Car Culture

The memory of one’s first car is something that sticks with you forever. Those that were fortunate enough to own cars in the 1960’s and early 1970’s often long for the days when big engines and big horsepower ruled the day. Lay Lyman in the story The Red Convertible realized when he laid eyes on his first car, the car is more than an inanimate object. “There it was parked, large as life. Really, as if it was alive,” (Madden 237), wrote Louise Erdrich in 1984. Today the car culture faces an uncertain future in the wake of rising gas prices and tougher emission standards.

In 1951, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) was founded by Wally Parks to provide a governing body for the sport of drag racing. Up until this time the only place to race cars was on the streets. The NHRA began imposing rules and safety regulations to the sport, and the car culture got a stiff shot in the arm. Because of the advent of organized drag racing, the automobile industry witnessed the biggest jump in automotive innovations since the birth of the automobile over one half century earlier. Automobile motors became bigger and more powerful through a more efficient use of fuel. In the early years of drag racing, gas mileage was not an issue. Power and speed were the issue.

While the car culture was born with the birth of the automobile, and it began its boom in the early 1950’s, the car culture as we know it blossomed in the 1960’s. “Where were you in ’62,” was the tag-line from the trailer for one of the most famous car culture films in history, American Graffiti (Lucas). George Lucas saw the 1960’s as the era that touched the heart of the car crazy fanatics of the 1970’s when American Graffiti was released in theaters, as-well-as the time of his own youth (Filmsite). American Graffiti brought back the feelings that so many had begun to lose, such as the following: the love for cruising main street, drive-in diners, and young love. All of the sudden it was cool to have the shiny cars with the big motors. Unfortunately, almost as soon as American Graffiti hit the theaters, the gas crunch of the 1970’s began to take its toll on the car culture. Big motors were out of fashion, and big cars were left to the wealthy. Chrome bumpers were replaced with plastic bumpers that could withstand five miles per hour impacts. The economy car was taking center stage.

Fast cars with big motors, known as muscle cars, were becoming extinct. Emissions control standards were on the rise, and gas guzzling, pollution spewing cars of the day were under attack. The automotive industry was forced to produce more fuel efficient cars with better emissions in order to satisfy not only a more restrictive government, but a more demanding public as well. Gas prices were on the rise, gas rationing at hand, and people were tired of feeding fuel thirsty beasts of past years. Instead of eight huge cylinders sucking gas through two or more carburetors, the public was becoming happy with six or even four small cylinders and one small carburetor. Getting from point A to point B fast was no longer the object; getting there cheaply was the object.

As the 1970’s turned into the 1980’s, gas guzzling muscle cars from the 1960’s and 1970’s were being sold for next to nothing. Only a few cars held collector value: cars such as the Corvette, Camaro, and Mustang. The car culture faced an identity crisis during this time, and it appeared as though the car culture had died. There was, however, a side effect of all the emissions control that began to show itself in the 1980’s. By becoming more efficient, these motors showed potential to become more and more powerful and still remain within the standards set by the Government. Power, though still small by comparison to the monster motors of the 1960’s and early 1970’s, was beginning to grow. Before the end of the 1980’s, the muscle car would be reborn once again.

The Chevrolet Corvette had long been an icon of the American car culture since its inception in 1953. It improved and become the epitome of muscle cars through 1972, but as the energy crisis struck it began to become more and more anemic. Though the Corvette became more and more technologically advanced, its power remained a small fraction of what it was in its glory days. In 1989, however, Chevrolet made a bold move that pushed the envelope on technology and engineering. A new breed of Corvette was born. With an all new, four valves per cylinder motor engineered by Mercury Marine (A boat motor company of all things), the new ZR-1 Corvette was introduced and shook the automotive world. Pushing 380 horsepower, the LT5 motor of the ZR-1 Corvette produced more horsepower than any production car had seen in almost 20 years. Though it was designated the motor the LT5, Chevrolet chief engineer Don Runkle called it “the King of the Hill” (Liffingwell & Benford 165). Introduced in Geneva, Switzerland in March, 1989, the ZR-1 was greeted with open arms. Within the next few years Chevrolet managed to squeeze even more power out of the LT5 motor. A new muscle car was born, and enthusiasm for automobiles was on the rise. The car culture was making a comeback.

In 1992, in response to the Corvette ZR1, Dodge introduced the Viper. The Dodge Viper was a 10-cylinder 488 cubic inch motor (compared to the 350 cubic inch Corvette motor), and the fuse had been set for the next explosion in the car culture wars. Suddenly, cars with big motors could still get respectable gas mileage considering the power they produced. High output cars of this nature didn’t come cheap, but the technology they were spawned from began to filter down to the smaller cars being produced. Soon small cars with small motors were producing horsepower numbers that matched the monster motor cars of the past. People could once again be enthused about the cars they were driving, and they became much more than basic transportation.
As the 1990’s slipped gracefully into the new millennium, the youth that might have been overlooked by the car companies selling the high dollar, monster motor supercars, started a trend toward cars that until then had been largely overlooked. The cars that were considered economy cars, once used primarily as point A to point B transportation, became the basis for the car culture of the new generation. Called Tuners, the economy cars have been customized, personalized, and souped up in ways that few expected possible. Small four cylinder compact cars now displayed chrome, custom paint, turbo chargers, leather, and sound systems that cost as much as a new car. This was the trend of the modern car culture, and in the face of the new energy crisis of the first decade of the new century, it appears that this may be what all but the very wealthy have to look forward to.

While we fight to hold on to the past, we still must face reality. The beloved Corvette is facing its own mortality in the face of the ever tightening emissions standards coming in 2009. The big motors may be gone forever, and with the push to use more environment friendly fuels, the gasoline motor might just disappear for good. “The automobile retains its firm hold over our psyche because it continues to represent a metaphor for what Americans have always prized: the seductive ideal of private freedom, personal mobility, and empowered spontaneity” (Commondreams.org). But we may just have to change what we stand for. We may have to rewrite the definition of car culture. It may one day not evoke the memory of the smell of gasoline; it might just bring about memories of vegetable oil, or even water.

Works Cited

Erdrich, Louise .”The Red Convertible.” Exploring Literature 3rd Edition. Ed. Frank Madden. Pearson Longman, 2007. 236-242

Leffingwell, Randy and Tom Benford. “Corvette 50 Years.” St. paul:Motorsbooks International, 2003

“American Graffiti.” Dir. George Lucas. Perf. Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Howard. Universal Pictures, 1973

Filmsite. “American Graffiti (1973).” 1996-2008. http://www.filmsite.org/amerg.html (Accessed March 01, 2008)

Commondreams.org Newscenter. “Well, America: Is The Car Culture Working?” July 9, 2000. http://www.commondreams.org/views/070900-104.htm (Accessed March 2, 2008)

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. “Car Culture.” January 18, 2008. http://www.smoca.org/exhibit.php?id=70 (Accessed March 3, 2008)