What makes us, us?

"Ike" (untitledcarshow) 03/31/2015 at 13:59 • Filed to: Long winded

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So I've been an daily reader of Jalponik & oppositelock for more than a year; and what I find so interesting about this community is the display of such different types of motoring enthusiast all in one location. Which got me to thinking, "what is the common thing that draws all of us to this community?".

Being that this is such a diverse and wonderful group of enthusiasts, the answer can't be a simple one.

To get to the answer let's take a little trip.

I recently had a Audi SQ5 drive by me while walking though Washington, D.C. & I thought who would spend that sort of money on that car? That's when I though of the jalop community. Nice price or crack pipe? What would a used one even go for? What's the maintenance gonna cost Ya? How much fun is gonna be to blow the doors off of sports cars in an SUV? There they were in my head the thoughts of the community! How'd y'all get up there?

In the past I was very much a car snob, "oh I have a Dodge Challenger R/T if you don't have something with at least 350 horses don't even talk to me." I felt like I was better then these people driving around in their beat up cars, fixing and bodging as they went. "How awful."I would think. But when my challenger started being in the shop on a almost daily basis, I found myself thinking more and more of "lesser" cars. Then when I finally got Dodge to buy it back from me, I had to find a new car and I went with a Volvo C30. My former self would have cried "250 horses? FWD!? What are you doing!?" But it was more fun to drive, and now the people who wanted to talk at gas stations were people I might actually want to talk to.

I'm sorry for the digression but it beings me to a point; how I'd go from being such a snob to now owning a Volvo V70R and a 1991 740 with no working air and a Ford Fiesta? It's was the same thing that led me to this community and I think it's the thing that let a lot of people to this community. I enjoy cars, but more than that I enjoy the little bits of crazy that makes car ownership fun. A now defunct car show called Top Gear (you may have heard of it), was known for saying a true car enthusiast has to own an Alpha Romeo at least once in their life. Yeah their reliability is shitty and they're far from the best built cars, but they invoke an emotion. Isn't that what you want from a vehicle if your an enthusiast? It's like Doug's old Nissan cube, the car is hideous looking, pitiful to drive and worse in many respects then a beige Toyota Camry. Yet the worst offense you can have is a vehicle that doesn't say anything, to look at it from an artistic perspective, art is art if it invokes and emotion, or an idea; and the same is true with cars. I know most in this community would rather be in a Nissan cube then in a Toyota Camry, and that's what makes this community so interesting.

To go on another random aside I had a ex-girlfriend who is one of those crazy pet rescue ladies. She had three dogs, some parrots, some cats and other random small animals in her house. She dragged me to a couple of different pet adoption events, if you enjoy people watching I would highly recommend just visiting one of these events and watching the people who are in charge of adopting out the animals. There are a lot of corollaries between the way they act, and when you go to a large car events such as Carlisle. Some of them are dog people, some of them are cat people, and some of them are crazy into really random animals. Regardless of what their favorite pet though they all have very similar goals and love to share stories between the different pet people.

My favorite thing about them though is the love to nurse back to health animals who were not perfect. Another common thread was a lot of these people were emotionally attached to the pets they were supposed to adopt out and did not want to let them go. In a way this is how I see our community we are the crazy people pet people of the car world. Who else is going to take a busted up Miata and nurse it back to health? What other community would be all about Saabs, Volvos, Miatas, Ferraris, Chevy pickups, fiesta STs, and any other crazy motoring endeavor. We're talk about the racing, and car crashes, law practice, how to scam Carmax out of a ton of money (I mean use the warrantee that they provided to you on a very unreliable cars, that you could have no way to predicted were unreliable cars), and importing cars from overseas.

Not to sound too much like a carbonated beverage commercial, but I think what draws us together as a community is a love of such a diverse range of motoring. We want to be together and share our love of the crazy or unique. We also love to be different than the "mainstream American auto buyer". That's why we love wagons and hot hatchbacks and car like the s600. This is a place for us to come together and share our love all of all things odd in the motoring world.

For out there in the real world we may be laughed at for love of 1991 Volvo station wagons. But here is a safe place, a place where that is not only tolerated but encourage.

So to summarize, we embrace the strange and the weird in motoring and that's what makes us, us. We are together because we are so different. What do you think?

Ike is co-host of the Untitled Car Show ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) he has owned 2 dodge challengers, a Volvo C30 / V70XC/ V70R / 740 and a Saturn Ion. He is a new father and loves driving and autocrossing. He can jerry rig with the best of them, and he wrote his bio in third person.

Nibby > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:03

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THE INTERNET.

For Sweden > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:03

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Being unattractive and unathletic in our formative years

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:05

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Our funding runs all the way from the Tohru Project $300 level all the way up to BTU's mutants of high price tag, but most aren't boring and even the boring cars around here don't stay *boring*. Even an Odyssey is more interesting if you get to metaphorically watch it go under the knife, even for routine repairs, and we've done that here.

Ike > For Sweden 03/31/2015 at 14:05

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yeah. Forgot that bit haha

PowderHound > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:06

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internal combustion? Maybe just combustion because I would love to see some external combustion engines. Such a fun word. Combustion.

