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Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

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  • Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?


  • #2
    Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

    I hope there is a future in nostalgia racing... If people can identify why it's cool, in the future, it will live. A lot people come watch the racing simply cause it's their local track and it fills up a weekend day. The people who anticipate the event with child like excitement have something they identify with.... Will the future identify with it ?

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    • #3
      Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

      Its easy.Be alive now ;).Attend those events you like,and forget about the future.

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      • #4
        Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

        old time drags and rod run has been going on at e town for 40 years , early on the old timey funny car boom
        I went to nostalgia event in 1988 - these old timers have kids , it ain't going to die
        and demographics kind of show , when ricer kids get older , they get into musclecars

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        • #5
          Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

          Theres a lot more non-gray haired spectators, drivers, tuners, builders than you know. Nostalgia racing is really just a name for another kind of drag racing, since most of use cannot race anything at the NHRA anymore. Import racing didn't take over at all and is just about gone but nostalgia racing is still here, the first one I saw was in 1990 and I only have a little gray hair.

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          • #6
            Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

            Excellent article. Definitely sums up the conundrum facing those who love and race vintage-style machines. If one defines a pursuit as "nostalgia," it must face its own obsolescence, because the pursuers get older and die and those born to replace the deceased have no idea what to feel nostalgic for...

            Or as HIGH PERFORMANCE author Bob Post said recently, "(A)s compelling as this is, nostalgia racing of course harbors the seeds of its own destruction. This is because people with 'the desire to return to a former time' (that?s what nostalgia means) will soon be gone, and one imagines that all the 1960s slingshot dragsters that have been lovingly restored or recreated will go through another cycle of consignment to the garage rafters. Perhaps most sadly, there will be nobody left who cares about sitting in one of these silent machines to go vroom, vroom....'"

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            • #7
              Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

              Cole, thanks!

              Darned that Bob Post with all his eloquence and economy of words!

              Brian

              That which you manifest is before you.

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              • #8
                Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                BRIAN:

                Remember, nostalgia fuel racing is older than you are. Out west, we've been enjoying retro diggers, altereds and "gassers" since the late '70s (beginning with Fremont Raceway's pioneering Father's Day Drags). At one point in the '80s, no fewer than FOUR different organizations conducted points series for nitro burners, simultaneously. Sacramento Raceway's bread-'n'-butter attraction has been front-motored fuelers for nearly two decades, hosting at least three open shows per season. Famoso (Bakersfield) has scheduled six or seven, counting HRHS, ANRA and Dragfest.

                So-called "Cackle Cars" and Funny Cars are merely the latest wrinkles in a well-established sport which -- quite UNlike the two HRAs ("Horseshit & Runaround Associations") -- is healthy and growing. Besides, these fuel cars sound better, smell better, race closer -- for 1320 feet! -- and are far more numerous: Counting the injected A/FDs and cacklers, more than a HUNDRED nitro cars perform at the Calif. Hot Rod Reunion! In fact, I'm so spoiled by the half-dozen nostalgia fuel shows I attend each year that I stopped going to NHRA events, and even quit watching them on TV; last year, I had my satellite dish disconnected.

                When you get to Bowling Green, take a look at the heads inside those helmets. I think you'll be surprised by how little silver you see, particularly in the upper ranks. While the owners and tuners tend to be graybeards, I'd peg the average drivers' age to be far closer to your own.

                It's ALL good!

                --Dave Wallace

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                • #9
                  Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                  Ahhhhhhhhh you don't know nuthin'! :D

                  I'm happy (and reassured) to hear your postive outlook on this whole deal. I'm certainly in the camp the loves this genre of racing and want it to have a long and happy life.

                  As a sad side note, one of the founders of New England Dragway perished in a car accident last night, Eldon "Sy" Sidebotham.

                  A blog item will be run tonight with some details about a guy who had a big impact on drag racing in this part of the country. D2, ever meet Sy? He had the King and Marshall fuel dragster and Cackled it several times, at least once at Bako I believe.

                  Brian
                  That which you manifest is before you.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                    SO SORRY ABOUT CY --

                    A true pioneer, in multiple ways. I was introduced to him by my late pal, Ed Sarkisian, at the first Charlestown Reunion. YES, I got to enjoy some King & Marshall cackling at both the IDRHOF ceremony (Gainesville hotel) and the CHRR (both track AND host hotel!).

                    I'll be l@@kin' forward to your obit, Brian. Younger/newer followers of what we used to call "the sport" (HA!) will be amazed to learn how many careers this guy crammed into one lifetime.

                    Sadly,
                    DAVE

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                    • #11
                      Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                      As long as there's interest in internal-combustion powerplants and going fast, there will MOST CERTAINLY be a future in "nostalgia racing".

                      If it has you that concerned, Brian, look at it like this:

                      You have 2 sons to indoctrinate.....simply put, that's how stuff gets carried on through generations. Start 'em young...LOL

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                      • #12
                        Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                        Sorry about the long post but, I have had the opportunity to really think this over for the past few years.

                        Darwin is rolling over in his grave......It's all evolution of the Sportsmen racing environment.

                        I have to agree that the"Nostalgia" trend will eventually die out as it will be harder and harder to field a fuel car that is solely based on parts that are no longer available, built or distributed. The change will eventually occur but, when will that happen.....Not anytime in the near future. ???

                        We are looking at simplicity. It is about fielding a car that does not cost buckets of cash and eat up all of your time. Sportsmanen racers in the past 20 years were essentually limited to bracket racing due to the nature of the game, but people have wanted to get back to the essence of racing where one person could field a fuel car off of their typical blue collar budget and I think people started racing where that was feasible, Nostalgia Racing. The events have a completely different feel and atmosphere than a National meet due to the low budget, ingenuity and "Family Friendly" environment generated by these events. ???

                        I think that we are at this point because the NHRA and IHRA have completely alienated the true stape of the Drag Racing genre, and that is the simple sportsman. Corporate sponsors, high dollar parts and thick wallets re-invented the Nostalgia event. As a sportsman we were left to build bracket cars if we wanted to compete in a cost effective racing environment and that eliminated the fans from wanting to see how fast a tube chassis car could chase down a Chevy Beretta. The sportsmen desire to complete is made much more difficult when there are no cars to utilize as a daily driver/weekend bracket racer. People were given the opportunity to take a look at where they were and where they wanted to be and they created a niche that was built upon those points. It's back to the "Grass Roots" of the sport when it was cost effective, family friendly, and simple. We will eventually grow out of the Nostalgia Racing environment that has been created but, it will take quite a while and I seriously doubt people will let it go as easily as it was sacraficed for the sake of speed in the past. People now realize what they were missing and it will not disappear quickly, more and more cars become Nostalgia every day and as long as we follow the format as before (cost effectiveness, family friendly, and simplicity) it will not fade into the background rapidly. Ingenuity will most likely overcome the issues of the event disappearing and that my friends is changing and adapting to the environment that we created. That's just my 2 cents. ;D

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                        • #13
                          Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                          Wicked....very well said.

                          Brian
                          That which you manifest is before you.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                            I like the retro pics HR runs from time to time, some pics of fuel dragsters ,am I correct in saying FED's also? Those pics just evoke excitement in me, wieh I had the resources to build one. I also like Garage magazine ,it brings alot of retro cars to ink. I would like to see this on genre of drgracing live, it was in the time of when I was born.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Barnstormin': Is there a Future in Nostalgia?

                              Sorry for the spelling ,its " wish I had"

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