Relative to how it was in the 60's? (which predate me) I'm sure it has lost a great deal of its luster. The big car manufacturers were competing with each other to produce the biggest sleepers - cars with underrated horsepower both for competitive and insurance purposes - and they could be ordered from the dealer with very powerful engines.
In my hometown in the 60s and 70s you had kids simply circling the park for hours to see, be seen and show off their cars. You had drag racing up and down straight lines of road the kids had marked off at exactly 1/4 mile. TV shows featured cars as major plot points or even characters. Think Grandpa's Dragula in The Munsters, My Mother The Car and even into the 80's with Kitt and Knight Rider.
I think the modding and racing culture is still there, but it's moved on into pc building, make spaces and perhaps even open source contributions. There are other ways now to do something interesting and get your name out there than spinning a wrench. And gas prices and emission laws on the tail of the gas crises in the early 1970s certainly played its part in the death of car culture. Just my humble opinion of course.
> modding and racing culture is still there, but it's moved on into pc building, make spaces and perhaps even open source contributions.
I don't think so. Cars and computers/programming are completely different interests. I'm into both but the enjoyment of cars isn't really matched by anything else and I can't see it being replaced. Neither would any of my friends who are into cars. There's still a big thriving car culture out there, it's just moved upscale a bit due to the other things you described like rising costs and reduction in time and space.
I think it depends on where you grow up and what's valued in your area - but kids are very much influenced by their peers. There's still car culture - I wasn't arguing that there isn't - I was saying for your average high school kid in the little Texas town I'm talking about it doesn't have the same influence it once did. Of course I haven't surveyed the kids so I don't have anything beyond anecdotal data but I know the park is no longer encircled for hours by kids in cars every Sunday afternoon. Their interests lie elsewhere.
I think people who do OSS, and people who mod cars do it for very different reasons. The thrill of going fast and the thrill of solving a logic problem are very different.
In my hometown in the 60s and 70s you had kids simply circling the park for hours to see, be seen and show off their cars. You had drag racing up and down straight lines of road the kids had marked off at exactly 1/4 mile. TV shows featured cars as major plot points or even characters. Think Grandpa's Dragula in The Munsters, My Mother The Car and even into the 80's with Kitt and Knight Rider.
I think the modding and racing culture is still there, but it's moved on into pc building, make spaces and perhaps even open source contributions. There are other ways now to do something interesting and get your name out there than spinning a wrench. And gas prices and emission laws on the tail of the gas crises in the early 1970s certainly played its part in the death of car culture. Just my humble opinion of course.