Okay - what's up with this weeks title? If we break things down a little, it might be easier to identify with. I went with the more urban dictionary meaning of
"red headed stepchild"; a group or person who is treated without favor. If you take that definition and apply it to high performance, hot rods, drag racing, and muscle cars, you can start to formulate an image or scenario in your mind.
One of the more obvious examples that come to mind are rat rods. The rat rod, by some, are considered the bastard offspring of the red headed stepchild. I can remember just over 15 years ago, in the late 90's, when the Kustom Car Kulture and/or DeLuxe hot rod scene first started making rumbles especially in print. It took a while for public acceptance to settle in, but once it did, and it became en vogue, rat rods just exploded in popularity. At that point, it seemed anything went - and in some cases, the more clapped out a vehicle was, the more eyebrows it was trying to raise with some anti-status-quo statement.
In our comparison-stick society, rat rods seemed to be a love-it-or-hate-it type deal, due to the fact that some people only like pristine rides with mile deep paint, high-end wheels, along with a drive-train you can practically eat off of. The other side of the coin were the fans of rust, patina, and giving the pristine crowd the middle finger. The way I see it, it's your ride, your paying the bills on it, you build it however you want to. It all relates to something I read in an article recently; it's all about context.
David Freilburger who authored the article went on to say that,
"... context is what separates the real cars and the real people from the 100% checkbook restoration jobs and auction opportunists." While I love a beautifully restored muscle car, or off-the-hook hot rod, that one sentence can also explain why I dig rat rods, barn find cars and daily driver beaters. They bear witness marks to a life long lived. It makes you want to lean in and hear it's story of who has owned it, where it's been, and what experiences it has had. Even if a car is still in unbelievable original condition, I like it all the more if there is one or two signs of road rash somewhere. It gets even better if I have a chance to talk to the 80-year old original owner.
That's all well and good in regards to the here and now. But what about during the hey-day of muscle cars and drag racing during the 60's? Muscle cars were still just regular cars - just with cake-loads of horsepower under the hood. What about a Plymouth Belvedere with the A990 race Hemi option? It wasn't a million dollar collectible like it is today. Fifty one years ago, it was built for one purpose - to win at the end of the quarter mile. If you blew up the 426 Hemi motor, you pulled it and installed another one. In regards to muscle cars, one the best known red headed step children of the automotive industry was Pontiac. Think about it, how many times did they go against the GM grain? The years of racing, both on the drag strip and on the NASCAR ovals, that were more active than all other GM brands combine. Finding the legal loopholes, and releasing the GTO. Swimming against the stream in the mid-70's and releasing the Super Duty 455 V-8 Firebirds.
In some readers eyes, that would make them out to be a black sheep instead of the red head in question. In my opinion, it was the unnecessary death of Pontiac back in 2009 that made it so. Looking at the broad and diverse model selection back then, there were obviously zero plans to phase out this division. The fact that Pontiac had unique offerings that you could not get as a Chevy or Buick also drives home that fact. The problem was, as diverse as Pontiac was, there was no hope for GM to survive without some serious model duplication reduction. The pending lawsuits from Oldsmobile dealers carried some weight in the final decision, but once the US government got involved in the decision making process, things all went to hell in a hand basket. There was no loyalty, no sentimentalism involved. It was just a
"dump this and get rid of that" or GM dies. Why Pontiac got axed is anyone's guess.
Until next time, peace out.
Dave
Okay - what's up with this weeks title? If we break things down a little, it might be easier to identify with. I went with the more urban dictionary meaning of "red headed stepchild"; a group or person who is treated without favor. If you take that definition and apply it to high performance, hot rods, drag racing, and muscle cars, you can start to formulate an image or scenario in your mind.
David Freilburger who authored the article went on to say that, "... context is what separates the real cars and the real people from the 100% checkbook restoration jobs and auction opportunists." While I love a beautifully restored muscle car, or off-the-hook hot rod, that one sentence can also explain why I dig rat rods, barn find cars and daily driver beaters. They bear witness marks to a life long lived. It makes you want to lean in and hear it's story of who has owned it, where it's been, and what experiences it has had. Even if a car is still in unbelievable original condition, I like it all the more if there is one or two signs of road rash somewhere. It gets even better if I have a chance to talk to the 80-year old original owner.
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