Every day it feels like there are more people trying to remind us that we’re different than there are trying to remind us that, deep down, we probably have more in common than we are usually allowed to acknowledge. This cuts both ways as sometimes the differences are important to us. The differences have meaning.
The challenge of modern life is recognizing those differences while not allowing them to overwhelm our shared sense of humanity. Well, the greatest challenge of modern life is recognizing a shared sense of humanity, other challenges include knowing whether or not to get the insurance plan for your phone and picking the correct seat on an airplane that’s not too close to the bathroom but not too far from the front door.
I mention all of this because this last weekend was the great Galpin Car Show and it’s one of the coolest events I’ve been a part of as a car geek. This whole year has been kind of amazing as I’ve had the chance to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England and Monterey Car Week in Central California. I’ve managed to see more of my dream cars this year than I probably saw in the first two decades of my life.
More importantly, I’ve met an incredibly diverse group of car enthusiasts that include NASCAR heads from England and English car enthusiasts from North Carolina. People who have dedicated some portion of the limited time we get on this planet to not only preserving cars but to sharing them with other people.
I don’t want this to just be empty platitudes. There’s a lot that sucks about being alive in 2024 even in a place as generally safe and prosperous as the United States. I think a lot of us are wondering how it’s possible that family members and neighbors can say things that might seem anathematic to what we were raised to believe about our country.
Is there a way back from this? I have no clue. I’ll just say that car culture, to me, seems to maybe have one small answer. Goodwood was great, but it was mostly for motorsports fans. Monterey has a wild mix of cars over the course of the week, but they’re largely divided into different geographies and different days.
The Galpin Car Show was the largest and most diverse car show I think I’ve ever attended. From people into Model Ts to fans of the latest hypercar, there weren’t just a ton of cars, there were representatives of almost every kind of automotive appreication. You’ll sometimes see a range of vehicles at a Sunday morning car show and, at times, it can Balkanize a bit if there are just a few distinct groups.
I’m not sure what happened on Sunday, but there were so many cars from so many distinct car subcultures that it turned into this massive lovefest. The muscleheads were checking out the microcars, the Euro car snobs were digging on the lowriders, and pretty much everyone was losing it for the out-of-this-world hot rod collection.
There wasn’t much talk of politics. There was just openness and curiosity. It wasn’t that people suddenly changed their preferences or even their biases, it’s just that everyone was open to understanding why someone loves a perfectly preserved Lincoln or how they made a custom firetruck for their dog.
It reminded me that, while we all have our things, it’s really just one big car culture. That if you do it right, it’s just a safe space to open the sunroof of your mind and let a little sunshine in.
We’ll have another post with some video talking about more of the great cars we saw this weekend, but I wanted to share some photos from our own Griffin Riley that give you a sense of just how diverse this show was in every way.
These photos focus a little more on the people than the cars, which I find beautiful. A car show without people’s just a parking lot.
 
 
All photos: Griffin Riley for The Autopian
Thanks, great photos from Griffin. I always wanted to make a bumper sticker that reads
“After the aliens show up we’ll all just be HUMANS”. (Earthlings)
Cars help over a billion of us human beings get around every day. Car culture helps remind us that we don’t have to think of cars as just appliances; they can also be an expression of individuality, creativity, and fun. When that’s the goal, that’s car culture, and what makes it a Good Thing.
Which pretty much automatically excludes the show-offs using cars just to be obnoxious and force their way into the center of attention.
Can’t do much about the grayface sourpusses who just abjectly hate on any car that isn’t showroom-stock; that’s a them problem.
For the rest of the world, car culture in all its forms can put a smile on a lot of people’s faces, and needs to be cherished.
I’m with you to a point. While I’ll probably never own one, I kind of unironically love donks. Lowriders aren’t really my thing, but I can still appreciate the incredible artistry that goes into many of them.
But I draw the line at people who are actively hazardous to those around them. Coal rollers and people who drive stanced cars in public on dangerously installed wheels and tires can bite me.
Honestly, that’s kind of my philosophy on life. If what you’re doing doesn’t hurt anyone (including yourself), then by all means have at it. Want to dress up as a giant squirrel and swing a foam sword at a bunch of other people dressed up as various animals (to pick out a couple of generally mocked demographics of enthusiasts)? Sure, why not. Are you constantly at your local library submitting formal requests that they remove books for “obscenity” or whatever BS reason? Fuck off. You don’t get to tell someone that their lifestyle is obscene.
Two specific examples, but I find that this test is very helpful in determining whether I just don’t like something or if it’s actually bad. Often they’re not the same thing.
I get the sentiment… but I don’t agree with the premise.
There is _not_ one car culture. We may share an interest in things with wheels… but I think it’s fairly easy to make appropriate moral judgements about how we express this interest.
Rolling coal? Nope. Brodozers? Nope. Street racing? Nope. (Tesla? Nope… but only because it enables Musk. I appreciate the engineering). Hooning? Nope.
As people we generally have more in common that not… but just like everything else in life… some car enthusiasts are just asses…
I understand how awesome the show was, and I agree with everything said in the article. But I just can’t get past that headline, which is super wrong.
There is absolutely not one car culture. All of us true car enthusiasts are one band together, but I think the majority of people driving cool or flashy or modified or hopped up cars are not enthusiasts in the same way you or I am, and like cars not for the love of cars but for an outward conspicuous consumerism reason.
Not to gatekeep, but I’d put people who just bought a car to have an expensive car in a different camp from car enthusiasts. The same goes for rolling coal and street racing, which are different things using cars.
This show is AMAZING! I cannot believe all the Galpin dealerships shut down for this show, it must cost a fortune to put this on. So grateful to go to this fantastic show every year.
I love diversity in a car show. I also love inclusion.
12 or 13 years ago, I remember one of my friends plasti-dipped his whole car black.
Then he put a bucket of sidewalk chalk next to it and let everyone just draw whatever they wanted all over the car. Remember to have fun in your own way, folks!
Good reminder to be kinder to each other. We all need to get along.
As something to bring to shows, I can agree, donks, stanced squatted, cool to show the work that’s done and the persons vision.
But when I see them daily driving and they either can’t go over speed bumps cause they’re too low, or can’t take a turn cause they’re too high, or blasting high beams to the sky at night, and my car has to pass inspection every year but somehow they’re able to skate by like that, it bugs me, save it for the show/track.
Nope, the stance-nation types with the stretched tires and the squatted truck dudes and I have nothing in common.
Wow!