MyStarCollectorCar

MORE CAR GUY THOUGHTS.

Jerry Admin

I’ve touched on this subject a few times, but the car hobby is so massive it can’t be summed up in a few articles.

That’s why I wanted to pump out a few more car guy thoughts.

Jerry Sutherland

My first thought is about the historic rivalry between General Motors tribes.

This rivalry doesn’t exist anymore, but for decades, a Pontiac guy was a sworn enemy of a Chevy guy. Sure, they were under the same roof, but General Motors believed competition between divisions fostered innovation and efficiency.

I learned this after I saw the backlash against Canadian Pontiacs because the northern Ponchos ran Chevy motors on Chevy platforms. It still exists today because US Pontiac guys always spot the 327 Chevy small block in the Pontiac Parisiennes—and they don’t like it.

I get it. The GM divisions were cloaked in secrecy, so they developed their own engines, transmissions, platforms and profiles for years. A Chevy was just another competitor to Pontiac and Oldsmobile.     

My second thought is about patina versus paint.

I freely admit I’m a new paint guy—unless the factory paint is still decent. The paint tells a story for sure—especially if the car was stored under a pine tree for 50 years. But is that a story you want to continue telling?

Yes, if it keeps an old relic on the road. That’s better than flirting with a car crusher, but how about playing the long game and planning for a decent paint job down the road? Learn how to do it and you’ll be a better person–with 100 new friends.

My third thought is about movie car crashes.

Every car guy on the planet mourns the loss of classic iron in movies. It’s like watching your dog get run over…a painful memory that will haunt you forever. Car guys do some mental math every time they watch an old movie and see a now-valuable vintage Mustang get chewed up in a staged crash. The stunt driver may survive, but that pony car is obliterated—it’s one of life’s cruel mysteries. 

My fourth thought is about a learning curve. I’m a conventional thinker–and classic Detroit iron is where I live in the car hobby.

That doesn’t mean I loathe German, Japanese or British iron—I’m just less interested. Despite that, I’ll never turn down a chance to learn about how they built cars, because once you quit learning—you quit living. Learning more about other forms of classic iron is a pleasant byproduct of many, many interviews.

My fifth thought is about TV car guys shows versus Internet car guy shows. My nephew swore off conventional TV car guy shows years ago–now I get it.

The manufactured drama was insulting to real car guys because building a car or taking a road trip doesn’t need an injection of drama. Drama is a natural byproduct of the car hobby. Every genuine car guy knows this every time they source a part–or have an old car quit in the middle of a busy road. The ones who don’t get this concept write plots for bad car TV shows.

My last thought is about the decline of paper car magazines. Paper publications died the day newspapers published online editions. That killed them—they never saw it coming.

I’m torn on this because MyStarCollectorCar wouldn’t exist without the Internet, but I still like looking through old car magazines. I miss the style and content of the old magazines, but I’m a 21st century tech guy now.

Stay tuned for the next edition of random car guy thoughts…sometime this year. I’m not big on deadlines—even though car guy TV lived and died by them.

Jerry Sutherland

By: Jerry Sutherland

Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post,  Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.

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