Ike > PowderHound 03/31/2015 at 14:07

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it is fun to say, like scuba, try saying scuba.

Brian, The Life of > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:10

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Prius hate?

CB > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:10

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Passion and loving cars, no matter what they are.

Ike > Brian, The Life of 03/31/2015 at 14:12

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Good point, I should add that I suppose

MrDakka > CB 03/31/2015 at 14:18

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brown, rwd, turbo, diesel, manual wagons aka unicorns

?v=1423848565

BorkBorkBjork > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:19

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In the most simple way possible, Oppositelock is defined as:

F=m(a)

And all the crazy way's human beings have created to impose the most F possible.

nermal > For Sweden 03/31/2015 at 14:24

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Does it count if you're only ugly on the inside?

RallyWrench > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:26

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"A now defunct car show called Top Gear (you may have heard of it), was known for saying a true car enthusiast has to own an Alpha Romero at least once in their life. "

Wat

Sorry, had to.

I like this place because I get to learn about parts of the automotive landscape that I'm not involved with, and more. In that sense, it is the difference & variety that interests me. We have guys with problematic Citroens, old Peugeots, a Ranchero with Jaguar parts, Smart cars, several Toyota FJs, dealer techs, parts guys, sales staff, importers, wealthy guys, starving students, fabricators, teachers, and too many other interesting things, backgrounds, and occupations to mention, and everything in between. And we can learn from every one of them. It's great.

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:26

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Diversity. Tohru's Project $300. BTU's (former) i8. Cletus44's Chrysler. The Murdersofa. Montegoman's Montego. FiSTs! Saabs! Citroens! JDM Imports and Post-Malaise minibarges! It doesn't matter if you have a Huayra or a Honda, if you've got it, you've got something. Heck, there are members that don't even have cars! We are all individuals, and you become one of us by becoming one of us. Think of our personalities. Silvestro, Arch Duke Maxyenko, Kate's Dirty Sister, Yamahog, $kaycog, and Aaron Paul! We are all different, but we respect each others opinions. And respect and diversity is what makes us Oppo.

Ike > RallyWrench 03/31/2015 at 14:32

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Should have proof read twice. My bad, il fix it.

Yep I agree the things you learn are so great here!

Sn210 > Ike 03/31/2015 at 14:33

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we're car nerds, the purist form of car people. We aren't douche bros who only want to race at street lights. We aren't fanboys who will die defending the one manufacturer they've sworn to protect until death. We aren't pretentious collectors who can't be bothered by someyhing awful like putting miles on a car. We certainly aren't tree hugging hippies who think non-hybrids are evil. We love the quirky, we're accepting of other's tastes, and we enjoy the drive.

For Sweden > nermal 03/31/2015 at 14:49

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"only"

Justin Hughes > Ike 03/31/2015 at 15:06

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That "pet enthusiast" metaphor is so accurate it's scary in a way you don't even know, so I'll tell you. I've had this friend for years who I met through autocrossing, ice racing, and eventually rally. I've been with my girlfriend for a bit over a year now. But over 10 years ago, my girlfriend and his then-girlfriend-now-wife met through their mutual interest of breeding hedgehogs.

It was hilarious when we talked and first discovered that she not only knew what rally is, but has friends who did it, and these friends, and that rally car, are the same ones I know!

ZHP Sparky, the 5th > Ike 03/31/2015 at 15:09

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Great post! I was recently thinking along the same lines - wondering what peoples backgrounds are, and how they became car fans - whatever type of car fan that may be.

It truly is amazing how many different flavours there are, and I too used to be snobbish about types of cars I thought were cool, and others that I thought were a stupid waste of time (OK - I still do about some - hellaflush, yo!) but in general, I can appreciate anyone who has a passion for a certain segment of the car world.

I grew up in Asia around pretty boring cars by enthusiast standards...lots of toyotas, nissans etc...but there were random cool cars that you don't see on the US market (Mark II, Levins, Silvias, Sera, Beat, etc.), or are just cool period - Supras, STis, Skylines, etc. Once I moved to the US and had more of a personal identity not being a kid I really got in to European cars...old BMWs, Alfas, etc. - but still really appreciate the value and reliability of Japanese cars (especially while trying to keep an E30 - one of the more affordable European cars to keep alive - running). Even domestic American cars are starting to appeal to me as they've started improving build quality, suspension tech, engine options, etc...I would totally love to have a Mustang if it were 80% of its current size.

But yeah...what makes us, us - I guess it's just being weird (I mean that in a good way). Most "normal" people don't understand what being obsessed with cars is like - or why, or how you do it. "Wait, you can actually take a cursory glance and name every car you see on the road right now? WTF?!" - most non-car people just can't relate to that at all, but it's inherent second nature to us. I think we come about to our passion through various means, but once we're there we tend to gravitate towards each other and maintain that kinship because nobody else gets it, whatever sub-sect of the car world you fit in to.

DasWauto > PowderHound 03/31/2015 at 16:09

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External combustion engines exist. See: steam engines.