Two years ago - in my town of Peterborough - which has a very high car/bike contigent in the days past - we would have 100 plus car out on a Friday night, bikes, rods, street machines, etc.
Now, we get barely 3-5 out on any given night - pick one.
Car shows - those boasting 200-400 cars are down 50-150 cars on any given show nite. Some shows barely get a dozen cars anymore.
Are we all retired from cars? Dead or dying, broke, lost interest????
Maybe off topic but I think it fits the post
Way way back in the last century probably around 1980-82 . A buddy of mine had a really cherry 71-72 buick skylark beautiful bronze colour with black ss stripes hood roof trunk . Pretty hopped up running around 11.80,s . It blew a slick during a spirited saturday night gathering of like minded individuals . Rolled it , destroyed it , Went down in steep ditch hit a concrete culvert , Just ruined it .
A week or two later a guy working an auto wreckers near base borden calls him and says you gotta get out here now . We go saturday and there it sits . A 71-72 bronze buick skylark bronze , black and goldish interior . Buick v8 ran , barely . It had a hole in side of block . He bought it for 2-400 bucks with ownership . Cell phones werent big then , so I had to motor over to a friends place get his truck and trailer
We got it home and had a unfit ownership in his name by noon .
He changed all his drive line and mods into the new body
Now its 2026 and box body 80-82 malibu project cars sell for ten grand
We are dealing with dinosaurs now
How many 20 year olds do you see driving v8,s from the pre 80,s
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I,m as cool as Milner , but axeually a bit more like Beckwith
As Chris put it "affordability" has become a major factor. I have been restoring and building cars for 40 plus years and fortunately had to send out very little. It was my business and my job. Building a car for yourself or a customer is a guarantee of money lost. Lots of inventory out there and not many buyers.
Out here the cruise ins still get a good turn out.
But it is mostly old guys that have owned the car forever.
Not very many young lads getting into the old car stuff.
They can buy a nice car for a lot less then fixing an old car.
We went to a local show a few weeks ago here in Niagara. Most of the guys I knew from the 70's........that should give you an idea of the average age of the owners.
My youngest guy has a '77 Ventura ( purchased when he was 14 )that he just got on the road this year - thanks to the generosity of Shag - who happened to have an affordable motor/trans.
My son is 32. He has a couple pals with older cars.......but his circle of " piston-head" buddies isn't as large as mine was in the '70's.
Younger guys today - for the most part - appreciate factory hot-rods more so than home built hot-rods, can't say I blame them with the HP numbers they're cranking out......plus they usually handle better.......but they're more difficult to work on, as a result they don't get the " hands-on" experience that we ( us old guys) did.
