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The Enthusiastic Minority

They just don’t make cars like they use to​. This line has been used by generations of car

enthusiasts as the ever evolving market of the automobile advances. Every few decades, it seems,

we reach a new stage in how we see our main form of transportation, the car, and with every new

dawn of the next big thing in automotive engineering it seems it draws a crowd of people who

dislike whatever is being engineered. Car culture in America cannot be described with one

group. There are many groups and teams of enthusiasts indulging in their passion for whatever

piece of machinery they call a car. From the new scene of imported Japanese sports cars to the

old scene of classics and hot rods, there always seems to be a disconnect in what enthusiasts have

a passion for. Men and women who enjoy classic muscle cars may argue that the fuel injection

systems that run through every modern car and every car since the 1980’s have ruined cars with

their dependence on computer systems. Similarly, young teenagers such as me, who enjoy

Japanese sports cars from the 1980’s-1990’s will say that electrical systems and traction control

have taken away from the driving experience. It seems that conflict is too common in car culture.

I have loved cars my entire life. I’ve dipped my feet into almost every pool of

mainstream car culture that is present near me and I see that one thing is very clear throughout all

groups of car enthusiasts. Cars are changing. This is obvious. They have been since their birth

over 100 years ago. But now I have the chance to dive into this life-long passion of mine and ask

some questions that I hope to answer. Mainly I wish to answer: How have advancements in

automotive technology affected car culture and the car enthusiast?

As cars and the technology that runs them change, so does the culture that surrounds

them. But that is nothing new; cars have been changing along with people since they were first

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created in 1885 by a man named Carl Benz. Benz invented the first official automobile in his

father's blacksmith shop “and in the fall of 1885 the world’s first practical automobile rolled into

the courtyard fronting the shop of Benz and Company in Mannheim” (Lomask). Benz would go

on to present his invention in 1888. This invention of his won highest honor in the Munich

Engineering Exposition of 1888, amazing crowds of people with this astonishing mechanical

creation. However when it went on sale in the following year, it did not sell. A creation that

would in later times change the way we move from place to place was nothing to the common

people: “Even the receipt of a gold medal at the Munich Engineering Exposition in September,

1888, along with lavish praise for his invention in the press brought no buyers. The only person

to order a Benz in Munich, Carl joked later, was ‘carted off to a lunatic asylum’ before the sale

could be concluded” (Lomask). Even as far back as the late 19th century people were resistant to

change. It is human nature to resist change, because “if it works why fix it?”. The majority men

and women of Germany when presented with the new option of transportation made by Benz,

thought that their horse and carriage would suffice. His original design could only seat two, and

with a very limited range it was not worth the common consumer. I should mention now, if it has

not been obvious, that Carl Benz would go on to form a partnership with a man named

Gottlieb Daimler and create Mercedes-Benz.

A few decades later, in 1908, Henry Ford invented the Ford Model T. This car was a true

game changer. While Carl Benz invented the first car, Ford created the car for the people at a

time of mass change and adaptation. In turn, this made the Model T the foundation of all cars

that would follow. The difference of only a few decades between these two inventors was the

deciding factor of success. The world was not ready for the car in 1888; it was ahead of its time

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and too pricey for the average family. However, Ford found ways to make the car a tool for the

masses. According to Jennifer Goss, “The moving assembly line appeared to the onlooker to be

an endless contraption of chains and links that allowed Model T parts to swim through the sea of

the assembly process”(Goss). This in turn allowed the Model T to be priced affordably for the

people of America. With the actions of Ford, the automobile became a common thing a family

would own, a tool that people grew to use with necessity. Steven Stanford of the Henry Ford

Heritage Foundation writes that Ford constructed 15 million Model T’s during the 19 years they

were in production. By the end of that time, half the total cars on the streets throughout the world

were Model T’s. “Imagine today,” Stanford says, “if in every parking lot across the land half of

all the cars parked between the lines were Ford Fusions or Escapes! The Model T had a

tremendous impact on the way people live” (Stanford). Ford’s invention, along with the next new

cars that were released in the next few decades, sparked an enthusiastic following. You can find

people still caring for their original Model T with a passion. As with any new advancement, there

is a new group who flocks to the new, and an old group who sticks to what they have got.

