There are so many options out there for everything. You name it, you have to make a choice or twenty to pick what you want. This is a generic statement for anything it seems. You want peanut butter? Organic, crunchy, smooth or a combination of two of those exist. Trying to buy a new tv? Size, format, smart, brand, thickness and features are all factors to take into account. Good luck on getting three people to agree on a couple pizza toppings. A local pizza shop offers over 30 toppings. The choices out there are endless, and the variations of being a car fanatic are as well. Gone are the days where people who liked cars were called grease monkeys because they knew how to "tune up" a car. For that matter, tune ups are things of the past as well, but that is a topic for another type of blog. Nowadays, there are so many different points of attraction that make people refer to themselves as "car person". One of these categories are by the make of a vehicle. People go crazy over a brand of car and that becomes their focus. Take Porsche for example. Porsche has a huge following, as it should, so much that there are 145 different grouping, or regions, of the national Porsche Club. The regions are filled with sometimes over 300 members each, all brought together under one make, Porsche. At one point, and some regions may still make this mandatory, you had to be an owner of a Porsche to be a club member. That is a ton of people, brought together, with one common denominator. I think it is a very cool thing. They even create names for themselves, such as "P Car People" , "Porscheheads", "Sons of Stuttgart", and my least favorite of all "Porschephiles". I don't think I need to go into detail why that is an awful, awful name for such a great thing. Anyway, some people come under not only a singular make, but a model. There so many Mustang (Ford), Miata (Mazda), Corvette (Chevy), and Civic (Honda) clubs that there are clubs for everybody. Some people like countries of cars, liking anything British, American, Asian or European. Further segregating petrol heads are venues of motorsport. Road Racing, Autocross, Rally Racing, Drag Racing, Oval Track Racing and even Demolition Derby racers all have their own niche. Sometimes those paths do cross, and that's ok. Except drag racing........ugh. I am the self proclaimed worst type of gear head, because I am really only interested in SCCA road racing cars. Doesn't matter what kind of vehicle, but if it does not fit into a club road racing class, I probably do not care about it. When a car comes into my shop, I immediately figure out which class it will fit in and then, and only then, I can enjoy it. if it doesn't fit, I am over it. Some of my favorite cars are the Mustang GT 5.0, Porsche GT3 Cup, Chevrolet C6 Corvette, Mazda Miata (NB) and my all time favorite Honda CRX Si. I will have one of those one day. Sorry, I am drooling a little bit. As I can attest to, there is no wrong way to be a car guy. Or girl. Or dog. There are some funny videos of dogs driving cars, google them! Dogs are great. Sorry, back to the matter at hand. I do not drool over one make, model, engine, drivetrain, or year. I drool over the cars at the local SCCA Club Race Event. I can't wait until May. Don't do what I have done off and on in this edition and bash people for chasing what they love. I can do it because I am so set in my ways that nothing will save me. The point that I am making here is that there are so many ways to be a car enthusiast, there is no wrong way to do it. Find what you truly enjoy and soak it in as much as you want to. Go out and explore clubs if you like social interaction and are so inclined. If you are interested in a race you saw on tv, go find a place to watch in person. Always wanted a Chevy Caprice? Weird, but there is a club for you, that probably goes to race tracks and hosts track events as odd as that sounds. I have seen it. It's odd, but for them, it's probably a lot of fun.
See you next month folks!
Nick
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