Daddy's taking the muscle-car culture away.

[kobrabytes]

Obama vs. The Beach Boys

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124346903426760553.html

Hide your keys boys!

[SF_SN888KE]

For those of you who have not read the article - it's about how Obama will kill our hobby. The end to high performance cars .. using the Beach Boys songs and cars as part of American culture "Fun Fun Fun till your daddy takes your Prius away ..."

This is what I sent to the author yesterday ...

I went to Costco last week and bought the Frankie and Annette collection of Beach movies (which includes Fireball 500 and Thunder Alley), grew up with the Beach Boys (and Beatles), and muscle cars. Own a couple of muscle cars and a BMW.

In twenty years when you turn on the television to watch the Daytona 500, you'll hear the silent wind of Prius and solar powered cars taking the high oval bank at a blistering 100 mph. There will be no pit stops for fuel or tire changes. The fans will be wearing green team shirts sipping their recycled bottled water or drinking white wine. The tailgate parties will have celery and carrot sticks with veggie burgers (although they will probably try to take public transportation). There will be no "fly over" by the US Air Force because of the downsizing of our armed forces and the lack of parts …. NASCAR will be dead. A new series will be developed that will race rice rockets (for gen x and gen y). Long gone will be the American car sponsors being replaced by Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.

It's obvious that President Obama has never attended a local car show sponsored by a car club for a charity. Many towns and cities host car shows to draw in crowds. (check out your local Mustang/Ford, Chevy and Mopar car clubs) Can't imagine 300 hybrid cars parked downtown to draw in business …. All he has to do is watch "Cars" by Pixar/Disney - the death of a small town because of the new interstate freeway (car culture) … Remember Route 66? He's talking about rebuilding our roads (car culture) and infrastructure, but taking a road trip in a Prius is a lot different than purring down the freeway in a Cobra.

I wonder if he (or his staff and congress) ever attended the Detroit, Chicago, NY, or LA International car show? Should be interesting in the next few years (exotics = low gas mileage/high performance, domestic = Ford, foreign = China, BMW, MB, and new category = US Government owned)

Has he seen the prices of historic, classic, and American muscle cars? Maybe I should look for a 1st generation Prius and store it for 40 years? (of course, I would take the batteries out - in fear of acid leaks and burning down my house)

Ford came out with the successful retro Mustang a few years ago. Chevy (Camero Z28) and Plymouth (Challenger RT) are a day late, dollar short, and now with the government and the unions owning the car companies, good luck. GM is a pension fund that happens to make cars … My local Toyota dealer has a lot full of Prius cars - all the tree huggers that wanted a hybrid have purchased them. (and they will buy another one in 7 years when their batteries need replacing ... Hummmm, toxic waste?)

Witness Visteon today. Who's next? Your local Speed shop will be a long lost memory. (small local business is what built America!) This was a place a bunch of local gearheads would go on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning to sit at the counter and talk cars with the owner, to see the latest carb/manifold or gauge set up. And for any true muscle car owner, they will tell you that they have spent THOUSANDS of dollars to keep their baby shinny, updated with cool parts, and fast … not likely for the Prius owner … Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines will be replaced by Green Machine and Solar Power!

Can't wait for the new generation of car clubs of Prius owners to go to the local burger joint, pop open their hoods, and talk about how big their high performance batteries are! Can't wait for our SF Police and California Highway Patrol forces to purchase Prius cruisers … I can't wait for catalytic converters to be placed on Harley Davidson motorcycles (that would start a riot with the Hells Angles), farm tractors, big Caterpillar equipment, big rig diesel trucks, and lawn mowers (and no more leaf blowers) …

Win - win - win? For whom? For Toyota and Honda hybrids, for BMW and Mercedes Benz (they will own the big car and luxury market) and the unions.

[RedBarchetta]

We're all going to have stills in our backyards and manufacturing our own alcohol-based fuels to burn in our internal-combustion antiques. It's either going to be that or paying through the nose for dyno fuel (worse than what Europe pays today), along with some crazy tax to the local/federal governments for all the permits necessary to run said vehicle on our "green" highways and by-ways.

They have conversion kits for carbureated cars (essentially larger jets and bigger orifices in the idle/power circuits), as you need twice the volume of alcohol to get the same power making capabilities of gasoline. Plus a bigger tank to hold all that extra alcohol.

I wonder what the Weber'd guys are going to do? Does anyone run a Weber set-up on alky today?!?

And for the record, I really hate the Prius. They are slow, the people that drive them are slow, and they are butt ugly.

-Dean

[mr bruce]

Don't komit suicide yet boys. Let the knuckleheads in DC have lots of rope. BIG election cummin' in 2010, the new congress can start reversing all the shi* that's bein' rammed thu now.

[DocDirk]

I've been told (accurately?) that if you compare the carbon footprint of all that's required in exotic materials and resources spent to construct a Prius BEFORE it's a green machine, and drove it for 10 years it would cause more net environmental damage than building and driving a Hummer over the same amount of time.

Nah..... they won't terminate our hobby any more than they'll terminate citizenship for smokers (a costly, unhealthy and environmentally toxic practice) or make polluting companies clean up their acts... no, they'll just do what they love the most - TAX and collect money for the privilege of doing those "harmful" behaviors... we'll have to cough up more dough for our share of the carbon footprint and the Feds will be delighted to squeeze our wallets for the right to do so. Ah, well, can't take it with me!

Dirk

[kurtmart]

It's "Mommy" trying to take the muscle away, not Daddy.
I think it was Bill Bennett who said the Dems are the "Mommy" party and the Repubs the "Daddy" party.

Mommy doesn't see the reason for powerful cars, they're too scary, too dangerous, too loud, too smelly.

Mommy's in charge now, and by golly she knows what's good for you wether you like it or not. She don't like fast cars, huntin, fishin, racing, violence, confrontation or any of that stupid male stuff.

Mommy's in charge and we're all gonna do what she says, or else.

I want Daddy back.