Muscle cars, the 911, and collective nostalgia

[cygtoad]

Growing up in Ohio, I scarcely knew what Porsche's were.   I had seen a few 914's running around and thought they were cool, but 911's were the stuff of movies and never seen on the road where I grew up.  

I was really into cars as a teen but if you asked me to identify a Porsche by model number, I probably could not have done it.   In contrast I could name every 60's muscle car by year, tell you what size engine it probably had, and rattle off bits of trivia specific to the car.   I had a 1969 Pontiac Lemans, but always lusted for the GTO.   Ohh that Boss 302 is cool.   Damn, if only I could get my hands on a Chevelle SS with the 427!

I am sure that there are a lot of you who grew up in California lusting after 911's, but I think most people throughout the country had an automotive experience similar to mine.   The muscle car price bubble is, in my estimation, driven by the nostalgia of the masses.   The 911 is excluded from this because it is not part of the collective mass nostalgia.   After all it is hard to be nostalgic about something to which you had little or no exposure.  

I stumbled upon my 911 because I was looking at Boxster's, which at the time, were a little out of my price range.   I drove the 911 one block off the dealer's lot and knew I was buying the car.  

On the outside the 911 is beautiful and even looks cute with innocent eyes and it's smiling bumper.   To get behind the wheel is to be alone with a seductress who will have her way with you; fenders heave cleavage, your hands tight to the leather wrapped hips of her steering wheel, whispers of obscenity goat you on from behind and reward you with action.   I was hooked.  

I remember thinking to myself that I hadn't been this excited about a car since I was a teenager.   "This is what all those big bulky muscle cars should have been" I said to myself.   Blasphemy!

I am glad that the 911 never made it to the mass collective nostalgia.   If it had, then I am sure it would be out of reach like so many muscle cars today.   It's ironic that yesterday's exclusivity has lent itself to today's availiability.   It is like a secret that is hidden in plain sight.   People just don't know any better.  

[jorian]

Although I have been a fan since my grandmother bought me a 1:18 911T when I was 9, I agree with you on all points. Many people who have driven my car have said 'I had no idea how cool these are!' or 'Why doesn't everyone have one?'

Muscle cars are great until you have to drive one.

[Rod.911S]

Just this weekend, our local sports car club had a booth so I spent most of 2 days inside a hockey arena-full of custom rods and muscle cars. Can't think of one car there that I'd prefer over my 911. Like someone else said, we were motorsports guys in a NASCAR crowd.

[Chuck Moreland]

I grew up in the midwest, lusting for Porsche but settling for the muscle car reality. I had mustangs, camaros and a lemans.

Now I am intimately familiar with the 911. When I look at contemporary muscle cars from the 60s/70s, it is striking how crude those cars are.

The 911 is such a clean, elegant design by contrast. I am not talking about body lines, I'm talking about the chassis/suspension/bracketry etc - the underneath stuff. To this engineer's eye the muscle cars are an excercise in innefficiency to the 911s elegance.

Though I still appreciate some of the muscle cars, I don't think I could own one again.

[das908kind]

In '98 I was in Brescia Italy for the start of the Mille Milia Revival race. After a day of looking at the smooth, subtle lines of classic German, Italian and British racing cars, I walked through a local parking lot and spoted a 50s era Corvette. I always thought Corvettes were the coolest American sports cars, but man did it ever look down right ugly in comparison.

I've always felt that American car design is simply "trying too hard". European cars are understated, which is why they have a smaller following, comparitively.

[Dan in Pasadena]

My Mother's boss had the cleanest Peru Red (or something close) 356 when I was a young teenager. It had those chrome wheels and the Porsche hubcaps that later all the VW guys stole off 356's. I remember thinking that was such a cool car for "an older man". In '72 when I graduated from highschool (yes, THAT old) I literally had my nose pressed against the window of this tiny little "foreign car dealership" - the only place you found Porsches and BMW's in those days - they sold both. I remember thinking, "Gawd, I will NEVER be albe to afford one of those". In the summer of '76 I was traveling in Geneva and saw this then-new Light Yellow 911S roll past and I thought as soon as I get back to the States and get a full time job I am buying one of those, period.

A twenty year marriage, two kids and a divorce came first but I finally got that "new-when-I-was-a-college-graduate" '76S...it just took 30 years! Oh well, better late than never.

P.S. I love the muscle cars, just not more than my 911. EVERY time I take it out someone gives me a thumbs up or says something.

[Nickatnyt]

I love cars in general. Like all of you I was first a musclecar freak but now the 911 I have has shown me the light!

[Jim Bremner]

I've been driving a '67 mustang fastback to a few "sporty car"
event's

Alfa club drivers ed classes, Crystal Cove, the hang-over rally
and a few others

It's weird some of the folks are cool with it.

others turn their noses up.

I drove it up to Laguna Seca for the historics, The older Ferrari owners paid a lot of attention to the cars

the porsche owners tended to avoid eye contact!
some would talk but not many

I'm in the market to sell my fastback, I'm torn with whether
I'll get a 930 or a z06

After working on a porsche and reading the comment about engineering, A early ford is a cake walk to a porsche

my 16 year old son owns a 1966 vw bug...yes I know it's not a porsche.

but damn it, when I work on that thing the only thing that comes to mind is "German engineering...the country closest to Poland

[MConn]

Upstate South Carolina is muscle car country and I have 3 AMX's I was restoring - until I drove an 87 carrera. I paid too much for it right away, and like it more as time goes by. Now I gotta get the muscle cars put back together so I can sell them and get a carrera track car. I like muscle cars but the race proven 911 stole my heart.

