Here's the Thing About Loud, Ratty Car Shows
Or, how I learned to love having my eardrums explode.
A weekly newsletter by Ryan K. ZumMallen | @zoomy575m
Happy Race Day, especially to the woman who made this slow-mo tribute video to the bromance between McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, set to the music of Aladdin. Naturally.
Big news about Carrara Media and our first title, Slow Car Fast: The Millennial Mantra Changing Car Culture for Good. The eBook is now listed on both Amazon and Kobo! There are many more to come, and we’re thrilled to begin the process of making SCF more widely available. Please leave us a review!
Of course, you can always get the eBook directly at CarraraBooks.com, which is still the only place you can buy the paperback version! Another round is being printed as we speak, so place your order to make sure you’re at the top of the list. Thank you for supporting an independent publisher.
Culture
There were car shows galore over the weekend. On the east coast you had a ridiculous assortment of tubular cars at Radwood Boston, while on the west coast there was Subiefest with more than 7,000 people and a celebration of all things GT-R at R’s Day (sick gallery here). Our friends at Top Rank Imports held their own JDM show.
And then there was Nissfest. Held at the Irwindale Speedway, the show included Nissans and Datsuns from all eras, packing the parking lot and even open space underneath the bleachers. There was also a drifting demo with drag racing at sunset.
The sheer number of car shows these days, especially ones focused on specific marques and audiences, is fascinating in its own right. Social media has helped like-minded people find each other so quickly there’s hardly any such thing as niche anymore. This would have been a small show a few years ago. Same with Subiefest.
But the thing that stood out about Nissfest was the attitude. I don’t get shocked by much at car shows, but this one did the trick. There were no nicely preserved classics. There were few tasteful mods. This is a show for extreme, no compromise, no-holds-barred, we-might-get-arrested enthusiasts. Rusty cars chopped and carved to bits in order to make room for cheap parts extruding through body panels and pointing toward the sky. We used to call them outlaws.
And the noise. There was noise everywhere. Cars popping and rattling and screeching, one after the other. I’m used to exhaust notes carefully tuned for sonorous, delicious crescendos. This was five hours of my eardrums trying to escape my head.
But you know what? They loved it. The crowds went crazy. They chased after beat-up drifters, cell phones held high, whooping and hollering to encourage them to keep on the throttle. They stood, sometimes knelt, behind the cars’ exhaust, right in the line of fire, and practically drank it up. I couldn’t believe it. I can’t believe they can hear.
These were kids. Many of them teenagers. Or if not, then they grew up on it. This is where it starts for them. People complain that kids don’t like cars these days — well here it is. These are their car stories and memories, their entry point into the car culture that we all love in different and sometimes ridiculous ways. It’s not like one form of automotive enthusiasm knows better than any other. We’re all infected. We’re sick together. Once I embraced that, I had a blast.
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Thank you to everyone who shared last week’s newsletter and discussion on sexism in automotive media, or sent positive messages in support of the women who are fighting it every day. I’d like to share one email from a friend:
Brought it up with my students today, in fact. Cited your piece and admonished them that those days - for men and for women - need to be overtly over and that we have a chance to be better.
The discussion continued across social media all week. I’m sure there will be more to report in the near future. The important thing is we’re making progress.
In sad news, on the heels of UK magazine Autosport killing its print edition last week, the same thing happened to the US outlet Autoweek this week. The editors at Autoweek have been extremely gracious to me, printing an excerpt of Slow Car Fast in a July issue and posting two more on the website. I want to be clear this decision came from the publisher, Crain Communications, not those in editorial. As a fan I’m hurt, but glad to see it keep going at all. In this day and age, unfortunately, that’s a win.
A BMW designer told a magazine that you have to give cars polarizing styling in order to make them recognizable. Okay but, what about making them worth buying? I feel like this attitude is how we got stuck with this:
Turns out the original Michelin Man was a terrifying creature who likely stalked children in their dreams.
Video Reel
A vintage Audi Quattro rally car getting tossed into a 360 drift amid a screaming crowd in Italy. (Warning: Speakers down before you click.) Here.
This little van trying to squeeze into a bigger van is 100% me:
Shane Van Ginsberg had to slam his door shut at 100 mph during the biggest race on the Australian calendar. Not ideal!
The iconic “130R” turn at the Suzuka Circuit in Japan is one of the most notoriously difficult corners in Formula One. Ferrari driver Charles LeClerc took it, flat out, one-handed while holding a broken mirror in place.
That sparked a larger conversation about whether it’s simply too easy to drive an F1 car these days. Not long ago that maneuver would’ve been impossible, before the introduction of power steering. Are we losing something with these advances?
Someone in a Godzilla suit snuck up on race commentator Will Buxton and scared the bejeezus out of him. Oh, Japan. Never change.
The new, mid-engined C8.R Corvette racecar put on a demonstration lap at Road Atlanta. It looks awful fast from this on-board camera view. Sounds the part, too. Can’t wait for the 2020 IMSA season.
The outgoing C7.R Corvette went its entire final season without a win. So driver Tommy Milner sent the decorated car into retirement with an epic burnout.
Race Results
The Bathurst 1000 in Australia remains one of the most extreme races in the world, with stock cars squeezing through tight walls and ridiculous elevation. Highlights here.
Mercedes and Valterri Bottas leapfrogged Ferrari and took the flag at the Japanese Grand Prix, one of the most beloved races of the year. Highlights here.
The win broke a string of bad luck that Bottas typically has in the late stages of the F1 season. He had some choice words for critics who’ve been harping about it.
Two F1 teams were playing footsie on Twitter at the same time their management teams filed complaints against one another for conduct during the race.
The season finale at IMSA, a 10-hour race known as Petit Le Mans, put on a raucous show in front of a jam-packed crowd at Road Atlanta. Just a ton of thundering, gravity-defying racing. I love it. Highlights here.
Ask A Millennial! Spike Chen
There was one magnetic personality that clearly stood out at Nissfest. Chen pulled up to an exhaust contest in his rambunctious, supercharged 240SX and the whole crowd fell silent. Rather than rev it up himself, he prefers to stand on the roof and whoop it up while someone else hits the gas. By the end, he had everyone screaming with delight. Then he issued an open invite back to his paddock for beers and let people sit in the car. That connection is partly how he’s built more than 120,000 followers on Instagram and become an ambassador for aftermarket company Edelbrock. Here’s an edited version of our conversation:
Inside the car it’s relatively quiet, so I don’t feel the energy as viscerally. That’s why I wanted to make an impression, get out of the car and feel it with the crowd. I want to be in the moment with everybody. Their appreciation of automotive culture, and taking time out of their day really amps me up. The driving is fine, but it’s not as exciting as my fan interaction. It’s the cherry on top.
I feel like I have a one-on-one connection with every one of my fans. The thing that’s an innovative step forward for automotive culture is no longer do you have these stuck-up drivers that are not accessible. Now I have fans on a daily basis that reach out to me with car build questions and I want to steer them the right way. The fans vibe on that level — enjoying the experience and then when they reach out to me and I see their car on Instagram I respond and say, “Hey, rad car. That’s amazing.” I love it.
Do I consider it motorsport? I consider it entertainment. This is all a coming together of my passion for cars. The reason why I have over 100,000 followers is because that vibe resonates with everybody here. That level of excitement is not normal, but it should be. Everybody should be able to experience this.
And Finally…
My brain hurts from trying to figure out what they were going for here:
Drive hard and be safe.
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Want your event included? Shoot me a note with subject line “Race Day” at ryan@carrarabooks.com.
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