In about two years from now, the Ford Mustang will be the last new car of its type still on the market – a fitting thing, given it was the first car of its type to come onto the market back in 1964. But it’s a sad communion – because it represents an end rather than a beginning.
One as unnatural as Joe Biden’s hairline.
The rivals whose existence the original 1964 Mustang prompted into existence – Chevy’s Camaro and the Dodge Challenger – are on their way out, again. Not because they aren’t selling but rather because forces conspire to make it impossible to sell them.
The same force that did it last time.
A force whose power always waxes and which has become irresistible.
It was possible, for awhile, to make due. To bob and to weave. To end-run.
Not anymore.
It’s all over, now. Electrification is unanswerable. It is a juggernaut of death rolling over the landscape. No one really wants it – but we’re all going to have it.
Courtesy of the force.
So, perhaps some fond memories are in order, first.
When the ’64 Mustang made its debut, there was no such thing as what subsequently became known as a “pony car.” As distinct from the muscle car, a species of performance car archetyped by the 1964 Pontiac GTO.
1964 was a great year for the car – and those who loved them.
The force was weak, then. Just the background noise made by misshapen homunculi such as Ralph Nader and his Center for Auto Saaaaaaaaaaaaafety. Americans weren’t much interested in such bed-wettery, then. But they made a mistake in not seeing the threat of the bed-wetters.
But it was hard to see that, back in ’64. The year of the pony car, which differed from a muscle car chiefly in that it could be muscular – for example, the 289 Hi Po and GT350 versions of the early Mustang – but it didn’t have to be. While the muscle car could not be sporty in the way the pony car was. Muscle cars were hulking, heavy things – generally based on existing two-door sedans like the Tempest (GTO). A big engine was fitted, along with various complementary performance upgrades and cosmetic embellishments while pony cars like the Mustang – and subsequently, Camaro and its cousin, the Pontiac Firebird – were smaller cars and built on dedicated platforms that may have shared bits and pieces with other cars but weren’t just hopped-up versions of an existing car.
The Mustang was related to the Falcon, for instance. But it wasn’t a Falcon with a hot engine. It didn’t even come standard with a hot engine, another point of difference between a pony car and a muscle car, which always did because if it didn’t then it wasn’t a muscle car.
Pontiac never sold the GTO with anything less than a V8 engine. No muscle car ever came without one.
The ’64 Mustang came standard with an in-line six cylinder engine. You could upgrade to a V8, if you liked. But it wasn’t necessarily part of the package. And that was part of the Mustang’s much broader market appeal. The ’64 Mustang was a car for anyone – from the hot-shoe kid who finagled the purchase of a 289 Hi-Po to his mom, who bought a convertible with the in-line six.
When Camaro – and Firebird, Pontiac’s pony car entrant – came along in ’67, they emulated this example. There were versions of both to suit almost anyone, from the race ready Z-28 with its high-winding 302 cubic inch small block V8 that was paired only with a manual transmission to cruisers with gentle 350s paired up with smooth shifting automatics. There was some overlap with muscle cars, too, in that you could order up a Camaro with a big block V8 that was basically the same V8 Chevy installed in its Chevelle SS muscle car. Just in a smaller, more personal car.
These cars became immensely popular, much more so than muscle cars, because of their greater flexibility and because they didn’t have to be muscular in order to be what they were. This stood them in good stead as the ‘60s transitioned into the ‘70s – and the force began to exert itself its malignant influence.
Muscle cars were ended when it became impossible, as a practical matter, to continue making them. The powerful V8s that defined them no longer were – and without them, a muscle car was just another car. Muscle cars disappeared for good after the 1974 model year – the catalytic converters that appeared the next year being the final nail in their coffin.
But pony cars made it through the gantlet.
Most of them, at least.
The Challenger was gone – also by ’74 – but Mustang, Camaro and Firebird persevered. Their powerful V8s were gone, too – but that was ok because it wasn’t absolutely essential to their existence. They still offered verve and style in all kinds of ways and that was badly lacking in the mid-’70s. These cars remained a tangible bridge to a past before the force became a presence in between the car buyer and his car. They actually began to sell better than they had in the ’60s, probably for just that reason and also because they now had the market for fun cars almost entirely to themselves.
Farrah drove a white Cobra II in Charlie’s Angels. Burt drove a black-and-gold Trans-Am in Smokey and the Bandit. Practically everyone wanted to drive one of these cars – and millions, literally, did.
This disturbed the force.
It applied the necessary corrective measures. The Trans-Am lost its Pontiac engines, which could no longer be made to pass muster and so were mustered out, in favor of Chevy engines. This foreordained the end of the Trans-Am and, in time, of Pontiac itself.
Camaro fell victim to a polarizing restyle in the early ’90s that turned it into what the muscle cars were, a car of limited appeal to mostly young guys – who were willing to put up with a hugely impractical car if it was fast and ballsy-looking. Everyone else, not so much – which led to the car’s initial cancellation in 2002.
It would however return – redesigned – for 2010.
All the while, the Mustang remained. And still does, for now. But for how much longer?
Very soon, it will be be all-alone, again – only this time for entirely different reasons. The Challenger – which was always a kind of almost-muscle-car with pony-car attributes – is losing the Hemi V8 without which it is no longer what it was and for that reason no longer of much interest to those who wanted that, specifically. A V6/hybrid Challenger is expected to replace the current model; but while it may be a formidable performance car, it is not a muscle car or a pony car.
The Camaro seems to have no future at all – unless you can accept an electric sedan as a “Camaro.” That appears to be what GM has in mind after the last Camaro does the MacArthur fade-away come the 2024 model year.
