"The New Face Of Musclecars" as Proclaimed by Hot Rod Magazine!

[vintageracer]

I just received my latest issue of Hot Rod Magazine with a Roadster Shop Camaro build and a Timeless Kustoms Mustang build featured on the cover with the pronouncement "The New Face of Musclecars"!

I looked at both cars and read the articles associated with both and came away asking myself IF this IS the "The New Face of Musclecars" maybe it's truly is time to buy a new late model Musclecar!

First let me state that both cars have FANTASTIC craftsmanship and attention to detail. I am sure the builders are proud of their work and they should be.

Having said that my first reaction to looking at the pictures of the Roadster Shop Camaro was "Somebody decided they wanted to make a Late Model Challenger out of a 1969 Camaro"! That's what the RS Camaro looks like to ME! Look at the front-end & lower valence, the rear-end & tailights and the mirrors!

My first reaction to the Timeless Kustoms Mustang was that somebody hung a set of 4WD flares and a snow plow on the front of a 65 Mustang! Well done? Absolutely however that still does not change my opinion of what it looks like.

In each of the articles describing the cars Hot Rod references the Pro-Touring influence. Is this what Pro-Touring and the "Musclecar" hobby has come to? Kinda reminds me of the Pastel color & Tweed Interior craze in Street Rods during the 1990's. It was Kool for awhile and then the cars that followed that trend passed being out date and went straight to UGLY!

In the beginning of PT we had the iconic Camaro's designed, engineered and built by Mark Stielow. The combination of late model driving technology in an old American 1969 Camaro. The builds were ALL about the engine, suspension and modern day performance applied to a 1969 Camaro. His cars were NOT catalog cars where you purchased pre-engineered suspension and engine components. His cars engineered and inspired the parts that are NOW only a click away today on the internet. Body Mods? On Mark's cars there are NONE unless you call removing emblems a mod! We also got the "Name Thing" going for a car. Gotta have a name or your car is just a car. Each of Mark's newest builds raised the bar for performance, engineering and handling. All the while the Camaro body on his cars "Remained the Same" and the paint was a solid color.

Next came all the interior mods in the form of fancy dash's, door panels, seats and consoles. All of a sudden you had to have an "Interior" to be noticed. Now it's body modifications. Apparently the wilder the better.

Today with the all performance parts, suspension parts and interior parts just click away all that's left to modify and "Get Noticed" is the body. So let's see how outrageous we can get to be noticed. All you have do is look at the SEMA 2016 cars/trucks to see this is certainly true!

To me one of the finest builds in our hobby was built over 10 years ago by Johnson's Hot Rod Shop for Bob Johnson. Remember the G Force Cuda? Back in the day (2005 I think) while we were on the Hot Rod Power Tour it was late one night in Georgia when Bob, myself and Bill Howell were having a late night dinner at Applebee's when Bob said the only stock body part on the car was the trunk-lid. The car looked FANTASTIC with NOTHING cartoonish or out of place about the car yet Hot Wheels thought enough of the car to make a Hot Wheels version of the car. You knew the G Force Cuda body was modified but HOW? NOW it seems to ME that the more body mods, flares, scoops, nips, tucks you can do to the body WITHOUT regard to good design, style and proportion the better.

If this truly is "The New Face Of Musclecars" as Proclaimed by Hot Rod Magazine I'm out! Hell ya I am old HOWEVER I have always embraced "Change" as "Change" is going to happen with or without me so I might as well be on the front-end and benefit from "Change" rather than be a VICTIM of "Change".

In this situation I will do neither. I will not benefit from the "The New Face Of Musclecars" as Proclaimed by Hot Rod Magazine as I sure as Hell do not want one and therefore I will not be a Victim of "Change" when once again styles and preferences change.

2 Weeks ago I walked through our local "Cars & Coffee". 1000 cars and 1 Airstream trailer were there. I was more interested in the Airstream than any of the cars/trucks that were there. Times Change, Wants Change, Desires Change and Styles Change.

It is my Hope and Desire that this excess of "Reimagined Sheetmetal" as quoted by Hot Rod Magazine will take it's short time in the spotlight and join the Pastel Colored Street Rods of the 1990's as a discussion of "What the Hell were We Thinking When We Thought That Was Kool Way Back Then"!

Just MY Opinion!

What do Ya'll think?

[LateralJeaz]

Like it or not, extensive body mods are probably here to stay. Yes it's hard to get it right and easy to make it look funky, and I also agree that those two cars in particular have some weird looking areas that are not my favorite. But for everything out there that doesn't look quite right to me, I can think of another car thats been extensively body modded yet feels spot on visually. Ring Brothers, Ironworks, Foose, the Roadster Shop; all these guys have displayed heavily body modded cars at sema in the past five years that look amazing imo. In the end I think its important to take it all in context and understand that most of these cars are built to somewhat customer specs and personal preferences. If hot rod mag loves it, more power to these builders, but surely it's mostly about the customer satisfaction, not journalists, and not ours.

[ironworks]

I had a similar thought last week when I read the article. Mine was a bit more positive. I think they meant that the heavy mods you have seen on, lets say street rods are coming around to the muscle cars. This hobby is really a contest of who can out do the other. SO the laundry list of mods needs to get longer and longer for some people to compete. Or think that is what they have to do to compete.

