Millennial Car Culture is Thriving — Here's Proof
Two very different car shows on opposite ends of the country prove healthy crowds are showing out and participating in U.S. car culture.
A weekly newsletter by Ryan K. ZumMallen | @zoomy575m
Happy Race Day, especially to everyone who dressed up in the sickest 90s-era attire ever at Radwood Detroit over the weekend. Neon galore, folks.
Wow, you guys really like books. Paperback copies of Slow Car Fast are flying out of my home office faster than you can say homologation. I’m thrilled at the response and so encouraged that people are responding to the message.
Namely, that young people are just as car-crazy as previous generations and their taste in personality and character over speed is influencing the culture in ways we never imagined. Exciting times!
If you’re curious about the book, and want to know more before diving in, we’ve got tons of resources for you. Visit the Carrara Books press page to see our podcast appearances and media coverage.
And then buy the book here!
If that still isn’t enough, our friends at Autoweek published three — count em, three! — excerpts from Slow Car Fast on their website. There you’ll find a shortened chapter on the cult of the BMW M3, another on the evolution of live motorsports and yet another on Millennial desires to shun the horsepower wars. Free content! Dig in!
Culture
One of my favorite events of the year, the Japanese Classic Car Show took over Long Beach and brought out some pretty special pieces of JDM history. My daughter got to sit in an Autozam AZ1. Interview with the owner below.
Certified badass and my Edmunds.com colleague Elana Scherr guests on the Hello Road podcast to dish on broken cars and her new YouTube channel. Elana’s great! Check it out.
If you’ve read Slow Car Fast then you already know how the Nürburgring lap time grew to prominence and why automakers are desperate to set record laps there. An amateur timer claims he has the first lap time for the new mid-engined C8 Corvette — but refuses to share it. His reasoning is worth a read.
Video games are car culture, Exhibit A: a designer spent countless hours in Forza Motorsport recreating the new Porsche and Coca-Cola livery. Keep in mind, each logo is drawn individually using a series of shapes and an Xbox controller.
A new season of the Netflix series Fastest Car dropped this week. One of the contestants is our friend and SCF profile subject Emelia Hartford. Check it out!
The new school (Radwood) met the old school (Detroit), where some worried that the trend would be rejected in favor of traditional American tastes. Not so! The exact opposite happened. Tons of amazing cars and even better outfits turned out.
These ladies and their ’91 Zagato Stelvio won Raddest in Show!
Quick reminder: Events like JCCS and Radwood ARE ONLY POSSIBLE BECAUSE MILLENNIAL-ERA ENTHUSIASTS ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT THESE CARS AND WILLING TO PAY TO SEE THEM. OTHERWISE THESE SHOWS WOULD NOT EXIST.
Sorry. It needed to be said.
Race Results
Singapore Grand Prix: F1 is fun again? F1 IS FUN AGAIN!
Are you a fast driver interested in helping a training simulator gather data? Hit up these guys.
Remember Sarah Montgomery, the first woman to earn a podium in the Mazda spec series earlier this year? She ended the season with two more.
Ask A Millennial! Delaney Rindal, 24
It’s such a joy meeting anyone passionate about sharing their car with others. So when Rindal invited my 6-year-old daughter to climb inside her rare Mazda Autozam AZ1 at the Japanese Classic Car Show, I knew she was one of the special ones. Follow her on Instagram. Here’s an edited version of our conversation:
When I cruise around in the Autozam I get a lot of pretty extreme reactions from people. It's fun to see the look of amazement on peoples' faces as I pass by, and watch them stumble to get their phones out fast enough to snap a photo. Most people don’t know what it is since it's so tiny and uncommon, so the general reaction is "What the heck IS that?!"
When I was living in Japan in 2016 I went to the Daikoku car meet just outside of Tokyo and fell in love. It led me down the rabbit hole into the world of Kei cars, the Japanese category for smallest street-legal passenger cars. This eventually led me to discover the Mazda Autozam AZ-1.
Car culture today is very diverse, but my tastes fall more into the traditional category. I try my best to keep the classic culture alive. It’s allowed me to meet many different types of automotive enthusiasts and I hope to continue to learn more.
And Finally…
A special tribute exhibit to the late fabricator and thrill-seeker Jessi Combs has opened, free of charge, at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles. Combs died in August following an accident as she attempted to best her own land speed record.
R.I.P. Jessi.
Drive hard and be safe.
Want your event included? Shoot me a note with subject line “Race Day” at ryan@carrarabooks.com.