Ford seems to have a similar fate in mind for Mustang. It is already selling an electric crossover with the Mustang’s pony on its liftgate.
Say it ain’t so, Joe – except it already is.
All because of the force . . . emanating from the hair plugs of that thing angrily lisping about “climate change” – successor to “safety” and “emissions” – from its set-piece stage in the basement of the old folk’s home.
It has taken almost 60 years, from beginning to end.
And now, here we are.
. . .
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Once the hemis go, it is said that the new inline 6 will be the basis of the high performance variants for Stellantis. Turbo and hybrid.
It’s no v8, but this inline 6 is very interesting.
Fuck “The Force”. Build it and if “They” want it, “They” will come. Real capitalism!
I am so damn tired of Gubbmint mandates. Seriously what have we allowed ourselves to become? Where did our collective spines go?
Exactly, Anon –
The core question I have been asking for years is: Whence comes the lawful (and moral) justification for the government decreeing any car design parameter? This is rightly a thing between between manufacturer and buyer – for the market to decide. So long as the vehicle isn’t defective in some way and if that should happen, there are courts to deal with such problems. A car is not “unsafe” because it is not “compliant” with a laundry list of government bumper-impact and similar regulations. People – back in the day – knew a small, lightly built car such as a Beetle wouldn’t fare as well in a crash as a large, heavy car. It did not mean the VW was more likely to crash and – indeed – may even have been less likely to, being smaller and more agile. It was certainly less expensive and more fuel efficient – and people who valued that were free to choose that over a car that was heavier, more expensive and less efficient. Now we’re all forced to buy heavy, expensive and comparatively inefficient vehicles that are “safe” – i.e., compliant with the roster of federal regulations. And the poorer for it.
But what about emissions?
This has been a powerful argument in favor of government control – via regulations – of the car industry. At first, it seemed a not unreasonable argument because pollution caused by cars was a problem everyone could see. But a dangerous precedent was set when the government was not obliged to make a specific case proving specific harm – but rather assumed sweeping powers based upon generalized claims regarding the “public” health. This has become absurdly attenuated – to the point that automakers are expected to achieve fractional reductions in exhaust emissions without any requirement that the government first establish these reductions will have a meaningful effect on anyone’s health. Conversely, a car company can be brought to near ruin (and to heel) over “non-compliance” with these attenuated standards, especially if the company “cheats” the testing methodology in some manner, as in the case of Volkswagen.
The government went berserk over this “cheating” and the media portrayed VW as dumping pollutants into the air. In fact, the difference in the “emissions” output of the “cheating” diesels was so fractionally small it took extremely specialized equipment to detect it. There was so little difference that none of the “cheating” cars had any trouble passing the usual smog tests. It was all angels-dancing-on-heads-of-pins stuff but also very serious stuff in that the government does not take any affront to its authority lightly.
Which brigs up the essential point. It’s not about “safety,” or “health” or “emissions.” It is about using those sympathetic excuses to replace the free market with a corporatist (fascist) “market.” The car companies have to a great extent happily gone along with it – or not fought it – probably in part because they figure it is better to join ’em than fight ’em and thereby use the power of the government to secure their position against competition (i.e., regulatory capture) and to profit from rent-seeking, as in the case of electric cars.
The free market was replaced by a corporatist fascist market almost 4 decades ago. Of course, it’s latest evolution has been revealing its character and exposing itself. We are one nation, under coercion. Like never before.
Hi Swamp,
“We are one nation, under coercion. Like never before.”
Very well said. When we were in our 20s – not that long ago, really – it was pretty easy to dodge much of the worst of government and mostly be left alone. Even most cops – back then – weren’t that bad. As opposed to the body-armored stormtroopers who run radar traps today. At least we got to experience the fumes of what was once America, for awhile…
These new en forced vehicles are going to need computer chips, semi conductors, etc. which I doubt any of the big three car companies are going to have so if they want to build a car, they’re going to have to go back and build those old muscle cars again.
Twice this week I noticed two almost identical articles dealing with people building their own cars. Over in Japan, they’re taking old 200 gallon oil barrels and setting them down on a frame with bicycle tires, and they’re street legal. Then there’s a town up somewhere in Washington State that has a festival every year now where people from all over the world converge to race their miniature replicas of the original race cars of the good ol’ days. They look quite similar to the Japanese oil drum cars, but they’r enot made with oil drums necessarily. They all have some sort of go kart or Briggs and Stratton pull start engine. They’re basically glorified go karts, but I can see people opting to drive these things when they can’t afford to drive an actual car anymore.
Personally, I’m still looking to get a horse and buggy. I saw one an Amish gentleman had for sale recently for around $2,500.00 (for the buggy)
Affordable, fun and potentially even more fun, if you wanted to soup them up. That was the extra bonus to me. These were cheap cars, that you could buy kind of hotrodded or do it yourself later. And the lessor models could really be picked up cheap used, especially if it needed an engine rebuild anyway. I had a Mustang with the straight six, that I bought dirt cheap used because it didn’t have the V8. I bought a 76 Firebird cheap because it had the small V8. I bought an 87 Camaro used cheap because it had the V6. I had cheaper insurance on them because of that and when I was done with them they were just as much fun to drive as anything else on the road. Cars like the Dusters and Nova’s were the same way, dirt cheap Platforms to build from. Oh and the Maverick, we had two of them one with the 6 and one with the 8.
And all of that fun gone, thanks to the “Force”. The Borg would be another good reference. Everyone fucking one of them look the same now anyway.
Keep up the good work Eric, great article as usual, spot on. These fuckers are killjoy’s one and all.
What does “make due” mean?
