What makes an enthusiast?

"CKeffer" (KefferCameron) 10/24/2013 at 10:53 • Filed to: Rant

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So here on Oppo, Jalopnik, and honestly car sites in general I've seen a rather alarming trend. People putting down others as not being true enthusiasts for one reason or another. Most recently on here, it's been due to choices of transmission, but I've also seen it due to someone not liking a particular make of car, and due to being more interested in being flashy and cruising around than a desire to carve corners and obliterate apexes. Now, I'm not a writer or journalist by any means, I'm actually an animator by trade so I'm more used to using images to convey something than words, but if you'll bear with me I'll try to articulate why this bothers me, and should bother all of you too.

First off these assertions are prime examples of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which, for those too lazy to click the link, is basically this: Some one makes a claim like, "No enthusiast has a shop change their oil for them," to which some one counters, "but, I'm an enthusiast, and I don't change my own oil," and rather than denying the counter claim the response simply becomes "then you are not a TRUE enthusiast". Now, to me, this smacks of elitism, closed mindedness, and general idiocy. After all, what is it that makes us enthusiasts to begin with?

To me it's as simple as this; Do you like cars? Do you find they ignite your imagination and inspire passionate feelings in you? Do you find beauty in their design, or mechanical workings, do you find yourself coming up with excuses to drive more and take the long way home? If you do, congratulations, you're an enthusiast. It's not the car they drive, or even the ones they like. It's not the options their car has, or doesn't have, including it's transmission. It's not weather their car is completely bone stock or modded beyond recognition. None of that matters! We all share a passion for automobiles here, plain and simple, and to belittle someone simply because they happen to like a different facet of vehicles, or a different kind of car is beyond asinine.

An example of this came up at a car show I was at recently with some other members of the Houston Mini Motoring Society (a local Houston area mini owners club). While we were looking at the cars and talking to the owners about what had been done to the cars I noticed our current club presidents eyes would glaze over when technical stuff started coming up, but he would join in quite enthusiastically when we would be discussing various design aspects of the cars. I later asked him about it and came to find out that his technical knowledge of cars begins and ends with put the kind of gas in it the manufacturer tells you to and to follow the maintenance schedule they suggest. He doesn't know why, he doesn't really care either. What he loves is the design of the thing, how it feels when he drives it and how it makes HIM feel. Yes, his car is an automatic, it's also his baby and he washes, clays and waxes the car by hand on a regular basis. He's got more mini memorabilia than I knew existed, and I think he's a little crazy for it (his wife agrees). Does his automatic transmission and lack of technical knowledge make him less of an enthusiast than me? If you think it does, it may be time to take a step back and look at your priorities and why you became passionate about cars in the first place, cause I promise you it had nothing to do with the transmission, that came later and IMO is a kneejerk over reaction to the dwindling numbers of cars offered with them. I prefer them, and most definitely think that they are more fun to drive, but having one doesn't make me any more or less on an enthusiast than HMMS' club president who drives an auto, it just makes us different.

We all like different things, it's part of what makes the enthusiast community interesting. Personally I have no real love for popup headlights, I don't hear the Name Alfa Romeo and immediately feel turned on, and I see nothing wrong with the Porsche GT3 (a very track focused car) being offered with only the PDK gearbox (a transmission proven to be faster on the track). I also don't care for trucks and SUV's including old Land Rovers, and Jeeps. None of this means I can't appreciate why others do lust after and are enthusiastic about these things, it doesn't make them lesser in my eyes, only different. For me, I love light cars, and learning how to make small engines more powerful, and how to put that power down effectively, especially when going through turns, as well as how to put everything together so that I can clip an apex properly and generally go faster. If we all only lusted after manual transmissioned, diesel powered, miata wagons that had been designed in Italy, and nothing else the community would be incredibly boring and stagnant. It'd turn into a circle jerk with everyone always agreeing about everything and nothing new and interesting would ever make an appearance.

So please, unless someone is doing something that will be dangerous to the general public around them, stop belittling each other. We all love cars, and while I don't expect, or even want, everyone to agree with each other, it would be nice if we could at least be respectful of each other and not descend into asshatery, douche-canoeery, and generally acting like the jokers up in congress.

EL_ULY > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 11:01

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I have an unofficial scale for this. You dudes are free to tweak it in any way

-Enthusiast "specs/HP numbers genius"

-(grey area) #1

Gear Head "enthusiast AND builder/racer"

-(grey area) #2

-Mechanic "likes cars, hates cars"

505Turbeaux > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 11:03

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the only non-enthusiast I see is the one that views Consumer Reports as the other bible

Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 11:06

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There are two kinds of people who aren't enthusiasts: donkers and stancers. Everyone else is created equal in the eyes of the car gods.

