A Terrible Year Reaches the Finish Line
See you in 2021.
Happy Race Day, especially to those of you who brought your tree home in a Citroën 2CV this season:
Thank you as always for reading Race Day and following along on this 2020 journey with me.
Obviously it has been a trying year, to say the least. My updates have been infrequent lately, and it’s time to make some changes.
This will be the final post in 2020. I’m taking time to reassess so that Race Day can return in 2021, and I can continue the work — which I still believe is important — of chronicling this unique moment in car culture.
It’s been a hell of a lot of fun. I hope you agree and will continue to open the updates in your inbox, enjoy the content and share with your friends.
This was a rough year, but in my mind, it was also the year we permanently did away with the idea that young people are killing car culture.
In February I threw a book signing that drew an awesome collection of cars and their young owners. Jay Leno came. I also held a book club in May surrounding Faster, capped by a live Q&A with author Neal Bascomb.
In the spring I followed the impact of COVID closely. I interviewed 11 young enthusiasts about how the pandemic changed them. Other topics included sim racing having its moment, turning virtual wins into NASCAR success and an interview with a SEMA executive about the survival of the aftermarket.
Finally, the social justice movement put Lewis Hamilton, Bubba Wallace and other Black drivers and enthusiasts at the front of a global conversation. Later, we spoke with incredibly inspiring and creative car nuts Abby Hempy and Sydney Cummings.
What a year.
Good riddance.
Culture
The only thing I’ll share this week is well worth your time. The viral automotive sensation Gymkhana returns for 2020, this time with iconic extreme-everything guy Travis Pastrana behind the wheel. CAR CULTURE WILL NEVER DIE:
Ask A Millennial! Lewin Day, 29
Australian writer Lewis Day A) sent me the best personal photo ever, above, and B) wrote the essay that got the whole automotive world talking at the end of November. The article, Income Inequality Is Killing Sports Cars, sparked a ton of debate about everything we’ve been documenting here: the intersection of cars and the economy; market forces affecting young people especially; and why we should raise their wages if we want sports cars to survive. I highly recommend it.
Day is right, of course, but some still aren’t seeing the light. On the other hand, the evidence is mounting, and enough writers are acknowledging the problem to keep it in the dark for much longer. I’m so glad Day joins us in the newsletter today. Here is an edited version of our conversation:
I was surprised at quite how far it spread. But overall, it was vindicating. The fact that so many people identified with what we were talking about showed me that our economic conditions are strangling the car scene.
Aussie car culture has managed to maintain a youthful, larrikin aspect; we don't have that solely old blokes in old muscle thing going on here. But the financial situation here is much the same. Go to any MX-5 meet and you'll hang out with five kids under 25 who are all saving pennies up for turbos and wishing desperately they could have bought something faster.
I've always loved to explore uniqueness of cars from different isolated markets around the world; it's the automotive equivalent of Darwinian evolution on an isolated island. That, and I like to bring a realistic, data-based analysis to answer questions, rather than simply ranting on what I think is correct.
Blue skies, solidly into T-shirt weather but with cool, flowing breezes. Top down, on a run through Corkscrew Road with the go fast boys. Someone does a cheeky burnout in an abandoned carpark and gets away with it, and then we all go and smash greasy food and talk about how good each other's cars are.
Follow Lewin on Twitter right here.
And Finally…
How does a car dad do a gender reveal? With pink or blue tire smoke, of course.
Drive hard and be safe. Black Lives Matter.
Want your event included? Shoot me a note with subject line “Race Day” at ryan@carrarabooks.com.
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