Liberals wreck up everything because they can build nothing of value. The horse and buggy was replaced by something more efficient and desirable. Now, the gas vehicle is being replaced by garbage. Maybe the circle will be complete in another 30 years and the horse and buggy will come back into service…with mechanical horses that don’t crap. Can’t be having all that methane around causing fake global warming which got us here in the first place.
I was there from beginning to end and somewhere in the middle I concluded the American flag should have on one side of it either a V-8 or a Cadillac. Nuff said..
I have a 2016 6-cyl and it’s likely the last Mustang I will own. I don’t want that 4-cyl turbo thing and the v8 is out of my price range, especially with gas per gallon reaching stratospheric heights.
I had a small wreck and while the Mustang was being fixed, the insurance company gave me a 2021 Rav4. Kind of ironic that that thing will survive, while the Mustang is in peril. The Rav4 was a nice vehicle, I guess, but huge. The whole time I was driving it, I was just thinking about what a waste of resources it is for one person to be driving this thing that holds 5 people, a whole mess of groceries and even a dead hooker or two.
So when the Mustang dies, I guess I will just finish out my life driving a series of old beaters until the wheels fall off, then replace with a new old beater. I am not buying another new car when the only realistic choices for me are one of those mini-SUVs or a Prius.
“The Rav4 was a nice vehicle, I guess, but huge. The whole time I was driving it, I was just thinking about what a waste of resources it is for one person to be driving this thing that holds 5 people, a whole mess of groceries and even a dead hooker or two.”
Rav4 huge? LOL. Thanks, I needed a good laugh today.
I’d say the Rav4 is more practical than a Mustang for the overall average person. The reason I have a truck that holds 5 people, more than 2 dead hookers along with the groceries needed to feed 5 people to help me bury 2 dead hookers, plus some lime and shovels, etc. is because I learned from having a big dog and a Miata. Sure, you can be minimalist as much as you can, but at some point, you will need more space, even if temporarily. Same 6 cylinders in my engine as your Mustang. If you can’t move as much as me in my 6 cylinder, then “what a waste of resources” your 6 cylinder is.
My 6 cylinders also come with 4 wheel drive. I have also mounted a roof top tent. I dunno about wasting resources, because I DIDN’T stay at the Holiday Inn Express last night.
I think what is important is to let people get what they think works for them. Judging others as being wasteful in one way or another if it doesn’t fit one’s own lifestyle isn’t the right outlook IMO. I’m not saying this is your outlook, but I see it often when I, in particular, have been looking at downsizing as much as possible and that mostly those that are “pro downsizing” seem like they are virtue signalling instead of saying whether or not they actually enjoy their lifestyle.
I know your Mustang is fun to drive, you didn’t have to say it. You enjoy it, I can tell. And that’s great! Did you enjoy the Rav4? I’m expecting the driving experience was “dull” compared to the Mustang, but was it that bad? Did the thought of going to IKEA while you had it cross your mind?
When I read, “The whole time I was driving it, I was just thinking about what a waste of resources it is” I pictured a bicycle, or maybe one of those rickshaw thingies.
Good comment, JumpR Kabel.
That said, I did like her final bit, “So when the Mustang dies, I guess I will just finish out my life driving a series of old beaters until the wheels fall off, then replace with a new old beater.”
I doubt we’ll have any other choice the way things are going. Well, ‘cept maybe there’s the rickshaw?
The spy photos are already showing clearly an ICE Mustang prototype for the next generation being tested on road. So Ford will be intending to sell those for at least a decade from introduction.
I weep and light incense over a picture of my BRG 69 Road Runner. Can still hear those perfectly tuned mufflers grumble as I pulled away a bit above the limit!!
I’ve never ever been a Mopar fan…but even I salute at the sight of a Roadrunner! (A sight I haven’t seen on the streets in decades now, due to the RR’s elevation to investnebnt grade precious metal vault material status. Such IMO is as bad or worse than the extinction of such vehicles).
I never cared for Mopar either until I moved to the country and my neighbors, husband and wife both were Mopar junkies. Both of them would reminisce of Mopars of old they had back in the day. His wife, while not quite the character played by Marissa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny, was very close in that she knew engine sizes of every 70s Mopar car and loved talking about the Mopars. Plus she was raised in Detroit. Curses like a sailor too.
Growing up in the 80s, 90s, Dodge was the #1 most broke down brand I knew of. Why would you want a Dodge? It was nice to have neighbors who were slightly older with a completely different view to show what I had missed in the muscle car days.
MOPAR owned the track in the late 60s, when stock cars were still stock cars. Huge players on the drag strip as well. I can still remember my father, who worked as a mechanic for them, taking me to the local Dodge dealer in those late 60s, when I was 14-15 years old, and seeing a Charger Daytona on the show room floor. A car very very close to being NASCAR ready. Not to mention the Super Bee Six Pack, a big block V8 with three dual carbs in a Dodge Dart.
Yeah, if you wanted pure speed, Mopar was the ticket in the 60’s and very early 70’s…..but IMO, you paid for it -not dollar wise…but comfort, handling, and aesthetics. Their cars always seemed very rough and spartan compared to the offerings from the other manufacturers…and design-wise, always (again, IMO) seemed to be missing something- they were usually ugly. They were the bib overalls of cars… 🙂
Something like a GTO or even Le Mans is just as much fun to drive…but for actual use as a car, just seems much more ‘finished’ and aesthetically pleasing, inside and out. They ride nicer..handle better, and are just easier to live with- which, if you’re not a racer, and are buying a car to actually drive in the real world, is much more important than a second or two at a finish line.
Kinda like their trucks too of the same period, which I do love- but until near the end of that generation, they didn’t even offer power steering or power brakes- They were the toughest trucks- great for doing actual work….as they were bulletproof and tough…but hard to live with if you were driving one every day for transportation and just general light stuff.