/flamesuiton

CKeffer > 505Turbeaux 10/24/2013 at 11:07

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Usually those people don't claim to be enthusiasts, in my experience. CR has it's uses, but the people writing it are more concerned with trunk space, leg room, and residual value than they are with the actual experience of driving the vehicle.

505Turbeaux > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 11:11

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exactly

CKeffer > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney 10/24/2013 at 11:12

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I would say that even those are enthusiasts. I don't particularly care for their cars, but if it's the cars that get them fired up, then they are enthusiasts still. Now when a stancer has their tires stretched to the point where it will lose bead if you blow on it, and is running tires with load ratings WAYYY too low for the car, then they absolutely should be called on it, but they are no less of enthusiasts than the guy driving a more functional vehicle. Their taste may be questionable at best, but not their enthusiasm for cars.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney 10/24/2013 at 11:21

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I'm going to agree with CKeffer. They might do heinous things, but they still get enthusiastic about their crippled vehicles :)

Casper > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 11:24

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You are wrong because you are making a massive assumption: everyone is an enthusiast for the same thing. Being an auto enthusiast does not mean they fundamentally have to like all cars. Many people are enthusiast about specific aspects of vehicles and specific vehicle uses. This means there will be polar opposite enthusiasts, as you described. To say they must agree would be idiotic.

The premise of your post is flawed, but the underlying idea is sound. Treat everyone with respect even if you disagree. Respect has nothing to do with agreeing or accepting someone's opinion (opinions can be wrong and there is no requirement to accept someone's opinion). It has to do with how you disagree with them. Be civil.

Tom McParland > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 11:26

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Are you on Oppo are and supportive of your fellow gear-heads? Enthusiast

Are you on Autoblog picking fights over dumb-shit? Not so much.

CKeffer > Casper 10/24/2013 at 11:41

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I never once said that all enthusiasts must agree, or even that they should....quite the opposite actually. Just that differences of opinion should be handled respectfully and with the understanding that said differences do not make them less of an enthusiast than someone else. I also state the opposite of every enthusiast liking all cars. I use an example of two people who like the same car for totally different reasons to help illustrate that. The generalities you speak of I use to show the commonalities shared by all enthusiasts: we like automobiles. Some of us like trucks, others sports cars, others american muscle with huge thumping v8's under the hood. These are all different, but they are all "cars" in the general sense. I'm simply saying that liking one does not make you more or less of an enthusiast than someone who likes one of the others. It would be like saying that someone who loves fighter jets from the cold war era isn't an enthusiast because he doesn't care about planes from WWII. So, no, I'm not saying they they should all agree, just that they should agree that they are all enthusiasts and as such the other persons opinion is no less valid then their own, they may not agree with it, and discussions debating each's point may even get heated. But that is because each is passionate about the vehicles they love, and not because one is a "true" enthusiast and the other is not.

Casper > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 12:07

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That is what I said. You reference several times a sweeping generalized enthusiast concept for instance when you stated:

To me it's as simple as this; Do you like cars? Do you find they ignite your imagination and inspire passionate feelings in you? Do you find beauty in their design, or mechanical workings, do you find yourself coming up with excuses to drive more and take the long way home? If you do, congratulations, you're an enthusiast.

That was then countered by later statements such as "We all like different things, it's part of what makes the enthusiast community interesting." It is a reversal of a generalized concept, and a more accurate statement. Enthusiasts range from extremely broad to extremely specific, and can be complete opposites under the same basic field. For instance, someone who is "stancing" a vehicle is completely the opposite of someone who is tuning a vehicle. Not only do they not have to agree, but it is logical that they would fundamentally disapprove of each other and have no respect for what the other is doing in many cases. That's fine, they don't need to interact at all... they are completely different enthusiast cultures.

You can, in fact, be called out as not a true enthusiast and your level of passion is irrelevant. It just depends on what I am claiming to be an enthusiast of. For instance, if I claim to be a racing enthusiast, but only know something about a very specific/obscure form of racing, then I am not a racing enthusiast. I am an enthusiast of that specific racing subculture. It is completely reasonable for people to call me out on it if I begin speaking to other racing aspects I do not actually have knowledge of or the like.

If you read my second paragraph you will realize that 80% of what you wrote is reflected there and summarized more efficiently. It has nothing to do with who is or is not an enthusiast and which group they should be categorized to. It has to do with basic respect.

Stephen the Canuck > CKeffer 10/24/2013 at 21:46

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Enthusiasm about one thing or all things automotive. Simplest way to define it. Anything can be appreciated, stanced euros, tricked out vans, muscle cars, sleepers, race cars, and lifted trucks.

terrencel > EL_ULY 11/02/2013 at 03:23

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Should probably add people that are interested in design under enthusiast.

EL_ULY > terrencel 11/02/2013 at 10:06

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good point sir, noted

SpeedSix > CKeffer 11/12/2013 at 21:03

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They're concerned with toasters, not cars.