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Old school 1960s and 1970s vehicles for their superior build quality and reliability over the tiny gutless egg shaped econoboxes made today that breakdown often.
This will be a statement that may cause some to doubt it, but the days of us being able to enjoy our older cars are numbered. I am not talking about being able to drive them to some event and back home again, I am talking about being able to actually use them on a frequent basis as they were intended. There are so many people who would love to see them off the road, in high places, that it is just a matter of time before they whittle away at them and make it either too expensive or too inconvenient to drive them.
Some of those pressures will come from the EPA guys with their clean air agenda. No question that our older cars pollute more than a 2013 econobox. Next is the safety aspect. Old cars have no airbags, no abs brakes, and no crumple zones. The insurance companies will be another nail in our coffins. I have specialty insurance through Grundy but there are strict restrictions on how and when I can drive it and how much. They want the car kept in a securely locked garage and only used when going to and from a show, club event, maintenance, etc.
If you doubt anything I have said above, look back on all the laws that we have seen passed in the past 50 years where we said it could never happen. I am enjoying mine while I can. I'm not saying this will happen in a year or two, but I bet 10 years from now we see some serious changes in laws.
This will be a statement that may cause some to doubt it, but the days of us being able to enjoy our older cars are numbered. I am not talking about being able to drive them to some event and back home again, I am talking about being able to actually use them on a frequent basis as they were intended. There are so many people who would love to see them off the road, in high places, that it is just a matter of time before they whittle away at them and make it either too expensive or too inconvenient to drive them.
Some of those pressures will come from the EPA guys with their clean air agenda. No question that our older cars pollute more than a 2013 econobox. Next is the safety aspect. Old cars have no airbags, no abs brakes, and no crumple zones. The insurance companies will be another nail in our coffins. I have specialty insurance through Grundy but there are strict restrictions on how and when I can drive it and how much. They want the car kept in a securely locked garage and only used when going to and from a show, club event, maintenance, etc.
If you doubt anything I have said above, look back on all the laws that we have seen passed in the past 50 years where we said it could never happen. I am enjoying mine while I can. I'm not saying this will happen in a year or two, but I bet 10 years from now we see some serious changes in laws.
Don
Don, you have the wrong insurance company.
My 66 Tbird is insured with American collector's insurance, and true, they do have some driving restrictions, but if you want to pay into a higher tier like I do, then you are allowed to drive any where you want with no millage restrictions.
They also want the vehicle in a locked garage, but in my case they agreed that because I have a recording video camera aimed directly on the car, I did not need a covered garage.
Not having it in a garage cost me an extra $61.00 a year extra.
I am fine with that seeing as where the total cost for full coverage, with an agreed value of $24,800.00
is only $321.00 a year, and that includes the fee for no conventional garage, and upgrading to a higher tier for milage.
Bob.
The 1960's and 1970's were obviously where the muscle cars and all the true fans of muscle cars came from and were born from, it was that generation that spawned the word, the bought these vehicles in the hundreds of thousands per year, that spawned a decades long rivalry between two makers' cars.
The 2000's and 2010's have shown what modern technology can do to a muscle car. I think we've seen the full fledged revival and to a large extent, enthusiasm is back and nearly as strong as the first time. The muscle cars of today are not only much faster, but have excellent handling characteristics as well, all while being safer, more fuel efficient, and more comfortable.
There are SO many different models of the cars out there. The Mustang has at least 5 or more packaged between all their cars. The base v6, the GT, the GT track pac, the Boss 302, the GT350, the GT500, and I probably missed a few others. The Camaro has the base V6, the SS, the 1LE, the ZL1, and in 2014 the Z28. Then you have the Charger and Challenger and their 3 forms as well.
Do you think the cars from this generation will be sought after prized collector cars 30-40 years from now, worth even more than the old and rare muscle cars from the 1960's? Seeing the price tag on the ZL1, Z28, and GT500 I think those cars will be worth a LOT more in the future, they won't be made forever, a limited time when technology was advancing quickly and fuel remained relatively cheap.
Older cars were SO much simpler to work on, you didn't have to worry about emissions, safety parts, airbags, crash test ratings, etc, they were lighter, and cheaper to modify. New school cars are safer, cleaner, but much more complicated to work on, making tasks that might have been simple 40 years ago rather complex nowadays.
Anyways, which generation do you prefer?
I prefer the older cars. The muscle cars of today are really not much faster, (exception being the new mustang 5.0 and 'vettes vs. their old counterparts) just suspension and especially tires are much better. I do like the better gearing of the 4 & more geared auto transmissions and the T56 6 speed is light years ahead of the old Muncies. I've been using todays injection off LS engines on my old engines, and must say that for all round driving once laptop tuned is better. Does that justify taking a Olds engine out of an Olds Cutlass and putting an LS engine in? NOT AT ALL. Only an idiot would think that didn't ruin the car. But appling that same tech to the old engine and surprise, the old engine still makes more power. C.I.D. wins again !
btw, the newest vehicle I own is a 95 T/A that now has a true Pontiac 350 in it vs. the lt1 sbc it suffered with from gm. It is being turned into my new drag car. The next newest car I now own is a 78 Grand Prix (28 mpg 301) and I am partners on a 87 TBIRD project. Then I have 2 1965's, a 2+2 Catalina and a 2 door hardtop Valiant (getting new style 650+hp Hemi). Next in my stable is an 8 second 61 Catalina Pro Street twin turbo'ed 1958 370, 52 Studebaker C Cab 1 ton, and a 46 Ford Coupe. I had an offer to trade the 95 for a t bucket, and I just might.
