[ramairthreegto]

Sad, but I think it’s just the nature of our hobby.

If you were an affluent professional in your mid-30s that could buy whatever you wanted at the peak power of the muscle car years, say 35 in 1970,
With a lifelong love of the cars, you are now half a dozen years or so above the average age of a man passing away in America, and about a one in five chance of dying any given year.

The guys that graduated college with a great job for a couple years or got back from VN and working a good job and starting a family around then are hitting the average lifespan age around one in 15.

They guys just getting their learners permit then and drooling over those cars and their first girlfriend are retiring and about one in 40.

Those of us conceived in the back seat of one or driven home from the hospital after being born in one, that lusted after the old ones compare to the decade plus of crap factory power are in our 50s and about one in 200 chance of passing away each year. Kind of the age where you start hearing about guys getting cancer or having a heart attack.

The Millenials are in their 30s hitting the 40s and had worse benefits, pensions, insurance costs, housing costs, medical costs, wage stagnation, etc. and combined with increasing costs of this era of car have been kind of priced out. With only a one in 700 chance.

Gen Z has just gotten their license or still early in their lives in their 20s. The shift of good careers, jobs, etc. Overseas leaving many in the service economy, and H1Bs killing wages for the stateside STEM types, and illegal labor killing a lot of good money in the trades and labor market, keeps a lot of them out of the market. If they truly are a performance coupe type, they can drop 20-25K on a Toyota 86, Challenger RT, Mustang GT, or Camaro SS with low mileage and a warranty and have performance, handling, safety, features, braking, and reliability off the charts compared to a muscle car era vehicle. Even less could be spent. If they need more room a Charger or whatever. And about a 1699 out of 1700 chance of being around next year.

Even the ones I have seen inherit an old muscle car are way more likely to sell it.

It’s a weird future. The America that shaped guys like the two that recently passed away was different.

For three quarters of a century all boys and young men seemed to think of nothing other than young women and cool cars. Virtually all anyway.

Now, the interest in their license, cars, trucks, etc. seems like less way interested.

It’s crazy and I wish it were different.