Today when you would ask the common person what comes to mind when you hear

“gearhead” or “car nut”, they will probably think about young teenagers modifying their cars

beyond what came from the factory to change their appearance or make them faster. But how has

that image of a “gearhead” come about? Surely there had to have been a point in time when

people started taking stock cars and modifying them. Well it is hard to pinpoint a certain time

when this became a common practice for car enthusiasts. We could talk about early coach

building in the 1920’s where different companies would create beautiful and elegant bodys for

eccentric chassis of huge proportions. We could talk about the 1940’s where moonshine

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transporters modified their cars to outrun the police, giving birth to nascar. We could talk about

the 1960’s where car modification became a worldwide practice spreading through many

different cultures. I would say that car enthusiasts have been around since the beginning of cars

themselves. In an interview with Tony Hernandez, a young car enthusiast and owner of a Honda

Civic Type R, he stated “ Car enthusiasts make up a lot of different people with different taste in

cars, but we all have a passion for cars. I enjoy my Honda but that doesn’t mean someone who

likes old muscle cars has to like my car” (Hernandez). The true answer doesn’t have to be about

the stage in which we started to modify or race cars; the true answer lies with the car enthusiast.

The person that has a passion for cars beyond a means of transportation. And with this person

comes more people that share the same interests in cars and will express that through their

lifestyles and through their culture. This expression can be in the form of modification or in the

form of admiration. With different cultures and different age groups, comes the variety in car

culture. It means a lot to be a car enthusiast.

I decided I needed to go and experience a gathering of car enthusiasts for myself to better

understand the variety of car cultures that I write about. I went online and in no time, found a

Cars and Coffee​ event in Richmond on March 3rd. I remember when I was a child my

grandfather would take me to some car shows for classic American cars. It had been a long time

since I have been to a car meet and I was very excited to go and see what was different. It was on

an early Saturday morning and my father and I left early enough to make it to the event by 8

o’clock in the morning. I slept the entire car ride there, but as soon as we arrived I was hopping

in my seat with excitement. There was already a large crowd of people and cars lining the

parking lot of this shopping center I had never been to before. We found some parking and set

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out on foot to go and explore the awesome variety of cars. There was everything from supercars,

to classic hot rods, and I loved it all. Even though the temperature outside was cold the

atmosphere of the people was warm. Everyone was talking to each other about their beloved

automobiles. There was separation, however in the form of organization. There was a place for

the high end sports cars and supercars, a place for classic American cars, a place for European

cars, and a place for Japanese cars. Most people mingled with people of similar taste in cars. My

father and I spent 3 hours walking around and talking to complete strangers about their cars and

the cars that they like. I went home with a new perspective of the way car enthusiasts view each

other. It seems that car enthusiasts all share a passion for cars yet most car enthusiasts of

different car cultures won’t converge.

The change that we see in car culture comes from the change in the cars that we drive.

However the cars that car enthusiasts want to drive are overlooked by major car companies most

of the time simply because car enthusiasts make up a small percentage of consumers of

automobiles in the market. Naturaly, car companies will listen to what the majority of consumers

want for their survival. According to Mary Barra, “In the auto industry, the revolution is being

driven by the convergence of connectivity, electrification and changing customer needs” (Barra).

In the automotive market, the consumer dictates where the market is going, and not necessarily

enthusiasts. Car companies around the world are switching to smarter and cleaner means of how

their car works. A common complaint among the car community is that the manual transmission

is a dying breed. It is not the performance of the manual transmission that is killing it off, it is the

common consumer demanding new and better ways of shifting gears, prompting car producers to

create “less engaging” parts such as automatic transmissions. We can find evidence of this in

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auto shows: “Visitors to the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show will see supercars, hoverboards,

self-propelling luggage and all manner of new transportation options. But they’ll be hard pressed

to find a clutch pedal or a stick shift. Available in nearly half of new models in the U.S. a decade

ago, the manual transmission is going the way of the rumble seat, with stick availability falling to

about a quarter this year. Less than 3% of cars sold in the U.S. have manual transmissions”

