The desire to tinker, tweak, farkle, and swap has been baked into the Hooniverse culture from the very beginning. Whether to increase performance, make repairs and maintenance more economical, or just be weird, we love modifying our vehicles. Until we don’t.
I’m just like the rest of you. Nearly every car, bike, and truck makes me think, “I adore it, except for that bit right there…” —with two exceptions that I can think of. I’ve never seen a noticeable change to a ’78–’79 Honda CBX or a DMC DeLorean that was an improvement over the stock configuration. Yes, speaking functionally, they are both conspicuously flawed models. However, each is so iconic and so imbued with the zeitgeist of its development that it feels wrong and perhaps slightly offensive when I see owners and builders using them as a blank canvas for their own ideas. You might disagree with me on these two examples, but I bet you have others that come to your mind.
It’s certainly important to maintain the historical accuracy of such priceless rarities such as a Bugatti Type 41 Royale or a Ferrari 250 California Spyder; we’re probably all in agreement that. But what about mass-produced vehicles won’t ever be multi-million-dollar collectors’ items? Of the “ordinary” vehicles out there that Joe Average can aspire to own, which do you think left the factory in their most perfectly optimal configuration?
Photo Credit: Samm Smith
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