The quest for perfection results in sterility

Just as in the beauty pageant, my top choice is shuffled to the side.
Beauty is a natural thing, until you hold it to an artificial standard.
Nads is right. Ain't nothin' like the real thing.

 

A little bit of "ugliness" is a virtue!!

 

The Obelisk is orange............Robert Conrad loves you.

 

I personally have always tried to have it both ways.
Just as one example I bought a proffesionally built sports car. The 1st owner had spent about 70K having it built in 1990. The build quality on it was absolutely superb. When I bought it it was 6 years old and had done under 1000 miles. In the year I owned it I put 18000 miles on it and the greatest thing was seeing the look on the builders face when he saw it out and about.
My take is that I can buy something new and flush a fortune down the toilet the first time I drive it or I can spend the same or a little more on something with real character and style that has been done really well drive it all the time and love every minute of it and it still keeps its value.
I really hate seeing a real piece of **** and having the owner say I built it to drive. WTF cars are too big to go in a display cabinet and they SHOULD all be built to drive. I feel it just shows a lack of cl*** and pride. I'm not talking about cars that are still evolving and will eventually be painted and finished or cars with real patina but a rusty poorly finished car is not traditional and will never be anything but a reflection of the owners lack of taste.
Build to the highest standard you can then go out and blow people away by using it and prove that a beautiful car isn't always a trailer queen.

 

That could have been written by me. Although I've been collecting pieces to put a full dress big block in the 48 I'm going with a nicely done up 292 and probably a more practical paint job and more traditional interior.

The show cars are interesting to glean ideas from to use on a project or see that an "idea" doesn't work on a real car. That bracket that the "name" builder was paid big bucks to design might trigger the brain to design a similar bracket that is simple and works well. Your might be made out of steel using the drill press, chop saw, belt sander and welder while his was carved out of a 40 lb block of aluminum with a cnc mill but the end results work the same.
One thing I'm not going to copy is seats that you can't sit on and drive for a few hundred miles w/o killing your **** and back.

 

"Nads"

Like the guys in the Guiness commercial...
"Genius!"

 

I guess I'll chime in too...

I have a lot of respect for builders and restorers. I've spent most of my career doing what some may call trailer queens but in a different realm that a few of you may recall from past posts. FWIW I drive everything I build. I've NEVER put "condoms" on my tires while pulling on to the concours show field. I've always tried to hold a "rule" that function is more than 1/2 the build. Good choices in prep and mat'ls can make em last a long time and be easy to clean and resist road damage.

So what about a Riddler or AMBR car? I'd be honored to win one before I die. Could I? I think so. The challenge is there to compete with peers and collegues of the same and similar crafts. Very few of my fellow restorers at the bigger events reflect any negative vibes about what we've presented for ourselves and our customers. It's a great feeling to help one of them the day of the show and even when it results in a win for them vs you, it should not matter if the spirit of the compe***ion is correct. Pie in the sky thinking? Maybe at some minor level but still true.

Staying on topic, I notice a regular disdain for showcars here at times. I may not like everything about a big winner at one of these events, but I can usually pick who the Riddler will be based on the car itself, even more than who's presenting it. Perhaps it's not for everyone. Fine and dandy but there's nothing wrong with it either. I got as much a charge out of driving an original Deuce Tudor last summer as I did driving a Duesenberg. The Tudor was nasty and well worn but a riot to drive. I personally need both.

"The one who writes the check"...is often more than just that. Without their input and participation it goes south really fast. Several of my customers get pretty involved at different levels of a big project. All but maybe 2 have actually gotten dirty, scratched, or burnt in the process. Several have gone to the extreme to get parts manufactured or machined through their sources to benefit others as well as their projects.

In the end of my admitted long-winded response, I can only say I like, need, and respect both. I want both. It's done more often than we may know. It's not always what it seems. To feel that all of these owners are nothing but check writers sounds less than that of a true enthusiast. Everything about our craft/hobby/desire has a high point. Riddlers/AMBR/"Best of shows" are there and will go on...for all of us.