No way, man. Charger defined the whole age. And these cheeseheads prove it, Mopar excellence, via elevation:
https://speedkore.com/evolution/
I’ll take one Evolution with the Tantrum (Mercury) engine, please.
Small disappointment with this one: no late-60s Challenger photos. The Mustang was a good-looking car; Camaro, not so much; but the Challenger, to my eye, was the best-styled of them all.
With you on that, James My bad. I have an Ertl model of a ’70 ‘Cuda… one of the best looking American cars ever made, to my eye!
I remember pumping gas into a lime green 69 Cuda 426 hemi. What a beauty.
Your bad what? “Bad” is an adjective, not a noun.
Will the greenies come out in full force and protest EVs like they do the oil and gas industry and ICE automobiles, since to get rare earth minerals is far more destructive to the earth than drilling for oil? Inquiring minds want to know.
Not to mention all of the oil, coal and gas needed to generate all of that electricity- and how the electrons in those EV batteries just disappear over time, even if you don’t use the ‘car’.
Nunzio They shut down coal plants every year. Power comes from ng, wind & solar. there are no coal plants on the west coast anymore
NG is dependable; the other two aren’t.
Hi Eric,
I just bought myself some future oxygen. A brand new, from the factory, 2021 Mustang convertible with a 6-speed. I got the small engine, the 2.3 liter turbo four and it’s a scream. Not brutal, but it reminds me of my fun cars from the 60’s and 70’s. BTW, I’ll be turning 76 this year. Road trip!
Thank you Brother for putting up such a great fight. I’ll do what I can.
Chris
Hi Chris, I post as Chris too, so thinking I/we should differentiate ourselves a little? How bout I call myself ChrisIN or something like that?
Congrats on the Mustang. I too did something similar with an ATS 4T with 6speed, was very fun.
My first car was a ’69 Chevelle SS that I did everything we young men did to our cars back then. Still miss it.
But I still drive the ’92 Mustang GT 5.0 (5 speed stick, of course) that I bought new 30 years ago! They used to make cars.
Speaking of the E-Stang: If any of you are familiar with Youtuber The Car Wizard, I’ve lost all respect for him after watching this vid of his- He has drunk the EV Kool-aid 🙁 :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBGr1CvTek
I think many popular influencers like him are given incentives to push for this “inevitable” EV future. And convince their followers that, yes indeed, even we are so excited for EVs! Attempting to create the impression that everyone agrees how cool these things are. And I stop following each one – and anyone who supports the further diminishment of my liberty/standard of living.
Precisely! “Inevitable” my butt!
Amen, Brandon! I had never thought about the possibility that these guys may be being incentivized to push the E-Kool-aid….but it makes sense that such could be the case- as the Car Wizard is certainly not so stupid as to overlook the obvious detriments which he fails to mention.
In one of the emergency Coronavirus money drops, There were substantial financial incentives for influencers to promote covid19 vaccines. Smaller influencers with 1000 followers were offered $1500 in one package, I think they had pay per copypasta as well. larger influencers were paid more. This website is more representative of actual thought than twitter, youtube, Reddit, instagram 4chan etc. Those sites are heavily moderated and full of paid shills.
im pretty sure that my family is not paid vax shills, but some of them shill just as hard. By creating the illusion of consensus they sway the masses.
Btw, billions of emergency pandemic dollars went to the MSM to promote vaccines, masks, and demonize people who dont care for vaccines.
Same thing is happening with climate change. 97% of scientists agree with what they are paid to agree with, every spending bill has global warming propaganda.
Reddit is absolutely disgusting, as far as shills/disinfo agents! I’d often listen to those YT vids where they read Reddit posts while I work, and it’s gotten so that you can’t listen for 10 minutes without hearing ‘anti-vaxxers’ being vilified; socialized medicine being promoted, etc.
One can not even tell who is just parroting the BS/genuinely believes it, and who is being paid to put such attitudes out there- but it’s so ubiquitous, it is obvious that there is a robust campaign to promote the propaganda.
Funny how us contrarians who are portrayed as being ‘unscientific’ have been proven to be right by the very science they say we deny- but they’ll never acknowledge that, and will just keep pushing the BS for those who will never open their eyes, but rather just accept what the MSM and shills tell them to believe.
Yeah, I used to watch him and Hoovie constantly. They started getting pretty repetitive and unoriginal. Wizard did a lot with that boat of his. I actually haven’t watched either of them in months. I had gotten tired of Kilmer many months before that.
I also watched WatchJRGo and LegitStreetCars… also haven’t watched them in quite a while. With everything going away, those guys aren’t as fun anymore.
Oh well, I’ll hang on to my ICE cars as long as possible and try to buy used for as long as possible. When there’s no choice but EV, I will get the least expensive one with the least features possible. Probably Toyota or Hyundai or Kia or something.
Guys like Car Wizard should have pushed back but going along with it makes me lose all respect for them.
EM, I’ve been watching Rainman Ray’s Repairs lately. He is a very competent and conscientious mechanic who is grounded in good-old reality. At least Scotty poo-poos EVs…but his click-bait titles and occasional [boring] documentary-style episodes have turned me off.
Hoovie and JR et al…sheesh- I’d watch an occasional vid of theirs if they had something old and interesting (I’m not interested in supercars], and while I am glad that they are prosperous and can afford to play with very expensive vehicles as if they are Matchbox cars, really though, what is the point? These guys are blowing MILLIONS of dollars on….cars- and they’re not even getting good deals. Seems like such a waste, considering what they could be doing. I’m beginning to think that their channels exist just to say “Look how I got shafted on this really expensive car! (But I don’t care, because I’m making money from all of you guys watching me!)”.
