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"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.
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