Wow!
The guy walks through Carlisle and suddenly he's a multicultural expert on Car Culture. He's as clueless as a Cockatoo on Crack.
I'm a straddler...I guess. It sounds like a label, and I hate labels We'll talk about the "cultural" gap in a moment.
Before we go any further though, let me pose a thought. I formed this theory years ago. It is...Mopar owners are their own worst enemies. You can quote me.
Owning two modern vehicles, I don't go to swap meets. Don't need to. Most everything is online. That way I don't have to walk through acres of over priced and broken, rusty NOS parts. There's a whole underground network out there. BTW modern muscle guys bring stuff to swap meets for modern muscle. Maybe not Carlise...but I bet I would have found parts if they were there.
Dirty finger nails. Us late owners got 'em. I still do as much as I can, as my age and condition lets me. Plenty of younger guys crawl under cars to install headers and exhausts. It's no easier that putting them on a big block C body. Guys put in cams, heads, port, polish, build stroker engines, etc. I see it, I read about it, I watch the videos. It's big time. Then the older guys say "But the computer, you can't tune 'em! That's a cop out. There's a number of guys out there that really know their stuff, and like the guys that knew how to set a carb and advance curve, these guys do the same but with one's and zeros. Guys like Mr.Tony, totally miss it. Actually, he doesn't care to look. And that's worse!
I get plenty dirty thrashing on my new stuff. There's skin and blood on every one of my vehicles.
So, what about this "cultural gap" We old guys did that, and I hate what we've done. It started in the 1980's when the front wheel turbo cars came out, then rocketed out of sight when the four door Charger was released in 2006...such an abomination it was, and yet it outsold all other years of Charger production in it's first year. Then the New Challenger came out, which was a closer rep of the old one, so "we" sorta accepted "them". Well, as much as we had too. The Ram trucks and the rest..meh.
Well...we "old guys" ....we couldn't have this crap. So "we" made sure these new cars and their owners would always know their place.
If they insisted on showing those new cars in our shows with our classics, we placed them in the outermost sections, away from our beloved old muscle cars. We made sure they had their own trophies, if we offered them, or put them in with the older cars and made sure they never won. We begrudged their existence, much like this Tony guy did in the video.
Tony couldn't get excited about the Demon. It sounds like the hot rod guys with their roadsters in the early 60's begrudging the new muscle cars.
So I guess that's where "we" got it from. And we learned nothing from history so we repeated it. And that's where the cultural gap comes from. And there's a backlash too. These newer guys with the cars, many of them hate and begrudge us too. Geezer cars, that's the term. Geezer...another label. I hate labels
Remember... Mopar owners are their own worst enemies! But lets stop being enemies.
Here's my final thoughts. Before "we" become ancient history, let's get rid of the gap. Invite the new guys to park next to you. Talk to them. Find the common ground. Compare apples to apples. Do yourself of favor, be brave, and take a test drive in an SRT Charger. Any one will work.
I love my old Polara. But I cherish my Ram and am absolutely enamored with our '06 Charger. That's how a real Moparian should be.
