Today, my friend and fellow garagista, Charlie Arolla, sent me an article about a guy who electrified his 1972 Road Runner. It struck me right at home, as my first car was a ’72 Plymouth Satellite dressed to look like a Road Runner with all the stripes and Rallye Wheels and white lettering BFGs. It really was a gorgeous car. But, it was the early 1990s, a time when ‘tribute’ or ‘clone’ cars were simply shunned, banished from even simple cruise ins. I know, I was asked to remove my car from more than a few!! The snobbery was high, and the whole idea of a faked-out ‘whatever car’ was a bad idea if you wanted to keep friends. “Faking it” was grounds for termination of your car guy card, even if it was a nicely done fake. But, despite the snobbery against my old Plymouth, and the numerous electrical problems plaguing it, I wish I still had the Plymouth. Today’s buyers are much more interested in driving their cars often and enjoying them, which usually entails modernizing the chassis, cooling systems, engines, etc. Even turning a standard-issue Mustang into a Mach 1 or even a Shelby is okay today, so long as you live up to the conversion – don’t lie about it. But you’ve seen them, I’m sure, at major auctions like Mecum and GAA among others where people are bidding obscene amounts of money for cars that have very little to do with factory correct. The preservatives aghast in their purity, these cars command far more than their original counterparts. I can’t help but wonder if tomorrow’s car buyers are going to be that way, seeking out the classics with the modern E drivetrains and chassis mods. Today, they are shunned, but what will tomorrow bring? I hope your Holiday Season is going well.
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