Walk through any car show or race, sit in the grandstands or on the starting line, and you or others around you will comment on something you like and something you don’t. Listening to what people don’t like is often funny, and usually a good way to judge what is happening in hot rodding and racing. Or at least an opportunity to be judgmental. Well this is your chance as well. We want to know what pisses you off lately, especially with regards to automotive trends. Is it bronze wheels? Big wheels? Vette karts? Drag Radial racing? Pro Touring? What?
I have to say, I’m about to sound like such a hypocrite since the thing bothering me most right now is car based karts like all the Vette karts showing up lately. I know, I am one of the folks who started it with the Vette Hack which is now the Roadkill Vette Kart. And I like both the original Vette Hack and the current version. And I like Leroy, Cleetus McFarland’s kart, for the most part.
My problem isn’t with the idea, but rather the execution. Which could be said for most fads or trends that I don’t like. For example, bolting a set of 18 inch wheels to your stock 1973 Camaro does not make it a Pro Touring machine.
So here is what bothers me about the karts. I say you need to go one direction or another, and not something in between. Either buy a wrecked or cheap Vette and cut the body off of it and go dirt cheap with Harbor Freight trailer lights, backyard fabrication, and the least amount of purchased or pro fabricated trickery…OR go whole hog and make the thing look like the most bitchin skeleton ever. Make it look like a car you decided couldn’t have a body because it would cover all that beautiful work going on underneath.
Do you see what I mean?
If I was going dirt cheap I would make it so light it would blow your mind, and therefore need a relatively stock powerplant to make it stupid fast. If I was going full tilt the thing would still be light but would give up some weight for trick fabrication, and would be so stupid fast as to have people questioning how it’s possible.
What do you think? What automotive trend pisses you off?
1 – No-prep racing
2 – street / outlaw racing that is so scripted its laughable
3 – turbo cars running waste gates that dump boost at 2.5 psi, just for the noise
4 – ridiculously large wheels on mid-80’s sleds
5 – rat rods with ridiculously expensive “paint” jobs to make them look sh*t
6 – pro-touring cars that look good but handle like dogs on wet linoleum
Anyone want to bet against CHMG using this topic to hate on LS engine swaps? 🙂
1 – No-prep racing
2 – street / outlaw racing that is so scripted its laughable
3 – turbo cars running waste gates that dump boost at 2.5 psi, just for the noise
4 – ridiculously large wheels on mid-80’s sleds
5 – rat rods with ridiculously expensive “paint” jobs to make them look sh*t
6 – pro-touring cars that look good but handle like dogs on wet linoleum
Ditto!!!!!!! Add dog dish hubcaps to the list. Large wheels on 60’s muscle cars suck too.
D’oh – putting Loathsome Slugs into anything with four wheels…
Stock Late model Mustangs, Challengers, Chargers, Camaros, Pickups, Imports with loud or no mufflers blasting around everywhere, revving in traffic and driving like fools!
above see my old man get off the grass imitation
That’s what I’m doing!! Coppertone vette all in should be under 3 grand. I will admit to being lame about posting current progress, but I do drag other BSers over to help.
Trend? I could only find 7 or 8 on the internet. That ain’t a lot. Cleetus… that dude jumped the shark as soon as the real motor mods started. I love the roadkill vette. I just wish they had done a better job documenting the improvements.
My beef…. dudes that stop documenting half way through the build.
Steve
Lowered rides you can not drive because they scrape the pavement. Rust covered junk that is called patina. Any 4 door truck with a short bed. Trucks lifted so high you can not turn a corner without tipping over. My biggest pet peeve? Somebody making fun of my junk that I put all my blood, sweat, tears and treasure in to
drift cars
Poser hot rodders who’s “shop” is their check book.
I seriously hate the stretched tire on 4×4 trucks trend.. I live in rural USA so of course all the rusted out beater trucks have $5000 stretched wheel and tire combos bolt up now..
I’m also tired of the LS mouth diarrhea… Its getting so bad I enjoy a good first gen SBC build now… and I’m a Ford guy!
Brodozers – especially Cali-leaned ones, light bars, stretched tires, “dumped” exhaust, etc.
LS swaps
Fake ageing
clean rat rods
Wraps unless a sponsor is paying for it
Motorcyclists who cannot get up or down the gearbox without shoving in the clutch and revving it at least 60 freakin’ times…
Murdered Out – over it
Rolling coal. There’s NO good way to execute that right. Too much fuel is just wasting fuel and not making more power.
Gosh! There’s so many good ones here already!
Rat Rods in general, clean or not, are pitiful piles of shit.
Fake patina. It’s real, or paint the damned thing.
Bagged vehicles in general, but ridiculously lowered crap that, as mentioned, couldn’t get over a parking lot ramp.