Hoovie bought a janky non-original Plymouth Superbird sight-unseen for $130K…which will probably turn out to be VIN-swapped Satelite….. It ceases to be entertaining; it’s sad. Me? I’d be happier with an old Satelite for $7500 that I could slog around and enjoy….. (But I won’t even do that, because the reality would be much less satisfying than thought of just doing so.)
I feel the same as you guys. Maybe YT pushes these guys for a reason. I subbed to hoovie at one point but then unsubbed. I forget if it was because he was wearing a mask in one of his thumbnails (during early 2020 anyone I followed that normalized or advertised the mask shit, I unfollowed. I go to YT to forget about the horror of the world, not to be reminded of it. That spike of anxiety/stress I felt upon seeing one (has been replaced by disgust) of those masks means I had to unsub just for my own health), or if it was that fake surprise spit thing he did in one of his collabs with Wizard. And of course those types usually believe in the climate hoax. Which means they believe in the EV hoax. Either that or they push it for evil reasons.
So I only follow people so long as they don’t espouse leftism. There are so many great content creators out there, I can’t even watch everything I want to with that strict filter.
Yeah Scotty is clickbait now. Low information bytes. And his videos appear to contradict each other. Eric The Car Guy is a maskie and climate hoax guy. Engineering Explained is an EV fanboi. Nunz, you might like South Main Auto Repair. Guy is from NY, so you’re probably cousins or something.
Perhaps you’d enjoy Uncle Tony’s Garage? He seems like one of us. Though The tube is like crack cocaine, a way to waste way too much time consuming media. My personal favorite is gun Jesus (forgotten weapons), the bastard has taken many hours of my life.
Hey Brandon & Ernie!
I do occasionally watch cousin Eric 😀 of South Main and Uncle Tony (Sheesh, I feel like I know Uncle Tony….he’s definitely a Dago and is from NY originally).
I think the monetizing of Youtube has ruined a lot of it. (Not to mention the censorship). There is so much one can find to watch and enjoy though- but it seems that a lot of ’em go south when their channel becomes popular. Like Wranglerstar, if you guys are familiar with him- nice guy…but he has become utterly unwatchable, as his channel seems to now be an endless commercial for various products.
Hey Nunz, Ernie,
Uncle Tony is not a maskie. Someone, I think brentp, posted a link of his here in 2020 and at the end of the video he was entering a store and said, no, he wasn’t going to wear a mask. I was subbed since then. I agree, YT is addictive, and I spend too much time on the site/app as it is. But the stuff is just so much better than anything you can find anywhere… as far as entertainment and non-political stuff goes.
All that said, YT gets worse literally every time I go there. The ads, the formulaic “Like comment share and subscribe!” before and after every damn video, the annoying long intros, shitty branding attempts, the fact that they destroyed their search engine, so you can’t find real videos anymore… It was so much better in the good old days. Now, to find good stuff, you have to click on the channel and go to their old uploads. I’ve also found good music/stuff by clicking on the profile of a random commenter, and looking at their music playlist / favorites. I find stuff that would be absolutely impossible to find through the algorithm or the search function. And when you look at those old vids, you see the comments are all many years old. No one will ever find these videos again without luck or chance. Some of the funniest, stupidest (in a good way), most creative videos I’ve seen were uploaded in 2007 and have 8000 views. I found them on accident or by chance. They would bring joy to the world, but what is pushed is the clickbait crap.
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of it is still very good, and I enjoy it, but it could all just be so much more.
Yes, when someone gets big they usually succumb to the commercialization, sacrificing their quality or enjoyment. I heard of Wranglerstar but never subbed. The one video I saw I couldn’t get through.
By the way, remember the site LiveLeak? That got de-facto banned from the internet last year. The owners said they were tired of fighting. I imagine they were constantly sued or something. Not that I spent much time on the site but this is again more sanitization of the internet and the removal of a platform that hosted truth. Ugly truth/reality, but truth and reality nonetheless. They destroy everything.
RE: “most creative videos I’ve seen were uploaded in 2007 and have 8000 views. I found them on accident or by chance.”
The Internet, & YT especially, is getting kind of almost worthless like that.
I’ve been trying to do searches/research on stuff to learn, most everything, the oldest I can find is from 2010. …Like there’s nothing before that time period? Psft!
I often feel like I’m wasting my time.
1984, for sure.
Well said, Brandon!
I remember for a brief time when Yahoo Videos was a thing…. It was becoming a good’ol YT alternative while YT was still in it’s glory days, as it seemed to be full of smaller ‘less serious’ just-plain-people making videos for their own sake, as opposed to people trying to promote channel and become popular. Unfortunately, it went poof before long.
YT is still invaluable for instructional videos, thankfully. My clothes dryer took a crap a few days ago. I quickly found vids on YT showing how to diagnose the problem, and how to find and replace the thermal fuse on my dryer… Fixed…for $12.
I miss the internet of the late 90’s/early 00’s….when search engines actually matched the words you typed, rather than ‘trying to figure out what you really want’ and having weighted searches based on the metrics and compliance of the video makers.
When Ebay was a glorious free peer-to-peer marketplace, rather than an overpriced bad imitation of Amazon full of Chinese sellers and people selling ‘seconds’ and salvage crap for more than retail……
The internet is morphing into today’s MSM……
I want so bad to leave comments on some of these YT vids…but I am NOT going to sign-up for an account.
