[MRaburn]

CarDomain Blog


By Gary Faules
NASA Mentor Director



They say history repeats itself, and I must concur. Figuratively and literally, I've been around the block and seen it all. Back in the early '70s, I owned my first service station, which coincidently was when the first oil embargoes took place. They lead to long gas lines and short hours of operation for all of us, but I kind of liked the way and it left me with the rest of the day to do what I truly loved—working on cars. And doing it for profit made it all the better.
What stands out in my memory the most is remembering the "average" cars everyone drove. Everything on the road had a V8, and we're not taking low compression, low horsepower mills either. There were so many 396, 428, 427, 390, 396 cubic inch high-compression engines in use that it was easy to see why there was a need for a gas station on every corner. And why not? Gas was only 30 cents a gallon, and that was full service with stamps and even some steak knives and those awesome little Hot Wheels that every one loves so much!
It was the Muscle Car Era and life was good, there were places to go, things to do and awesome cars to do it in—not to mention the fact that even granny's car would burn rubber from one stop light to the next. Literally! The Mustang was (and still is) the most popular car on the road, everyone had their preference of what was the baddest ride in town, and if you didn't own or drive a Chevy, Ford, or Dodge you were some sort of freak. Nobody would admit publicly to owning more than one, and everyone held a torch for one or the other. As soon as someone said their brand was faster or better than yours there was either going to be a fist fight or a race, and yes, even the grannies would take on all comers.
The truth is, today is a replay of exactly how things were back then. There were performance cars for everyone's taste and lines were drawn in the sand (or on the asphalt) much like they were back then. Everyone chose sides and it's all started all over again. What did the oil companies learn from all this? Basically, they learned they don't have to make up lies about gas shortage in order to raise gas prices, because people will pay for gas regardless what it cost. They could raise it to $10 a gallon next week and the freeways will still be a parking lot.
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Back in the late '70s we saw fewer and fewer muscle cars and engines got smaller and smaller. Insurance companies lowered rates to anyone with smaller import cars, and that was the beginning of the success of the import cars on American soil. Car manufactures began pushing cars that got good fuel economy and built cars overnight that seemed to be lacking any quality control—let alone taste—and we saw even the mighty Mustang morph into the Mustang II.

Many performance buffs did the sacrilegious no-no of selling their cars. That would prove to be a costly mistake, as many rides of the era have since increased in value tenfold. Over the next decade, people agonized as they drove Pintos and Vegas, and wore dark sunglasses so as not to be recognized. But little by little, things began to turn back. People started to forget the inconvenience of the long gas lines, and they wanted something that had been missing far to long—HORSEPOWER! It didn't take long for car manufactures to learn that there was nothing better than a low compression four banger engine to install a turbo on, and before you knew it, performance cars came creeping back into the market place, and everyone ditched their sunglasses.

The bottom line? High performance cars are back, and so are the high gas prices which will no doubt cause people to begin looking into buying economy-minded cars. This will cause the performance market to once again taper off, and at the same time as fuel efficient cars hit the roads, gas prices will once again return to something more bearable.

It's important to point out that as a result of the last gas crunch many manufactures were forced to spend millions of dollars on research and development. The end result was overwhelming, as we began to see four banger cars that could run the quarter mile in the same times that were turned by big block cars from the '60s. Not only were they impressive, but they were doing it with better gas mileage to boot.

A few of us lucky die-hards never gave up performance, and we never had to wear the sunglasses that hid us while we drove some car built for a sloth. Today I enjoy driving my Viper as well as the original Sheblys I bought back in the '60s, and I have friends that still drive the original GTO's and Chevy Malibus. Today is as good a time to take advantage of buying a 600 horsepower car as any other. High fuel prices make it hard for dealers to sell high performance cars, which means it's a good time to get a great deal. Today, I read an article about joining the 600 Horsepower Club which consist of all stock cars that can be purchased right over the counter so to speak. During no other decade have so many cars offered so much speed. The secret behind the speed is power, because to go fast you need horsepower—and lots of it. Gas prices will continue to climb but look on the bright side, for some it will make it a lot easier to buy the car of their dreams. Any good stock broker will tell you to take advantage of the rough times, and the automotive world is no different. In 1968 I paid less than $6000 for one-of-a-kind Shelby GT500 which I still own, and it has increased a few bucks—so much so that I can afford the cash to drive it.

I love this photo of my Viper. It's parked in front of an old gas station in my home town in Oregon that my parents used to buy gas in when I was a boy.




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