There are five distinct car guy personalities in the collector vehicle hobby.
MyStarCollectorCar has spent the past nine years on the frontlines of the hobby, along with many decades embracing the hobby, so we believe we are more than qualified to comment on the people and their choices within the hobby.
In fact, we at MyStarCollectorCar believe we took the checkered flag in this area because we were interested in the car hobby long before social science/non car guys were looking for a research topic (or grant), TV show, or shallow flavor-of-the-day topic for Facebook.
MyStarCollectorCar did its homework because we love the vintage vehicle hobby and knew we had to meet car guys at every event where they meet to share their philosophy about the world behind the vintage ride.
Consequently, we have assembled five of the most common car guy personalities in the hobby and will share them with our readers.
The first car guy personality is the stock guy. These people love originality in their rides and are fiercely loyal to the factory vehicles from a bygone era. The best example of the stock guy is a Model T owner who kept his or her T in its original condition, but any car guy who honors his or her vehicle in its factory form fits this personality.
They understand how they have become the custodians of automotive history in its purest form (bone stock) and are willing to stay with the program.
The second car guy personality is the resto mod guy. These people like the stock look of the vintage ride, but they want to improve upon the factory engineering behind the vehicle and are prepared to invest time and money to bring their vintage vehicle into the 21st century in an automotive engineering sense.
The second car guy personality likes the cool retro style of a vintage vehicle that has been massaged into a more comfortable, faster, and safer ride.
The third kind of car guy is the rat rod guy. The rat rod is a free-form kind of vehicle that typically sticks with the owner’s creative vision of minimalism and brute force. A rat rod done right should be loud, ugly and uncomfortable in its purest from-plus it should be a rock star at every car event.
The fourth car guy is a no-holds-barred type of owner. They actually felt the need for speed long before Tom Cruise’s cheesy movie slogan as a jet jockey in ‘Top Gun’. Their rides are barely street legal and are a combination of brute force and retro style.
Their vehicles are completely removed from their factory form and are built to conquer the ¼ mile track-even if the four-wheeled rockets never compete on a track. The muscled-out monsters do not ask for attention at a car show-they demand attention from onlookers.
Their owners are usually unassuming people who make a big statement in the “actions (and massive horsepower rumbling through headers) speak louder than words” philosophy.
The fifth and last guy is the custom car guy. These owners like the basic style of their retro rides but they want to bring out the best in their vintage vehicles, so they are prepared to invest in their vision of how they can make their ride look better, sleeker and cooler than its stock version. The fifth car guy makes a very personal statement with his or her customization so the result can be a home run or a fly-out, depending upon the public’s mood.
Either way, the custom work will cost a ton and the owner will build a vehicle that makes them happy because they own a one-of-a-kind custom job.
There are a few variations of these basic car guy types at events and we at MyStarCollectorCar believes we have covered the basic major personalities in the hobby.
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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