To skip over all the ones that I’d duplicate from above (though there’s some that I don’t agree with!):
Haven’t we had about enough of the whole silly deadline thing? I don’t need to see yet another video about a car being built in 3 days. I’d love to see more about doing it properly! I’m not going to take a major project like a complete paint job and half-assedly blow through as fast as possible, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability.
N/T racing. Turn the clocks on or go drown yourselves.
Hellcats, full stop. For checkbook racers without the taste to get something classy.
Patina…… to each their own but this is the automotive equivalent to dating a fugly person and thinking it’s hot.
Flat black paint jobs. Come on. That’s as bad as fake patina…..
Useless, unnesecary tech in modern cars.
Continual removal of the human factor from driving…
Fugly girls & patina are easy. That is exactly why we like them.
Car shows that are nothing but early chevelles, mustang, camaros and 57 chevys
-any larger than 15\” wheels
-billet wheels
-over restored
-checkbook cars
-huge front wheeled baggers
1) Patina. Don’t build it if you’re too lazy to paint it.
2) Tires with (more or less) no sidewall. This, of course, applies to clownishly huge wheels which seem to come fitted with tires w/o sidewalls.
Dan
This might sound a little odd, but one of my pet peeves is the whole power adder explosion in popularity. Every punk kid can make 1,000 HP with a junkyard motor and a big turbo. But, you show them a 9-second Super Stock car and they blow it off and say “that’s slow”. Those kids couldn’t change the spark plugs on a fast naturally aspirated car, but they don’t know that. The “art” of building and tuning an NA car is slowly shrinking away.
Oh, and I agree with the other ones above, also.
1/8 mile drag racing on 1/4 mile tracks. This seems to be the trend at all local tracks for even their weekly races. The operators say this is what the racers want.
What kind of pussy’s are current racers who can’t stand the extra speed? Or are they so mechanically incompetent they can’t build a car run full throttle for a 1/4 mile without hurting parts.
Maybe they should just play video games.
– Turbo anything. People claim the Supra 6-cylinder (2jz-whatever) is a “great engine”. Put a turbocharger on anything and it’ll be fast. See if these guys can make a naturally-aspirated engine to run.
– “Street racing” with trailered cars.
– Tons of great comments above I don’t need to repeat
I’ll disagree – slightly. Turbos are EXCELLENT on Diesels and the darn things make almost zero power without them. So I say that turbos go with compression ignition but the only trick to making power with a turboed Otto-cycle is the ability to keep the bottom end from exploding (and there IS something to that!).
Dan
My point exactly –> Diesels are for towing, not hot rods.
Just about all the trends Pi** me off, trends come and go!
A well built, and traditional car will always be a hit!
Short attention spans are the problem!
KK
“stanced” cars
using the term “build” like you turn a car out every day
wrapped cars instead of old school candy and flames
putting a “tune” in a motor like its a big thing
alot listed can be good and bad, depending on execution,
for me the biggest peeve is “car” guys who have NEVER DONE anything but na-say things people have spent a lot of time on.
i pretty much can respect anything people build themselves.
Well said.
LS swaps into anything non-GM
Faux patina
Ridiculously low rat rods that look like cartoon caricatures
Stanced anything
Donks
Brodozers that roll coal
Jacked up 4X4s that never go further off-road than a gravel driveway
No prep racing
Ahhhh, my people, you guys all nailed it perfectly! If I had to add to this most perfect list I’d add what has happened to Drag Racing. Modern Drag racing pisses me off. I don’t go anymore. I believe that’s why nostalgia events are so popular. Oh, I can’t tolerate that stupid patina fad of putting assorted rusted junk & crap on a equally rusted roof rack festooned to the top of an equally ridiculous rat rod piece of crap.
RE
LS haters.
1. Electronic Throttle Stops
2. \”Race cars\” that shift automatically
3. 1/8 mile racing with big tire cars
4. 1,000\’ racing
5. Did I mention Electronic Throttle Stops?
Most of you guys nailed it all! +1 on the flat black. That can’t possibly be any more played out.
I saw an expensive NEWER Mercedes-Benz that was paint a flat-gray color…. you guessed it –> it looked like PRIMER, LOL.
“Stretched and Stanced” rotbox cars with fart-pipes.
Patina. Says you’re too damn lazy to put the work in to paint it.
Diesel dorks with turboed coal rollers. Diesels are for working, not pretend racing.
Lots of good comments already. I agree on the fake patina. I hate the donk cars with huge wheels that can\’t turn. I grew up around drag racing in the 80\’s and 90\’s. I really miss a full tank of nitro and quarter mile racing. I love drag racing, but big show NHRA just doesn\’t do it for me any more. I am not a fan of all of the current trends including 90% nitro, 1000 ft. racing, no nitro throttle wacks, current Pro Stock, etc.
Modern muscle car owners that pour a ton of money into 1000 HP motors, then only want to roll race 60-160 mph. Finish out the rest of the car so you can start from a stand still like a man for gosh sakes!!!