Our mentality is to not try and really mess up what ever made the original design so popular when some one modifies a certain model car. So people can't transition a rendering to reality, Some people start with an ugly concept, some people just have bad taste.

But at the end of every day, different styles are what make the world go round. There is a girl for every guy and an ass for every seat. Just look at some ugly guy or gal and think some where there is some one who is excited to come home to that ugly mug. Cars are the same way. As long as the customer is happy and its not your friends car you have to act like their car is so cool, when its not.

Plus every builder has a different style and most customers are drawn to that build for some reason. If they are local its probably the fact they do quality work and if they are long distance its usually because they have seen a few cars that build has done and they want some thing with that style.


But good Lord Almight there are some funky looking cars that get built. I wish I could post some of the stuff my friends have txt or PM'ed me on social media over the years.

[JB400]

Personally, I do think shops like RS over due it, and forget what parts of each car make it timeless. However, if they didn't change it, people would get tired of looking at all the same thing.

This coming from the guy that got ripped on because I think RS ruined the looks of the Sliced Charger (sliced too much in my opinion), the 68 looks better, but not by much. A Charger isn't a Camaro.

[DBasher]

I haven't read the article but I did get to see both cars at SEMA and spend sometime looking them over....hardly the "New face of musclecars". I saw more classics with subtle upgrades to the body, or mods that you didn't notice right off because they just looked right. Was the over the top, look at me cars there? Of course, it's SEMA.

Like mentioned in another thread, the new norm is the fit and finish, attention to detail and the quality of materials used throughout. Think about the Ironworks Chevelle from a few years ago, basic and people loved it. Or the RB widened Mustang, subtle to most with over the top attention to detail.

Next month Hot Rod magazine will put a 50's car on the cover (another SEMA car) with another headline...just to get people talking.

[Zspoiler]

In some ways its sort of like George Barris era and the later IMSA Race cars with a modern twist.Some people like it and some don`t

[ilikeike]

Every couple of decades,there has to be a Corvette Summer

[NOT A TA]

I feel bad for the people who put in all the research, time, money, and effort into builds that don't quite "hit the mark" visually. Often it appears the basic design concepts used in the original design are ignored.

In the case of the cover cars note that the modified areas are done with a more straight line angular appearance with sharper body lines and creases than the original car was. As an example look at the Mustang above and below the front bumper. The original oval grill, round headlights, and softer body line curves contrasts with the rocket bunny looking air dam section below the bumper.

Another thing (which I try to remind myself of) is that many of us have been accustomed to seeing the same basic shape since the cars were new. Sure there's been engines sticking out of hoods, jacked up rears with big little's, lowered, bigger diameter wheels with low pro tires, and other modifications but the basic cars have been essentially the same. So when we see one with body modifications our mind tells us it doesn't look quite right. Whenever I see a car with body mods I try to look at it and think to myself "If I didn't expect the car to look as it did stock would I like the way this one looks?"

[ironworks]

Originally Posted by NOT A TA

I feel bad for the people who put in all the research, time, money, and effort into builds that don't quite "hit the mark" visually. It often it appears the basic design concepts used in the original design are ignored.

In the case of the cover cars note that the modified areas are done with a more straight line angular appearance with sharper body lines and creases than the original car was. As an example look at the Mustang above and below the front bumper. The original oval grill, round headlights, and softer body line curves contrasts with the rocket bunny looking air dam section below the bumper.

Another thing (which I try to remind myself of) is that many of us have been accustomed to seeing the same basic shape since the cars were new. Sure there's been engines sticking out of hoods, jacked up rears with big little's, lowered, bigger diameter wheels with low pro tires, and other modifications but the basic cars have been essentially the same. So when we see one with body modifications our mind tells us it doesn't look quite right. Whenever I see a car with body mods I try to look at it and think to myself "If I didn't expect the car to look as it did stock would I like the way this one looks?"

That is the trick is to not ruin those original styling point every one knows. But still improve on the car.

[LateralJeaz]

This is a really a great conversation and a great place to have it. I see a few cool points being made here. First off let's just get it out of the way right now, I LOVE the ever rising tide of the custom bodywork trend. And when someone gets it right, these cars seem to truly represent an evolution of pro touring and resto modding. Will they go out of style eventually? Maybe. The real answer to that is who knows. Hell in 30 years we may be riding in little automated flying drones. But imo the best ones being pumped out right now will never fall out of ascetic favor. They will most likely always have their place in time as the best of an era and will be viewed largely as successful visual concepts for decades to come. And even though most all have a ton of expensive tech thrown at them that obviously makes them worth more by default, if the styling is on point, it adds to the value, now, and over time. Yes old muscle cars look great in stock form sitting lower on a modern sized set of rollers. No one here would dispute that I think. But man when someone truly nails some great looking custom body mods, and especially incorporates functionality as has been the trend much as of late, I go nuts. Also, Someone said modern twist. That resonates with me in the sense that the winning designs in the biz mostly all have significant modern cues. They're starting to look more like amg benz's, Bentley, Ferraris, lambos, ford gt's, etc..with little roof depressions, air pass through's, diffusers, canards and splitters. I know that Overkill will always be overkill. But When it looks right, and especially when it's something functional, I just love it. I know some don't, however I truly think that's where it's headed for the foreseeable future. Deal with it lol