tech known to man inside of a car with limitless amounts of speakers and TV’s. We’ve built beautiful pieces of art with sheet metal and composites. Rims have gone from small to big and now back to small. Paint has gone from crazy and wild, now all the way back to the matte black finishes of rat rods. There is nothing else. If you can think of something that hasn’t been done I would love to hear it. And don’t say putting a beer keg in the back of a Civic is new, it’s been done already. Hell we even have cars that transform into mobile DJ booths and tailgating centers.
Now you cannot completely blame the current generation of tuners. New cars I believe have advanced in sophistication to a point where the home tuner can only do so much with them. Computers and technology have done some amazing things for us in the auto industry, but at the same time have out paced the learning curve of most. Things have become plug in play with computers controlling more and more functions within the vehicle. This kind of checks the typical tuner out of the game.
Which leads me to my final piece. I think the majority of those who were in the game in its glory days have simply gotten older. Our lives are more complicated with an ever growing amount of responsibilities. The torch was never really passed along because the car scene’s flame burnt so hot, that the flame quickly faded. The unwritten rules and traditions did not transition over.
Sure there will always be an underground car scene. But I think that the trendiness, if that is even a word, has finally worn out. You won’t find groups of hundreds, you will find small groups in their secret spots no longer out in the open for public display. The real tuners will never go away. We still meet up every now and then, grab a beer and talk in a language laced with motor codes, specs, and times. That fortunately, will never die."
