|
"Automotive News", the dealers'
version of "AutoWeek", "Automotive Industries",
"Automotive Design and Production" and other
such automotive trade magazines keep auto industry executives
apprized of new and future developments in design and
engineering. Looking down the road to the future paints
an interesting picture of the cars of 2020. Computer
technology has progressed rapidly in the last 15 years
and will accelerate even more rapidly in the next 14
years. Future cars will be computers on wheels. Fantastic
machines that "read" the road and traffic
360° from the driver's seat at a distance of 1000
yards. You cannot do anything that is not safe because
cars will not allow that option. Your speed, braking,
passing and activities are all monitored and
controlled and recorded on site and from any
distance. Safe and comfortable travel, but not really
fun. No hot rodding, thrilling drifts through the corners
and exhilarating acceleration. That would not be safe
in a new 2020 automobile.
So how will we make driving fun in 2020?
Last month's article requesting your choices for the
top collectible cars in 2020 is getting good response.
If you have not sent in your list, please click
here to do so. We know you think about future collectibles
because that is a natural curiosity of literature collectors.
Next month's issue of the "Automotive Chronicles"
will feature the results. If your results are included
you will get your moment of fame.
Assuming the professional "fortune tellers"
are correct, and our new cars in 2020 are computers
on wheels, I would imagine that anything old and fun
is capable of being collectible.
Today the majority of collectors of
literature and cars are caught up in nostalgia for the
dream machines of their youth. Anything older than their
teen years is historical. A father explaining the excitement
he felt at his first sighting of a 1953 Corvette will
ring hollow to his 40 year old son who gets ecstatic
over the sight of a red 1970 Plymouth Road Runner just
like the one he got to ride in as a kid.
Do historical cars just fade away with
age? Where are all those Model T Fords that were so
popular in the 1950s with collectors? They are in museums
and the collectors, for the most part, are in nursing
homes. Will they ever become popular again? They are
cheap and plentiful. Are they bargains or bad investments?
WARNING: What you are about
to hear may affect your bank account — positively
or negatively? We may be about to see the rebirth of
the prewar marketplace. These cars are becoming novelties.
No searching for rare parts for these older restorations.
Already assembled and needing only cleaning, painting
and maintenance. Fun cars. Not fast, powerful or sexy
— just fun. They gather crowds and are a blast
to drive around the neighborhood and take to shows and
parades.
Not too surprisingly, when we have
to go through our parents or grandparents home upon
their death or move to a nursing home, we come across
brochures or photographs of the cars they once owned
when young, or restorations they had back in the 1950s
of brass era cars or 1930s classics. A bond often develops
with their descendent and these old cars because of
memories of hearing about the cars, or maybe even riding
in them, when they were young. Suddenly these cars come
alive and we get requests for literature or press photos.
There is the potential for the awakening of new interest
in historical cars — those pre-dating our own nostalgia.
|