I just watched Rainman Ray diagnose and replace someone’s starter while their car had a half-discharged battery and loose terminals….. Very disappointing. It likely didn’t need a starter. Who diagnoses a modern vehicle when it has a half-discharged battery?! And then he shoddily ‘fixed’ the terminals, rather than properly replacing them. Makes me wonder if he had taken the jab, because he KNOWS better than to do such things. It was like seeing Mark Twain at a loss for words! Everyone’s going nuts….everything’s going downhill…..
Helot, some search engines let you search by date. I did a search, limiting the most recent result to 12/31/2007, and shit from after that date still appeared. Agreed, it is getting quite difficult to find stuff from the old internet.
Nunz, I know you know you can use a disposable email, username, and VPN when signing up. However, commenting on YT videos takes up just as much time as commenting here. Difference is on YT, your comments get shadowbanned frequently. They shape things for an apparent one sided public consensus. That’s why they removed the dislike button counter. Wouldn’t recommend wasting even more time.
Didn’t watch the Rainman vid so I can’t really relate. I mean, I don’t know much about cars. If the car had a no start condition, and Rainman said “lets start by checking the tire pressure” I’d be like, “Sounds reasonable. That’s what I’d do.”
Hey Brandon, et al,
I discovered this guy just a week or two ago- Curious Cars-
Freaking hilarious…..
Here’s one he does about an AMC Matador (Where’s Flinders?!)
https://youtu.be/JP68sViyXNs
Agreed, Brandon, re YT comments- But I mean, I only encounter rare instances where I’d like to leave a comment- like when I have specific info that would be of help- but you are absotively right, that it would waste more of my time, and I’d probably be banned outright within 24 hours!
Just for informative purposes: Would a VPN that could allow one to have a ‘safe’ YT account also protect one from YT’s intrusion? (i.e. tracking browsing activity, etc.)
“Let’s start by checking the tire pressure” LOL!
Nunz, If you’re signed in, they’ll know what you search and browse. You could sign in just to comment and then sign out if you’re worried about that. Just make sure you use the VPN to change your IP when signing in and out. Close out the browser. Etc.
BTW, Bill with curious cars was critical of the covid hoax, but still implied he got his shots for the virus. I’m still subbed to him. Some of his videos are in my time waster playlist, along with 700 other videos I’ll never get to.
Thanks Eric, your article reinforces my inner desire to have been born at least 10 years earlier than I was. When did the muscle cars die? The year I was born. As a result I grew up viewing big, bloated American autos as just that, big, bloated, and generally no visual appeal. My father had an old Chevy Nova back in the day and he loved it. I simply saw it as a kid as a brown box that we went from A to B in. I guess Dad should have shown me what the Nova was all about when it was just me and him, but I guess out of “safety”, he didn’t.
But he did own a couple Mustangs while I was growing up. The last one being a 1984 model. When he sold the car, he remarked that he’d owned 5 Mustangs up til that point and he’d never own another again. And so far, that has held true with him.
The first time I saw an E-stang recently, I almost threw up in my mouth. I guess it is time to change the nomenclature from pony car to phony car.
My Dad drove big old Bonnies from the late 60’s and did some burnouts and slides for us once and a while. We loved it! Maybe started my car itch? Not sure, most of my peers wanted dirtbikes and then cars, which for us at the time was late 60’s early 70’s muscle cars.
I saw one the other day. That THING is not a Mustang at all.
Reply to Libertx and Can
Live in a smaller house, drive an old car, send your kids to a private or better yet Catholic school. The sacrifice is worth it.
Maybe the car companies will next transition into boxcar builders. It’s easier than questioning authority.
“People get the government they deserve”
I started driving in 1984, so the cars I lusted after weren’t muscle cars and most of the pony cars I saw were owned by our grandfathers. Some of my friends had Chevelles and Novas but they were pretty tired and for utility. And they all had to have a fairly well paying job to pay for the upkeep, insurance and gasoline.
The cool cars to me were European and Japanese. Power to weight ratio and handling on twisty roads were much more fun than 0-60 times. And I think they won the game, although Detroit fumbled the ball over and over. The Corvette seems to have bucked the trend all along, and it has more in common with the international car culture than the muscle car.
That said, if anyone wants to sell me a ’70 Charger for Bluebook I’ll take a look…
Maybe it’s fortunate that Hollywood doesn’t make such posters anymore.
Who would they put on the posters? Bruce Jenner.
That was supposed to be a reply to Allen.
THICC is in. Especially when she turns on all the Insta filters to smooth out the cottage cheese thighs.
But seriously, phone wallpapers have replaced room posters.
It was the Barracuda, not the Challenger that spurred on the “ponycar movement”. In fact, the Barracuda came out before the Mustang. The Barracuda was a “hopped up” version of the Plymouth Valiant with its 273 cubic-inch engine. In 1967 the shock towers were relocated, making it possible to put a “big block” Mopar engine in the Barracuda, also named the ‘Cuda.
Hi Anarchyst,
I think the term itself – “pony car” – arose because of the association with the Mustang. Many also consider Rocket 88 Oldsmobiles and some of the Letter Series Chryslers of the ’50s to have been the first muscle cars, too. But the ’64 GTO is the one that generally gets the honors…
EVs are the vax mandate of the car world.
Some want them, some don’t, some will refuse to be coerced & in the end, they will prove to be more hassle than they are worth.
The photo of Farrah Faucette and the Mach II brings back teenage memories. About every Gen Xer boy back in the day had that poster on the bedroom wall. And just like the pony cars not being acceptable today, posters of that sort are all but about non existent. I’m not “ecstatic” about being in my 50’s today, but I’m happy I had my teenager experiences happen in 70’s/80’s. About every boy back then before graduating high school had a part time job they did with some pride and enthusiasm. A car they could afford to make go fast and some “arm candy” sitting beside him while cruising. What great times!