 

Well put Nads.
A car is meant to be driven.
A painting or a sculpture is only meant to be looked at.
I have the utmost respect for those who can build a beutifull "finnished" car, drive it, and keep it looking like a "showcar" to the m***es.
I can fully appreciate the time and effort that goes into creating a "rolling sculpture" but eventually it MUST be driven.
A car IS NOT a static sculpture!

 

Wealthy guys building non driver show cars are just "showing off", and probably have been that way since kindergarten....with their expensive toys that they won't let anybody play with.

Poor kids have to "make do" with homemade toys....dumpster bikes, wooden go-karts, and today appreciate machinery that gets used, not shown off.

Some things in life never change.....speaking of which (Nads, your coupe is done!)

 

I like trashy women !!

 

Hey.........I have said many time in the past...I love trashy wimmen.........the same goes with cars.........but well done ones.
I build race cars and a few street cars........Had a customer call about me building him a car.........It sounded like he wanted a show car........I simply told him that if he wanted a show car, go somewhere else. We wound up building the car. It "showed" well, but ran like a bat outta hell and has been thrashed over and over for 5 years now.........Our ole Galaxie was built in 97 and it also looked pretty good for a "race car"........Many said we went too far with the nice paint........That paint is now 10 seasons old and has been knocked around quite a bit......I have hit a few things with it, we repaired it, sometimes with only 3 days between races.........It is still a pretty good looking car from 50 feet..........and we still run the hell out of it............
Nothing wrong with building a pretty car.........but I don't want to spend my time on something that will not be driven..........Hard. Not to the point that they will be trashed in the process, but well maintained and up to the challenge of a daily driver or an often raced car.
As for the Most Beautiful Roadster, I appreciate most of the effort and work involved, and the money spent with the builders to get it to that point. As for the picks lately, many are not what I would be looking for. Just because one of the more well known builders are comissioned to "build me a Riddler", don't necessarily mean it deserves it..................Agreeing with Nads here.........
Like my dad used to say ..."Pretty cars and Fast Wimmen".........
Room for all of them..........some like em, some don't............giving out the HAMB trophy for a winner........I am all for it............Style never goes out of Style.
Mark

 

I respect NADS opinion but I also agree with what the HIGHLANDER wrote above.

I would imagine very few high dollar owners would commission a car without giving very serious input about what they want the final product to look and be like. And I'm sure as the build goes on the input from the owner continues to come...if they're not there in person, working with the builder.

Remember, to SPEND money you have to MAKE money so their own work will come first, the build second.

And for these high dollar cars not being driven/used. Maybe not the 1st or 2nd years when they're on the circuit, but what about later? How many of the early show cars have been discussed here on the HAMB as being 'found', needing total restoration?

To each their own...I love 'em both...but not necessarily this years winner.

 

My take on expectations and the Miss America ****ogy......

HAMB types expecting to get wowed by the entries in the AMBR show are like a bunch of guys going to the Miss America pagent and waiting for them to squirt the water on the t-shirts while wondering where the tatoos are.

 

I completely disagree with that statement. Since when are "HAMB types" like that? Maybe a few are, but certainly not the majority.

What some of us are "grousing" about is that the moniker "America's Most blah blah" is not REALLY indicative of what we think is appropriate.

Nads- you nailed it for me bro.

 

I've seen your picture, so I believe this statement.

 

My take on cars is,"I can't want to like 'em all,but I can want to find something I like in all of 'em".
You Go Nads!

 

Those are the same people, they just have a little less taste, a little less money, and still no respect for their predecessors. I mean, can you actually DRIVE this? No. So what is the point?

 

Well spoken Nads.


I can appreciate the time & effort that goes into building an AMBR winner. I also appreciate the home built, do it with what's available build as well.
Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. Personally, when i see one that looks like it was driven off the trailer, i give it a quick glance, look for tricks in the detailing, and move on. It's the ones with the rock chips, roadbase in the treads kind of vehicles that gets me going.

 

Well said, Nads.
I'll just add my thoughts. Some people (myself included) say "a car is meant to be driven".
Some people say "a car is meant to be enjoyed, whether driven or trailered".

