Is Weird Cool? Or Has Dare to be Different run it's course or changed?

[BangShiftChad]

Remember when anything you wanted to build was cool? Or when building stuff that was so out there was what made you cool? I think we car guys and gals still think that building something different is cool, but has the line changed?

Is really out there not cool? Or does it matter? Are some of the ones below cooler than others? Why?

I'm asking you because of a recent conversation I heard about, and want your thoughts.

[DanStokes]

I have always gone for the weird. I don't think I've ever owned a SBC unless the car came with it from the factory (thinking of my '65 Impala covert here). So a Mercedes Diesel in an S-10 is just one more in a long line. But I abandoned worrying what others thought was "cool" eons ago and I just do what pleases me. So I guess I'm not the arbiter of "cool" - I'll leave that up to whoever wants to make that judgement call.

But a 347 stroker in a Volvo wagon is, for sure, cool, at least in my hard little noggin.

Dan

[74NovaMan]

All of those have the potential to be cool. For me, it would depend on the story. Although I like the second and third cars already (based solely on the pictures).

[nesabo]

i dont think anything surprise people any more on non camaro, mustang, chevelle, etc builds

[Deaf Bob]

If it has wheels, modified or not.. It's cool!
Maybe somebody does not like a creation that somebody lovingly put together.. It's still cool.. Might not be to me, but nontheless it is cool
Take Squirrel's Nova... Beautiful car..very well done.. There ARE those who think he butchered it (not me tho)
A noce old Volvo... Cool? Yes.. A beat up one? Yes!
We here on Bangshift tend to like power, American, and cool cars..
Yes Dan Stokes' S10 Mercedes powered pickup is cool!
What is not cool? Not very much.. It's just opinion..

[DanStokes]

That Volvo Amazon can come and live with me if it isn't rusty. Those are my taste.

Dan

[Loren]

I once got a good chuckle out of an old rock documentary...Bono from U2 (sorry) was being interviewed and said that coming back into England from an early, long tour, having in his words "conquered the world", suddenly they were "just not cool enough"...because they hadn't yet seen (ready?)...The Pixies. How different were those two acts? U2 was like the 3rd-gen Camaro and sold, sold, sold in it's day...Pixies were like that Volvo, neat-o in it's own way and it'll never have to suffer from ever having been too cool, once...

What's cool for some is what's trending. For others it's what's interesting. Or it could be, what should be saved, and that may well be just another Camaro 'cause after all, wouldn't you still like to have one tucked away? Periodically, the whole "cool" argument gets tired and well, un-cool.

Since I'm too old to care about cool anymore, I'm happy with our own eclectic collection of pricey and worthless, mainstream and bizzare crap...and maybe that Matador above. Always did like those.

[squirrel]

It doesn't really matter, does it? Build what you want to build, how you want to build it.

[mike343sharpstick]

Cool only matters if: A) You want to make money on a car. B) You give a flying F what anyone else thinks of YOUR car.

[Barry Donovan]

It doesn't really matter, does it? Build what you want to build, how you want to build it.

+1
it is age related.

this question is old...different results from the same answer. Growing minds all the time.

dan's diesel, it is not unusual to a german. they have g-wagons smaller than the S-10 with the same inline..as 4x4.
I defend the 3 main boxer. The only weird backlash to facts is lack of education... a lot like the diesels.

Trending is lack of knowledge. Weird may be too..
the winners re-emerge in manufacture is many ways they do not get credit for.

the recent porsche 718 video, that is a 4 banger from 1960 with 170hp...compared to a boxster with more moving parts ina complex flat 6 than I will never fall for.
the world never got that from the 3 main bearing boxer above double digit hp in any manufacture.

You know your stuff? I like what you have done.
I am getting old too.