My poster was of that gal in the red dress on Roxy Music Alum *Stranded*. Even my Dad liked that one. I had a job at a wholesale food factory in Oakland CA running forklifts and driving trucks at 17. I had a 68 Camaro then a 70 Candy Apple Red Ford Mach 1. Before that (2) motorcycles to ride. I miss those days. Thanks for the memory jolt Allen.
Hi Hans,
I’m going to do a short video of some car art I have on the wall.. stay tuned!
That’s a great album Hans. Mother of Pearl is still one of my favorite songs.
Great times indeed Allen. I had many great times cruising around in my first car, a 1970 Nova straight 6 slug. It got me where I needed to go, although not too quickly. It also allowed me to experience Paradise by the Dashboard Light many times. Do todays kids get to experience that? None of my 17 year old daughters boyfriends have owned a car, of which I am thankful because I remember what I would do in a car when I was 17 alone with my girl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C11MzbEcHlw
RIP Meatloaf
I could never stand Farrah Faucette! Seeing that thing all over the place ruined the 70’s! (Well, her, and The Captain And Tennile…) [Shudder]
Sorry, Nunz, but the 70s was ruined by Debby Boone and “You Light Up My Life.” I could listen to “Love Will Keep Us Together” a 1000 times over. I draw the line at “Muskrat Love” though. Horrible. Just horrible. It could only have been written while someone was high on LSD.
NOooooo! Oh, gosh, RG- you had to remind me of those abominations!!!!!
‘You Light Up My Life’- The song that would never go away!!!!!!
It’s all coming back to me…. ‘Afternoon Delight’- There should be a class-action suit for having to endure that!!!!!
And then you couldn’t go anywhere for 5 years without hearing a plethora of songs from Saturday Night Fever…….the Heebie-Geebie Bee Gees singing like adolescent girls….and the freaking Village People…..AARRRHHHGGGG!!!!!! -And Rod Stewart singing about a dead fag……
Hey Nunz and RG,
The Circle Jerks did a great send up of those songs, “Golden Shower of Hits”. The album cover shows a bunch of gold records in a urinal, if you look closely, you can see a stream of urine directed at the records.
Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWpVq2h9p5w
Cheers,
Jeremy
That was pretty funny, one must know their 70s hits to understand the irony.
Afternoon Delight was pretty bad.
Hi Jeremy,
I didn’t have high expectations…but that was GREAT! Started with a cover of one of my favorite songs (The Association’s ‘Along Comes Mary’), and the rest just all made me LOL! -A punk band covering Having My Baby! And it all actually sounded good!
Best thing since Pat Boon’s cover of Smoke On The Water! (For those who may not be familiar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFDIrwOUdrw )
Hey Nunz, Pat Boone was part of the original Wrecking Crew, and even though that was recorded after their hey day, it looks like there are a few members who were still around. Only they could improve hit songs back then. Most of the time they made good songs into hit songs, even hit albums.
I agree with everything you have written except I am defending The Bee Gees. There isn’t a man alive that could hit a note like Barry Gibb. They also wrote all of their own songs and played their own instruments. One must have excellent lung capacity to sing “Tragedy.” Thanks to Barry SNL created a few note worthy skits that were actually funny.
BeeGee’s were great (To Love Somebody’s shortlisted). Helen Reddy was good, too. (She & Mac Davis passed same day. Heard it on the Sirius 70’s channel, somewhere in UT.)
Hi ozy,
I had to chuckle thinking about Helen Reddy. When I call my mother “I Am Woman Hear Me Roar” is my assigned ringtone from her. 😁 She assigned one of my younger sisters “Dazed and Confused” by Zeppelin. If you met my younger sister it is quite fitting.
Obviously, my mother has too much time on her hands.
RG…Delta Dawn’s a fave. Not D&C, but when Amy Adam’s character makes the find, & little sis walks in & says, “Don’t tell mama,” In the Evening comes up & goosebumps do, too. Sun City was just down the road when the radio announced Tenille was divorcing Captain, & leaving him there…Love, love will keep us together….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RbtKZuvg10
Aw Jeez, now Big Ol’ Ruby Red Dress (Leave Me Alone?) and Angie Baby come sneaking back into my memory! (O-K, I kinda like Angie Baby…I have it on my MP3 player- but that woman’s voice and feminaziism are hard to take!)
Nunz…Neil Young (& the boys) tunes get invites into my place all the time. I didn’t vet the appliance repair guy, who was just out here, on his politics, or corona virus (if that’s even a separate thing), either. I don’t care – not my, or our (his & mine), business: just sing, fix the washer, please. Besides, when the young man sings to the old man sometimes the old man’s lost all those young man memories…leaves in the Spring don’t know & leaves in the Fall don’t remember & Leaves of Grass gotta be mowed…or, rolled & smoked to excess possibly, in Young’s case.
Hi Ozy,
I don’t take issue with Neil Young being a liberal; I take issue with his being a fraud. This “liberal” – so opposed to the oppressions visited on the powerless by The Man – is now become The Man. Hold a different point-of-view and you’re intolerable, something that must be stomped. Obey authority – period!
I really wish that Warner Bros actually told Neil “tough” and that his music would have stayed on Spotify. He sold his rights therefore the choice of where his music is played and by whom is irrelevant.
We all know our government has conned us over the years, but I also believe that most people con us as well, especially those in the public eye.
Did anyone think that the supposedly “bad asses” of yester years would become spineless, fearful old men? Did they not believe in the songs that they wrote? Would they not have stood up to the injustice of today 50 years ago? Would they have lined up and rolled up their sleeve? Told people that their government was right and they had no choice in the matter?