(Fleming). It is up to the consumer to make the change that we will use in our lives. If everyone

decided that they would only drive a manual transmission, then auto makers would only make

manual transmission cars. Fleming writes, “But as automakers perfected the automatic

transmission, and learned to make it less expensive and more dependable, drivers became

accustomed to the relative ease of leaving the shifting to the car” (Fleming). In the majority of

today's car culture, car enthusiasts stand by the manual transmission as the “true driving

experience” or the “best way to feel a car”. But sadly our wants are triumphed by the consumers

needs.

As I mentioned before in this paper, people are resistant to change, and not just in cars.

Maybe people are scared of the unknown, or maybe people don’t want to give up a good thing.

As my mentor Nick Talerico, a life long car enthusiast and owner of a classic Camaro put it

during an interview, “With time and the price of gas, that has forced many kids to go with

smaller engines and more intelligent engines, apparently, they are separating from the real cars to

be enthusiastic about; the ones with V8’s” (Talerico). Talerico is not a fan of modern cars

because in his words they lack the spirit and passion of the old muscle cars of his era. This

conflict between old and new generations creates a wide variety of followings. Every car

enthusiast has their own taste in the car they drive. In recent years, electric cars have become

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more prevalent and car enthusiasts complain that they don’t make noise, they take too long to

charge, and they cost too much. But who knows what future generations of car enthusiasts will

like? In time electric cars could become mainstream and the cars we call modern today will be

for older car enthusiasts like Talerico. However for now electric cars as a technology is still

brand new and expensive, most of the time too expensive for the majority. Does this sound

familiar? When Carl Benz created his automobile it brought the proposal for a lot of change.

However due to price and availability issues it didn’t catch on right away. This might be the very

same case with electric powered cars. With a demand for cars to be cleaner and more

economical, the electric car becomes more of an option. As time passes and technology

advances, the price and availability of electric powered cars might make it far more mainstream.

As with any change, there will be resistance though. This is bad news for the car enthusiast,

because soon their wonderful V12 powered classic Ferrari will become a fossil of the past and

far too unreasonable to run on the roads. You don’t see many Model T’s driving around anymore

because they have been long passed up and are now obsolete pieces of technology. Andy Jensen

states, “Hot rodders and horsepower enthusiasts tend to have a dismal opinion of electric cars.

Once accurately described as slow tin cans, today’s electric cars are the future of the muscle car

and the hot rodding hobby” (Jensen). An even bigger threat to today’s car enthusiast may be the

autonomous car. The invention of things such as self-driving cars threaten the very existence of

cars as we know them. As car journalist Doug DeMuro put it, “Car culture has developed around

a society that essentially needs automobiles in order to go anywhere. Some of us happen to enjoy

the ‘going anywhere’ process a little more than others of us, … But car enthusiasm will surely

take a hit, right? Once we can sit back and install a home gym in our automobiles rather than

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drive them, we won’t care about cars anymore. Right?” (DeMuro) Wrong, thinks DeMuro. He

goes on to say that ,“car enthusiasts will continue to exist, much like horse enthusiasts continue

to exist today”(DeMuro). People who need to travel and are only concerned about the most

reliable way to get where they need to be will most likely choose a car. That is a majority

decision. When there were only horses people would need horses to travel. What kept horseback

riding from dying off as cars became the main form transportation? The enthusiast. It is up to the

car enthusiast to practice the passion and expression of cars through their culture.

Instead of looking down on the improvements that car enthusiasts face, sometimes we

have to realize that they can better us. Either for safety or for speed, new technology will grant us

these things. Inventions of the past that are now common in nearly every modern car were at

some point looked down upon. Disk brakes, power steering, fuel injection, cruise control, etc.

