Did the Car Hoby Used to Cost Less?

[Vettezuki]

Question especially for the old timers here. I get the impression that while there is a lot more stuff available these days, back in the olden times, say 80s and earlier, it wasn't nearly as expensive relatively speaking for the common man to have a project car to fart around with.

[Damian]

My coworker is 67, and he tells me about all the things he used to do to his cars. He always talks like it was the normal thing to do was throw in a cam and headers back.

[Vettezuki]

Well, the original hot rodding car hobby grew out of straight up working class status. They had very little to induldge, so they became very resourceful. I'm hoping Glenn will come in here and give us a run down, as I'm sure he knows a ton.

[Shaolin Crane]

I think what it was, was there was a relativly small amount of stuff you could actually purchase and most performance upgrades were all labor. Remember you had a rediculously fast car if you had 1hp per cubic inch back in the day.
Now a days, 2-3hp per Cubic inch is the norm, blowers, nitrous, and cylinder heads are readily available and of course are quite techical thus being expensive.

[Small White Car]

Pay attention, nothing ever changes except where we put the decimal point.

When I was into air cooled VW's the parts were fairly inexpensive in relation to other car marques however it was just as hard for me to budget the extra cash back then as it is now to buy parts for the Miata, which in reality is today's air cooled VW when it comes to hopping stuff up on the cheap.


I figure that once upon a time I was an ocean
But now I'm a mountain range
Something unstoppable set into motion
Nothing is different, but everything's changed

[BADDASSC6]

Yes it was less expensive back in the day. But a 13 second car was fucking considered pretty fucking quick even with a built short block and a power adder up through the mid nineties. Today, it's hard to find a car that doesn't run low 13's to mid twelves from the factory.

[94cobra69ss396]

Back when I started (1988) the really fast street racers (we raced in Ontario off Etiwanda) were running low 11's. One of my friends had a buddy that everyone wanted to race and he always won. I found out later that he had only run his car on a track once and ran 11 flat. That's what the Chevelle is running on the engine alone now and I consider it to be slow.

Also, back then electronic fuel injection was new. No one was building quick FI cars. The fast cars were carb'd and running a hidden nitrous kit. If someone was running a blower it was a 671 roots and they had a ton of money in it.

[BRUTAL64]

This is easy--back in the late 60's-- you would buy a new car and then take it apart and change EVERYTHING.


Yep, I helped do that many a time.:p

[BRUTAL64]

Back when I started (1988) the really fast street racers (we raced in Ontario off Etiwanda) were running low 11's. One of my friends had a buddy that everyone wanted to race and he always won. I found out later that he had only run his car on a track once and ran 11 flat. That's what the Chevelle is running on the engine alone now and I consider it to be slow.

Also, back then electronic fuel injection was new. No one was building quick FI cars. The fast cars were carb'd and running a hidden nitrous kit. If someone was running a blower it was a 671 roots and they had a ton of money in it.

Yep, that was how it was. I did street racing from 69 to 91. It was the carb cars that were fast and if you couldn't build a FAST engine you put Nitrous on it ( or a blower ).

[TimAT]

You could do a complete rebuild of a SBC for less than $500. Including a new cam and lifters, all the rings bearings and gaskets, and still have enough left for beer.

[Damian]

Back in the day you didn't have smog and CARB issues and gas wasn't $4 a gallon.

[jedhead]

When I was rebuilding engines, I did most of all prep work my self. The machine shop did the boring and balancing of the rotating parts. My brothers and I did alot of trading to get the parts we needed. When we needed to rebuild a powerglide for our 65 Impala bracket car, we enrolled into a transmission class at Goldenwest College and talked our instructor into using the transmission for the class project. It cost us $90 and a few nights for a full race transmission. The engines were more simple with carbs and no electronics. Like others said 13 second cars were quick in the day, but I think one of the main reasons times have dropped so much are because the tires are so much better today. My 70 Chevelle had a lot of power, but I could not put all the power down on the pavement.

Bob

[Vettezuki]

When I was rebuilding engines, I did most of all prep work my self. The machine shop did the boring and balancing of the rotating parts. My brothers and I did alot of trading to get the parts we needed. When we needed to rebuild a powerglide for our 65 Impala bracket car, we enrolled into a transmission class at Goldenwest College and talked our instructor into using the transmission for the class project. It cost us $90 and a few nights for a full race transmission. The engines were more simple with carbs and no electronics. Like others said 13 second cars were quick in the day, but I think one of the main reasons times have dropped so much are because the tires are so much better today. My 70 Chevelle had a lot of power, but I could not put all the power down on the pavement.

Bob

Tire tech is a HUGE deal. But it's also clear, off the shelf cars are radically more powerful than they used to be not that long ago. Consider the V6 Mustang . . hell the V6 Accord(!).

[jedhead]

Agree.
Much of the increase in power came from the integrated circuits. The advancement in computers controlling the engines have revolutionized the engines today. When I owned my 1974 Jensen-Healey, most people including gear heads didn't see an aluminum DOHC 16valve 4 cylinder with twin 2 barrel delloros in which the engine block is covered with stress webbing so the front suspension mounted to the engine and the engine mounted to the unibody. Almost all 4 bangers are 16 valve DOHC. Some make 120hp per liter!

Bob

[BRUTAL64]

When I was rebuilding engines, I did most of all prep work my self. The machine shop did the boring and balancing of the rotating parts. My brothers and I did alot of trading to get the parts we needed. When we needed to rebuild a powerglide for our 65 Impala bracket car, we enrolled into a transmission class at Goldenwest College and talked our instructor into using the transmission for the class project. It cost us $90 and a few nights for a full race transmission. The engines were more simple with carbs and no electronics. Like others said 13 second cars were quick in the day, but I think one of the main reasons times have dropped so much are because the tires are so much better today. My 70 Chevelle had a lot of power, but I could not put all the power down on the pavement.

Bob

Yep, tires make a big difference. In 1974 I was in all Corvette Drag meet at OCIR. I could spin those tires with out even trying. Hell, even the BF Goodrich's I have now are better than the tires I had in 1972.:judge:

Oh yea, I won my class--I beat a 327 360 hp 62 Vette on the final round. I ran a 14.03 with shitty tires.


All things being even, I'd rather go back to 1969 and build the shit then. It was a LOT of fun. Now, It's all a big headache to build stuff.:(