The comments before mine are spot-on. All I would add as a general automotive trend I detest is how, seemingly, every newer car brand looks alike. I understand governmental safety regs have pretty much doomed cars into looking like econo-shitbox clones, but come on, man. Does every Euro-Japo-American sedan have to look alike?
Street Outlaws \”celebrity\” nonsense
No prep racing
Brodozers
Donkers
Hoonigans TV show
Brian Lohnes\’s constant rerepeatpeating of his stories-lotsa mileage on many stories for years
You’re still here though, right?
Bangshift is terrific.
It’s when you see a story repeated every couple of months for the last three years,and the editor tag is always……..
Bangshift rules,”bob”.
1. Wheels larger than 16″
2. All Chip Foose designs (see No. 1, above)
*The trend to just cut a hole in the front fender and let the exhaust stick out 2′
*Diesel trucks being the new “ricers”
*Every punk with a turbo on their heap claiming it’s making 1,000hp
*….and most of what you guys have already listed
Tall Wheels! Like you are going to take your resto-mod Malibu (or Suburban) to Le Mans and NEED the utmost contact patch and sidewall stiffness. Just because Detroit goes that way doesn’t mean everyone has to follow.
Allowing that idiotstick geordie to post on this website.
And p.o.s. rat rods/rat trucks/fake patina. They all look the same, sound the same, have the same Mexican blankets/seats/shifters/steering wheels, c’mon guys, use your talent to build something a little different, ok?
Restrictive racing rules that result in spec engines. Time to give top fuel a 40 gallon pump and RWYB, any motor combo and weight breaks for different heads.
Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car, bring back Pro comp and police the weight breaks.
Same goes for Pro Mod,
Drag racing electronics – just run it out the back door no stutter, no throttle stop.
Roll racing , my uncle had a 327 with double hump heads, and stupid big wheels
Wheelie bar “adjustments” just prior to staging. No discernible movement in this silly ploy….and the stand-in-front-of-car guy ahead of the burnout. What benefit can this possibly be?
10k craigslist junk rust buckets \’cause its a \”classic\”
What grinds my gears is when someone looks at someone else\’s car and verbalizes \”I don\’t like it\”. Most people build cars to please themselves, not some jackoff who is all to quick to tell you your car is junk.
1. 30 guys to stage a car at the outlaw race
2. 1000 ft racing
3. NHRA
4. .Having to change perfectly good seat belts every 2 years
5. buybacks
* excessive camber/stanced cars = dopey
* any electronics (outside of info monitoring & msd igntion) in drag racing, especially 890/990/1090 classes, sorry racers
* street outlaws = just a big joke
* drift racing + not real racing if judges have to score you
* NHRA ProStock class = out of control costs
* DONKS = cars with huge wheels 24/26/28 inch wheels = stupid
* LS swaps = not needed
* turbo and supercharged race cars = build a bigger N/A motor
Just my opinion, you are all welcome to it 😉
Seeing how 1000’s of people make their living off of check writers and help employ 100’s of custom shops across the country, I will not put them down. I am one of those people who makes his living off of check writers.
My two pet peeves is complete lack of imagination in a car build. Copying and pasting builds seen dozens of times are a bore.
Second, stupid amount of money being spent on SEMA builds that never get driven anywhere. What a bunch of weenies. Makes me think they are nothing more than over priced posers.
Diesel swaps ,seing a perfectly good musclecar puking huge plum of black smoke all the way down the quarter . And diesels are nothing without a turbo .
1. Bitching about how there’s no imagination or creativity in most cars, then bitching about how someone that does something different messed up their car.
2. The phrase “Nice car, but the wheels are too big”.
3. The phrase “Nice car, but I would have done – insert brilliant modification here – instead.”
4. Having an extremely narrow concept of “cool” that hasn’t changed or expanded since high school, and bagging on anything that doesn’t fit that definition.
There’s very little that pisses me off about cars. People on the other hand…
1.LS swaps are the new 350/350 combo. There is zero innovation involved.
2.Bought cars. I.E. every C6-C7 corvette or Hellcat that owners parade around like it\’s something special. Again, zero innovation
3. Roll racing. They can only afford a high HP engine but couldn\’t follow through with the rest of the car. Same thing with \”pro touring\” cars that can\’t turn or stop
4. 25K in paint and interior with a 1500 dollar engine and trans. Really!? Gotta love the 150.00 chrome dress up kit they put on them though
I forgot one , late model cars in car shows . You go on a car show to see nice classic cars or built hot rods but the lot is flooded with late Mustangs and Challengers , the owners just put bigger wheels on it and thinks he is a master car builder .
People following trends.
I like a well done car of any flavour, but seeing a dozen almost identical cars no matter how well done is boring.
I’d rather see a tacky, over done ’70s street machine or van than another cookie cutter Camaro.