[S2GART]

Muscle cars are only good for going straight. They'll pass everything on the road, but a gas station. The brakes are horrible, as are the suspensions. Don't me wrong I like the look of an original Mustang Fastback, but these cars are really only good for cruising. Think about it, the central theme to any Muscle car get together is the cruise down main street. Growing up in CT, I was exposed to everything car wise. Ok, maybe not Ferraris or Lambos, but MB, BMW, Porsches were real popular during the "Yuppie" era in the 80's. Right now, as it can be seen on Barret Jackson, muscle cars are the thing because the babyboomers are buying the car they wish they had when they were younger. I guess I fall into the same thing, except for me it was Porsches that I lusted for. My car was built when I was 15, to now own one is surreal.

[pmajka]

Sounds like mid-life crisis discussion. At what age is mid life Crisis supposed to begin.

I fell in love with the 911 at an eary age (4), and finally got my dream car at 34. So what does this mean for my mid life crisis car?

Now i am depressed. I better go start the 911.

[JBO]

I love my 911, but I also loved the '74 stingray I had in college. If I could afford a collection I'd have the 911, a 70-72 'vette, a '66 Mustang GT, maybe a '70 GTO, maybe a 240Z, maybe a late model Saleen or Roush Mustang, a 996TT, a Lambo Murcielago, and the list goes on...I think most 911 owners are "car people", and appreciate cars in general.

[pmajka]

I think most 911 owners are "car people", and appreciate cars in general.

I dont know about that...If you look at the number of 911's sold, vs number of people in any given Region of the PCA or on Pelican list or Rennelist, that number pales...

I do think that people that people that spend time on boards like this and looking for the next weekend event or DIY'ers are definetly car people.

My wife likes the cayman cause the boxter was a convertible

[herman maire]

Theres some cool muscle cars that I consider half decent ex-67 camaro, Hogan's cuda (from Fear Factor) and a few others but thats about all I can think of.

The one thing I cant come to terms with is how bad the Interiors SUCK,guages SUCK. RPM guage on a hood, what the he11 is that about.
There plane ugly. I would rather a steel interior if I had to drive one .

And they look really heavy, that also sucks.
I would like a Cobra though.

[SRL84Car]

I was a little conflicted as a youth, I alternately had subscriptions to Hot Rod, then Car and Driver, then back to HR. When I was about 8 my dad took me to British Motors and I sat in a Lotus Europa, it became my favorite car for a couple of decades. My first car was a 1968 Chevelle SS 396 in 1975, I later owned a 1969 Camaro RS and 1970 SS.

A couple of years ago I was looking for an old Camaro as a project car, to build and drive some. My best friend, a Corvette and Porsche owner for 25 years, told me that I am a Formula 1 fan not Nascar, get a Porsche you will be happier. I found my 84 Carrera Targa in September '04 and have been absolutely satisfied and usually thrilled. I do most of my own work and have an absolute blast driving. The "point and squirt" method of driving is a cheap thrill compared to taking a difficult turn with balance and skill in a machine that begs to be pushed harder. I can't wait to get into DE and get more out of my car..

[GothingNC]

1st car I had as a kid was a 69 AMC Javelin back in 85
Worst car to have for a novice teenage driver.
Manual steering and brakes, vacuum operated wipers (Stopped upon acceleration).

Had plenty of power but was very slippery in the rain and snow from the bias-ply tires.
Never had a wreck because of the weather but had a few scary spins.

Gas mileage was pathetic

[defcon65]

Growing up in the midwest, the 'gearheads' were invariably the mulleted shop-class kids who lived in trailers, blasted Asia and Dokken out of Kraco speakers in their jacked-up Novas, flunked out of school and ended up working at NAPA. Those with more self-described refined tastes plastered their walls with pics of 959s and Testarossas, listened to Black Flag and the Minutemen, begged their rich dads for a Supra or hot-rodded a V-Dub with dual carbs and a tuned exhaust. Most of these guys ended up driving Volvos and fixing teeth. I was somewhere in between. I could talk s**t with the burners AND knew who Ferdinand Porsche was. I had a '67 Karmann Ghia and later on a '67 Chevelle. They were both great cars in entirely different ways and I hated selling either of them, but both had to go by the time I graduated college and needed something newer and more practical. But then you get older, a little more affluent, suddenly single and voila - a 911 appears in your garage. I couldn't be happier now, never thought I'd get here. The bitterest regrets are reserved for the things you haven't done. The mistakes you just accept with time.

[Netspeed]

I used to have a 69 Mustang Mach 1 when I was younger. Every corner that came up was like all the components of the car were fighting to go straight. I love my 88 Carrera and would never trade down to a muscle car for driving.

[SandyI]

Living in the suburbs of Denver in 1975 was the ultimate cultural desert. I went to a public high school that allowed kids living on ranches to drive to school with rifles in their truck gun racks. Of course the racks had to be locked.

Dad drove home in a 1969 Mexico Blue 912. Stick a fork in me. I was done. Only took me 25 more years to buy my first Porsche, a '69 911E. Now I've added my 914/3.2 track car. Yes. I have a Porsche problem. But the first step toward a cure (or a third Porsche) is admitting you have a problem, right?

We can all thank Craig Jackson and his yearly reality show/auction on Speed Channel for creating this over-inflated market for Muscle Cars and Resto Rods. But remember, the buyers don't buy the cars to drive. They buy the cars to watch their friends' faces as the valets drive them up after a round of golf at the country club.

[Netspeed]

[i]...We can all thank Craig Jackson and his yearly reality show/auction on Speed Channel for creating this over-inflated market for Muscle Cars and Resto Rods. But remember, the buyers don't buy the cars to drive. They buy the cars to watch their friends' faces as the valets drive them up after a round of golf at the country club. [/B]

So true! I can't imagine those replica-restorations going for the prices they do!