The problem is the poor are always hungry…for food, for housing, for change. Money usually ruins people. We are seeing it first hand. When one lives in a mansion and sleeps on eiderdown quilts, has a refrigerator full of food, and enough money in the bank to live their life 3x over they forget how to fight.
They are comfortable and hardy and be damn the peasants beneath them.
I know what ya mean, Ozy. I can dig a few Neil Young’s song too- Ditto CSN and or Y’s – but…what Eric says- Thinking of what they are- their hypocrisy, etc. tends to ruin the enjoyment of the music and the memories which it brings back.
What? Is their something going around with appliances, too? Sheesh…I just replaced the thermal fuse on my dryer!
Ah…there’s always Gordon Lightfoot…..
Nunzio & RG….The wicket’s sticky & she’s preggers with a tarbaby, too. Attachments, explain the Buddhists. Or velcromagnon man – the missing link, hook, latch, line & sinker.
The Performing Arts practitioners Don roles, Henley.
They pretend to be eagles & if, under the confluencing influence of youth & surging hormones, audience adulation feedback validation, money, sex, drugs they get lost in character-method and believe they’ve metamorphosed into the roles played, well…
…they had more than a little help from role playing hormone-drenched audiences & all the rest of it too, eh?
So whose Sonny Bono & whose the magnetic tree that could be a movie star if s/he could just get out of this place (saw a docu on BJ…a real ahole, it seems)?
I saw a docu on Asylum Records midge-swelled-to-billionaire-behemoth David Geffen: total character/actor.
Some pol in a postmodern moment said DC is Hollywood for ugly people. (Henley sang a variation up.) And not a few pass back/forth thru the revolving door birth canal connecting those two places, either.
A squint-eyed clench-jawed actor/mayor of Carmel said “a man’s gotta know his limitations” & said it in a way that meant he, that character, knew other men’s limitations even if they didn’t know them themselves. First actor will usually take all of the second actor’s money at poker. Not to mention taking all those 3rd wheel-actors round the audience table, too.
I like this song, can relate to the seductive slippery slope, but what’s this guy actually saying about what he’s willing to do to get what he wants? These people are like Sally Fields accepting her Oscar, which is fine, is what it takes (rule proving exceptions aside), but whose fault is it confusing that with heroic spine? I don’t spend time with them, $ on them, for their hypocrisy – that’s their freight/er, delivering my product to me & I ain’t gonna shoot my own demand part of the supply chain in its often enough schizo-distributed foot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmeUuoxyt_E
Perspective. Keepin’ a’ holt of one’s projections-reflections in the hall of mirrors. Go ahead & break some of those mirrors, too…that ain’t the glass Bastiat warned about.
Money does ruin some people. But ruined money ruins many more people. And, dark poetry, it was money-ruined people that ruined money.
And getting old, well, it ain’t for sissies as some pretty good actress said. But when have sissies been uncommon? And aren’t they becoming more common? Testo flows, then it ebbs, & if when it was plenty it was poured out onto a role, not into actual ethics, philosophy, something true, well, then what must happen? The AI o’ audience impotence (size matters) erects a spine for/into the impotent auditioners. Symbiotic dysbiosis, little blue pills & gold stars/trophies for everybody…
…& more & more Impossible Foods Harrison Burgerowns yer ass all around.
It isn’t just Ol’ Neil. Virus sniffing dogs used by Metallica & Black Keys. Work for them or go to show and get sniffed to make sure you’re not an unclean bacillus. So rock n’ roll…
https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/covid-sniffing-dogs-living-on-tour-with-metallica-black-keys/
IF MY DESCRIPTION EVEN QUALIFIES AS HYPOCRISY… waited for someone to catch it.
It doesn’t qualify.
Entertainers aren’t leaders…no matter how inspiring performances might be.
But even “actual” leaders means nothing except vis a vis hordes of dust-eating followers.
That’s a mule, or an ox, pulling a plow, behind which is the even more domesticated steering follower.
That’s destruction of the soil network.
That’s sown invitation to the reaping whirlwinds.
That’s farms foreclosed & Okies on the road to picking on corporate farms in California.
That’s how it was, is, will be.
Don’t recall the Farrah and her Mustang poster. For us it was Farrah in the red swimsuit.
It’s truly astonishing how much damage we have suffered from the state. Yet far too many have been convinced that the state works in their favor. That somehow, if the “right” socio/psychopath is elected, the state will be good, this time. I can’t imagine where we would be if the state was cut in half, but suffice it to say it would be a LOT better. I was never a fan of Grover Norquist, but one of his quotes I was always particularly pleased with. “I have no problem with government, as long as it’s small enough to drown in the bathtub.”
That is what 15,000 hours of brainwashing in govt schools gets you.
“Parents give up their rights when their children cross the threshold of the public school door. This was made crystal clear by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
When a few parents in Palmdale, California learned that their children’s school had permitted researchers to interview first, third and fifth grade students about such things as sexual urges and fantasies, they became outraged and took the matter to court.”
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case and concluded that when parents place their children in a public school, they forfeit any right to determine what or how their children are taught. The school may teach anything it wishes in any way it wishes. It may allow researchers, special interests, social activists, and anyone else it chooses access to students. The court’s decision confirmed earlier court opinions.”
As soon as you put your children into public schools (universities are even worse), you lose control, they will be brainwashed with all the current leftist/communist/globalist narrative, including all the current medical system lies, the government/church/medical system is one big satanic/globalist cult now.
Mandatory public education is the longest running and most successful psyop in history, and its creators openly stated this was its purpose.
I’d rate Sesame Street right up there with it.
The ninth circuit could be vastly improved by a large dose of sarin. Or maybe mustard gas.
Now we’re going to get a YT-hating leftist sheboon on the SCOTUS.