Nostalgic gassers, rat rods street rods and factory rods are at the top of my list. Second would definitely be the muscle cars and always the luxurious Caddys and Lincolns. Let's face it: I simply love older cars. Cars with style and panache, sometimes seeming to ooze sex as they rumble by, never needed a self conscious rev or burnout. These cars are fast tough and mean. You give me a late model car that can last 30+ years and I'll give you a real family sedan chromed, chopped, channeled or 100% factory that's 60 years old.

I'm not a normal version of someone from my generation. Most guys are dumping money into their Preludes and their Civics (yucky). I personally want to preserve our vehicular heritage as a link to our past. What so many of my generation fail to understand is that these cars have character, someone wanted to make this exception piece of art that was functional and could withstand the test of time. These relic automobiles were loved by a person so much that they spent their savings on them. These cars are memories suspended in metal, chrome and leather. Families made the ever present migration that has always classified us as human in these roaring beauties.

Don't get me wrong technology has given us many wonderful advancements in the automotive industry: plastic, alternators, complex wiring, and even talking cars. But common, has anyone here seen or read Stephen King's Christine? Old cars have souls: they breathe and feel and if you listen they will talk to you, just not in a creepy automated voice. They tell you to open up that carburetor and dump the gas strait in and let 'er rip, roar and scream! They tell you in short pathetic gasps that they are thirsty. You control them not a computer. You can actually bond with these cars if you just understand them. They are so simple to understand if you just take the time.

I went to school for auto body restoration and collision repair my elective: Street Rod Fabrication. I believe that maintaining our historical cars is as important as maintaining old historical buildings. They speak volumes about the lives they have touched. Since their birth they have watched and chronicled our triumphs as well as our failures. I've heard of so many stories, way before my time, of women giving birth in the back of a 50-something Buick or similar car. That's someone's life just beginning in a car! We all know that not many women can give birth in the back of a Toyota Celica! And more often than not that

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Classic cars: Why restoration will always be popular?
We want to hear your view. Write now!