[Matt Cramer]

It's easy to get jaded with how many car magazines, events, and websites are out there. Often for a build to get my attention, it has to do something new and different. That can be starting with a seldom used year and model, some sort of mechanical wizardry, bodywork and fabrication that raises the bar, or maybe just trying to enter an event you'd never think somebody would try running the car in. A good example is one of Bangshift's recent feature cars - a late '70s C3 Corvette with a carbed smallblock is only a little out of the ordinary at a car show, but a very unorthodox choice to go rallyrossing in a cornfield.



Yeah. That's really daring to be different.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Does this mean we're trading in Chad for something in a tie, white shirt and gucci's?

[nickleone]

We took this on the 2012 PT. When we asked do we clean it up and paint it most said NO.
We had a 401 and auto to put in it but decided to rebuild the 196 straight six.
It now sports a performance regrind cam and 3 single barrel carbs on a custom manifold.
We are taking it on the 2016PT. Is it different ?
It was a cover car for a local bands CD. See avatar.

Nick

[Thumpin455]

I've never been much of a follower, trends don't excite me. My first car was a 67 Cougar, weren't many of them around in the early 80s among a sea of Mustangs, Camaros and Chevelles. The Cougar was different, which I liked, and it wasn't lame different like the car my mom tried to force me to get. It was a 76 Volare with a slant six, cream colored half vinyl top and clown hair orange paint, orange and cream colored gut, it looked like a clown car, or a middle aged loser clinging desperately to half his hair.

I really wanted a GTO, despite my entire family being Chrysler/Ford with me the only GM owner. In this world being a die hard Pontiac nut is different, especially with my addiction to the engines that aren't chevy. Dad screwed up, he could have gotten me into mopar but he passed on a 64 Barracuda with a 3 speed stick and a 318 in it. A 340 or 360 in that thing owuld have been a riot, and I'd probably be a mopardope now.

If it's cool it can be a goofy car. That Volare with a 526ci Hemi in it would be hilariously cool, but the six just makes it pathetic. The juxtaposition of the massive powerhouse under the hood of a goofy clown car is cool. Imagine getting beat by that thing in your Chevelle. My kind of goofy, if I had a Dodge fetish. Wagons, four doors, off brand strangeness, hell even Matadors can be cool if done right. Right can mean a wide range of things, not just a big engine, and having a popular car done wrong isn't cool either. Like 4x4 stance 64-72 A bodies that aren't straight axle gassers.

Cool cars, stance needs some work. I see lots of them around here like this, no concept of cutting the coils or using drop spindles.





Just because its different doesn't mean cool, just like because its old doesn't mean valuable or desirable. There is a guy down the road who screwed up, he bought a 66 ish off white four door Plymouth, LA two barrel small block, zero performance stuff on it, and he is asking $8500 for it with typical rust. It's not cool, not desirable, and not worth more than $1500 at most. I could do something with it, but not at his asking price, and unless its less than $800 there is no way I would bother. So many other things out there that could be done for far less.

It's very different but who cares? It could be something epic, but it is a damn long way from it now. That kind of epic is achieved on a small budget, more inspiration and perspiration than cash thrown at it. Its not a set of repop magnum 500 wheels and a four barrel from being cool, it will take lots more than that. Different that gets it is what you're looking for, not different for the sake of being different like blue hair dye and metal stuck randomly about your face.

It's like porn, you know it when you see it even if you can't define it.

[Thumpin455]

We took this on the 2012 PT. When we asked do we clean it up and paint it most said NO.
We had a 401 and auto to put in it but decided to rebuild the 196 straight six.
It now sports a performance regrind cam and 3 single barrel carbs on a custom manifold.
We are taking it on the 2016PT. Is it different ?
It was a cover car for a local bands CD. See avatar.

Nick






[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1102246[/ATTACH]

This isn't the stance, it's sure as hell not the mind bending performance that makes it cool. The wheels, the lettering, the "I don't give a damn" attitude of it is what does it. It's the act of defiance that yes, it still runs, drives, and can do the long haul without being a pansy about it. It's the old well worn guitar in an off color that simply states "I rock."