These are only some of many that have changed and in many ways bettered the cars that we have

a passion for today. I was not around for many of these changes, but I can assure you there were

a lot of people who were resistant to these changes when they came out. Right now as an

optimistic teenager awaiting what the future will bring for me as a car enthusiast, I know that one

day I might stop looking forward and start feeling pleased with what we have. At one point or

another a lot of us will feel the same way, even if you are not a car enthusiast. At that point we

become the generation that is unpleased with newer generations enjoying their electric cars. It’s

almost like the circle of ever advancing life. It is not wrong to resist change, in fact sometimes

it’s important to resist change to keep old hobbies alive. And sometimes it is our resistance that

helps further innovations. That is the whole principal of research and development. Let’s use

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automotive racing as an example. Racing and motorsport can be a proving ground for new

technology. A lot of the times, that new technology can make its way into the cars that we drive

on the road. As John Huffman put it, “Racing is where new concepts and technology can be

proven and stressed to the breaking point long before production lines are established. And it’s

where crowds grow hungry for the future speeding by in front of them” (Huffman).

Car culture and the technology that drives many cultures and their cars is changing. It

always has been and it always will. The advancements in technology has not only affected car

culture greatly, it has created it and diversity among car culture. The passion to love cars will be

handed down through generations and the technology that follows will change. New followings

will arise and old ones will become outdated. I grew up around Japanese sports cars with my

friends showing some of the first racing games featuring these cool new futuristic cars. I grew up

to love these carsand I will always hold a place for them in my heart, much like my father will

always hold classic American muscle cars in his heart because he grew up around those types of

cars. And much like his father loved classic French cars, it will always be a generational thing.

Because of my family's interest in cars I will also hold a place for American muscle cars and

French classics, and it is up to my children to decide what new type of car they will hold near

and dear but I have no idea what my children will decide to like. Electric cars might be the next

cool thing for teenagers and I will seem like the old buffoon who thinks their interests are stupid.

Maybe my children won’t even consider cars as a thing to have a passion for. Technology has

and always will change the cars that we drive and maybe the cultures that follow, but they can’t

take away what it means to be a car enthusiast. Because that applies to whatever may lie ahead

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for the automobile. So bring on the electric cars and driving assistants because while I may not

like what they bring, I along with future generations will not shun what the future brings.

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Works Cited

Online Sources

Barra, Mary, and General Motors LLC. “The next revolution in the auto industry.” ​World

Economic Forum​, 21 Jan. 2016, www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-next-

revolution-in-the-car-industry/.

DeMuro, Doug. “Will Autonomous Cars Kill Car Culture?” ​Autotrader​, Dec. 2016,

www.autotrader.com/car-news/will-autonomous-cars-kill-car-culture-260156.

Fleming, Charles. “The disappearing stick shift: Less than 3% of cars sold in the U.S.

have manual transmissions.” ​Los Angeles Times​, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2016,

www.latimes.com/business/autos/laautoshow/la-fi-hy-disappearing-stick-shift-

20161115-story.html.

Goss, Jennifer L. “How Henry Ford's Assembly Line Changed Manufacturing.”

ThoughtCo​, 23 Jan. 2018,www.thoughtco.com/henry-ford-and-the-assembly-line-

1779201. Assembly Line

Huffman, John Pearley. “How Racing Technology Changed the Cars We Drive.” ​Men's Journal​,

5 Dec. 2017, www.mensjournal.com/gear/how-racing-technology-changed-the-cars-

we-drive-20150528/1911-marmon-wasp-the-rearview-mirror/.

Jensen, Andy. “5 Tire Maintenance Tips for Summer Road Trips.” ​Advance Auto Parts​, 12

June 2017, shop.advanceautoparts.com/r/advice/car-truck-mods/future-hot-rodding-

electric-cars.

Lomask, Milton. ​Invention and Technology​. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1991.

Carl Benz

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Stanford, Steven C. “Henry Ford - An Impact Felt.” ​Henry Ford Heritage Association​,

hfha.org/the-ford-story/henry-ford-an-impact-felt/.

Interview Sources

Hernandez, Tony. Car Enthusiast. Personal Interview. 3 March 2018

Talerico, Nick. Car Enthusiast. Personal Interview. 14 April 2018

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