Both statements are correct, however.

 

Its happening.
Right now. Can you feel it?
The cash division begins again.


Here we find ourselves in a hot rod world, where, once again, cash=correct.
Welcome to the future: "high-end traditional"
Ya' know a WHOLE lotta cars got built back in the day with stick weld spatter, angle iron, and no/ poor paint paint. Not everyone was building show cars. Not everyone had mega-bucks. Most hot rods were average back yard affairs, aspiring to be as good as they could be, not many ever reaching that lofty goal.
Go ahead and call me out because of my age and say I don't know. My father did.

I DO believe you can build a perfect car, though, without it becoming sterile. Its rare, but you can do it...I can't, of course, because I don't have the money, but you can...
Actually, after further revue...no, you can't either. Perfection does not exist. And yes, any quest for something that does not exist, will result in sterility...or, at least insanity.

 

Perfect doesn't necessarily equate to steril. AV8's Bluey was pretty darned perfect but I wouldn't describe it as steril.

'Sterility' is only achieved if perfection is locked in a trailer/garage from the moment it's achieved...

'Sterility' is lost the first time the car undertakes a diving experience and a memory is created behind the wheel.

Granted a car created by simply throwing money at it won't have the soul a car lovingly built by the owner has. But who are we to judge a guy who simply doesn't have the skill, desire, time, or space to build a *****in' car but digs them enough to pay someone to build it for him.

Also, you could argue that if the end result is sterile, it's far from perfect.

Case in point, the AMBR this year is about the most sterile creation on 4 wheels but to me there isn't a thing perfect about it. Every polished inch of that car has something wrong with it to my eye.

 

Nads, You sir, are a man who's got a pair & is not afraid to hang 'em out there. Good words to be read by all.
It brings to mind the "Grand Master" Chevy that Foose did a few years back. Touted as the 'greatest million dollar hot rod'. It got the Riddler and all that, was pampered & pushed everywhere for the whole year. Next season it was old news & driven in the gate of the GG nats & parked a****st the rest of the cars like it was nothing. Makes me glad I'm not in that end of this thing.
Al

 

I had a buddy once tell me the reason that "Hustler" outsold "*******" is that the average Joe knew he didn't stand a chance with the gals in "*******", but that when he looked at some hard eyed blonde in "Hustler" he could say, " Hell yea, I gotta shot at that!"

I think the same rational applies to "our side of the street" as Nads put it. For the most part the cars we admire are home built, a little rough around the edges and look used and enjoyed. For the average guy, it still comes down to " Hey I could have one of those."

 

pigs is pigs nadeem....to each his own i guess. it's a good thing people have a different idea of beauty. i've seen fellas go ******* over a girl i wouldn't **** with my worst enemies' ****...then again, i've had plenty tell me i'm off my rocker for the things i'm into.

i'm with you here...we share the same taste in cars and women...what's the fun in having either if you can't give them a good running through?

 

not all perfect cars are trailer queens. Dennis Varni drove (drives?) his AMBR winner all over. saw Brizio's 55 at Bakersfield all rained on and filthy. I'm sure the list is long.

I don't usually care for AMBR cars or riddler contenders. but if someone has the cash and wants to do that sort of thing that's OK with me. it pours a great deal of money into the shop that builds it, the people who work there, the chrome shops, polishing shop, probably a machine shop, the paint supplier, a variety of vendors for new and old parts. it's good for the HOT ROD economy and has no negative effect on anything I do with my old cars..

 

that has GOT to be one of the single largest ****ing photos i have ever seen on the internet

 

Yep! 2832 X 2128 pixels is gotta be a record. Sure wish I didn't have dial-up

 

I hate car shows.

It's like a cleaning contest.

 

God damn that's funny!!!!!

I agree with ya, Puddin',,,,some of these cars have their tires covered in SARAN WRAP when they roll off the trailer...DRIVER my ***.

Bryan

 

i was always told that sterility is caused by tight sorts.

me and my cars go commando.