Old school cars to be fair have style to me. Car designs nowadays are too closely related. Hyundais looking like Buicks. Lincoln looking like Volkswagens. Chryslers trying to look like Bentleys (at least that has a degree of intelligence). Old school styling and new school powertrain.
I'm on the fence on this one and can't really vote. I love the old cars. I was born in 74 and didn't start driving until around 1990 (legally) so I missed out on the muscle car era but thta hasn't stopped me from buying, driving and selling a dozen or so "old school". By the way... My definition of old school is anything prior to about 1985 when modern EFI and other electronics started becoming standard. My oldest car to date was a 55 Nomad. I still have a couple of of these cars in the garage today and prefer to drive them when I'm not working or it's not 100F outside. Nothing better than dropping the windows and cruising in a big block..
On the other hand I love the modern conviences that come with modern cars. My daily driver 4 banger Camry is averaging 36-37 mpg hwy with the air on and still giving me 32 mpg around town in traffic... I've owned SRT Challengers, GT500's, FJ's, 4-Runners etc and they all have their place..
There's no argument that todays car handle better, get better mileage and will run and last a lot longer than cars from the 60's. With very few exceptions they are considerable faster than the fastest of old school muscle cars as well. Don't get me wrong.. I loved my 454, 4 Speed, 365HP Chevelle but it would get killed by most cars out there today.. On repo Redlines it was a solid 15 sec car. With modern Drag radials it ran in the 14.0 range..
I own and drive both on a daily basis. There is something about the old cars that I love and drive the wheels off them but I can't deny the appeal of the modern cars..
Busting the myth that cars were "made" better back in the old days and could handle crashes better. After watching this video I'm very thankful for how far automobile safety has come.
When I heard they used a rusted 59 chevy (which was known even in 59 to be the worst in a crash) I really wanted to see someone sue the hell out of these clowns. And yes, they were sued, but as I understand it things are still tied up in court. It was found out the frame on the 59 was not only rusted out and painted over replacement frame (the cars original was in perfect shape) , there were grinding cuts made along the inside frame rails to weaken it. This is why the front wheel gets slammed back so far on the 59. I have seen wrecks between older cars like this 59 and newer cars, and I can tell you the older car didn't wad up like this one in the video while the new car did exactly what theirs in the video did.
I dont give a **** about safty featurss. I like older simpler cars. I dont care about air conditioning or abs. I only want twi computers in my car; the radio and the efi, ig i can help it, just a radio. Rwd, 4wd or awd(not front biased). Manual transmission, no bs automated manual or flappy paddle crap. All i care about is performance on or off road. There are new cars i like, i just hate the unesecary crap they come with. I want throttle cables, ljghtz and wipers that i control, my foot is all the abs and traction control i need, my hand determins when to shift, i am the compiter that parallel parks the car, my back up alarm lets other people know im backi.g up- not me. Itz reverse ligbys and an alarm, not rerarded sensors in the bumper. I can open and shut my own doors. I dont need motors in my seats cor any reason. New cars are built for lazy slackasses and nothing will convince me otherwise. Before you think im some old fogey, Im 25.
12GO, if what you said is true (about that video), all I have to say is that's pretty sad someone would compromise a car's structural integrity in an attempt to paint them a bad picture. Granted I know the safety features have come a long way since the non existent features of the 59.....heck at worse back then the driver probably would have been thrown thru the windshield.
There's no argument that todays car handle better, get better mileage and will run and last a lot longer than cars from the 60's. With very few exceptions they are considerable faster than the fastest of old school muscle cars as well. Don't get me wrong.. I loved my 454, 4 Speed, 365HP Chevelle but it would get killed by most cars out there today.. On repo Redlines it was a solid 15 sec car. With modern Drag radials it ran in the 14.0 range..
..
the above is quite true. Our v6 mustang we have now could have respectibly held it's own with many of the 'muscle' cars I or my friends had back in the day. And safety/features/mileage is far superior now. BUT.... at least for me it's nowhere near the same sensation as the classics. Power now can be linear, traction control can take out the sideways launch, and next thing one knows is they hit 60 or are at the end of the run. Those classics, with maybe a light lope at idle, that split second hesitation as the secondaries kicked, and the overall "feel" when launching seemed to have produced more smiles per run.
The only modern car i've owned that came close to equaling those sensations was an s2000 (yes on a different scale being the 4, but yet it was a blast to drive hard).
I may enjoy driving modern cars, but i would love to drive again the 66 Chevelle or 70 1/2 Camaro i had in my youth.
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I'm not saying this will happen in a year or two, but I bet 10 years from now we see some serious changes in laws.
