stand alone muscle car community?

So your saying bringing all the different forums together under one on a grander scale than this section? Corvette, Mustang, Camaro, ThirdGen, Viper, etc? Oh the infighting would be epic! One stop shop for all.

 

I like the idea, but it seems like the musclecar community may be in for a decline, with the baby boomer generation starting to age out of buying and selling them. My kids don't have the car bug I have, and I don't see the Gen X kids buying them in mass.

I see the 50's Chevys ,etc, going for less each year, and other than really rare cars, that will hit musclecars as well.

That doesn't mean there aren't enough of us boomers out there that still live and breathe cars, so it may be worth doing.

 

It may be easier/faster to buy existing specific forums and combine them. From what I'm seeing, the make-specific forums are getting shredded by Facebook and similar. They also have a demographic problem -- most classic musclecar enthusiasts are grey-beards and will soon be hotrodding their wheelchairs.

Don't forget the new generation musclecars. There's a gazillion Challengers and Mustangs on the road today. I'm just not sure how much customization/improvements are made on these outside of audio systems and LEDs.

 

Even the non make-specific forums are in that group. The photobucket fiasco did not help either. I am a fan of "build" threads and there are fewer here on f-chat and elsewhere because of facebook and other social media.

 

Seeing this happen in the PNW too; marque clubs not showing their muscle as much these days......because the owners all have grandchildren to deal with! A favorite showroom is not moving the '50's to ''70's metal as much as 2 years ago. Which might even argue for a greater online presence.......

 

I think you would have more success with a Japanese car forum, although possibly more competition.

Something tells me that muscle cars are going by way of Harley and Cadillac.

 

I have a couple of thoughts.
1) Because I live in a city, most of the car people I know have one or two collector cars and they are brand specific. Likewise, they tend to be active on brand specific forums. I don’t see them being active in a catch all forum even if it was clearly divided.
2) I agree with rdefabri, the Japanese/tuner car culture is much more active than the classic/vintage car culture.
3) I think both the muscle and vintage car market and culture will rebound. I’m Gen X, and like most of my generation, we’re still paying our kids’ tuition bills. So while I do agree that most of my generation has little interest in old cars, give us ten years and we’ll start buying more toys.
4) Don’t trust my opinions Rob, go with your gut. You clearly saw a market with Fchat and built it from nothing. If your own car passions tell you there’s a market, there is. Not to mention, I’m the moron who passed on Apple in 96 when it was under $3.00 a share so clearly I have no idea what the market wants.

 

Rob - any relevance to the HAMB? Not marque-specific, but genre-specific. Still going like a house afire.......

 

As a general rule, I agree with you that people who own vintage Ferraris are not brand specific when it comes to their collections. What I meant by brand specific was their forums. E.g. I have a Ferrari and a Mustang. I’m on Fchat and two Mustang forums. I rarely go to the Porsche, corvette, Mopar, etc forums except to do research for a replacement car.
Most of the people I meet at car gatherings in the Chicago area respect other makes, but they’re really only into their own. FuelFed car club is an exception and a good example of your point. Their focus is pre 1990 European cars, but three times a season they allow classic domestic cars, which most of the regulars have as well. OTOH, if I go to Supercar Saturday, people gather almost exclusively with their brand. This is what I see with muscle car forums. The mustang forums are great for tech tips but the conversations tend to devolve into my stang beat this vette, Camaro, etc Likewise, I find very little crossover conversations into other interests on the mustang forums.
In reference to your original question, I guess what I’m trying to say is, why not just expand the current American Muscle sub forum to be its own site linked with Fchat? The layout and feel of your site are much more user friendly than many others and I’m not just blowing smoke up your wazoo. St—-g.net has a dreadful layout. Mus——.net is slightly better but no where near as clear as Fchat. I could give other examples, but I’m pretty sure you’ve experienced the same frustration on other forums. Likewise, the crossover conversations on Fchat also tend to be welcoming and interesting.

 

+1 agree

 

I like the idea and agree the best choice would be to allow a direct link from Ferrarichat for members of Ferrari chat to allow us to get into it without having to deal with all the other sites.... I am on Ferrarichat and a Porsche site, a corvette site , and The hull Truth boating.. However I am far more active on Ferraichat ....
I have Ferraris , Porsches , corvettes , and Mustangs over the years.....love all the new stuff coming out I am an old guy and I am starting to tire of the old muscle cars ...even just sold my last Shelby mustang a 1966 GT350 ....of course still have my 67 427/435 corvette forever
anyway like the idea of a American car (ferrarichat type forum )....link from here for us old guys....

 

The more I think about it the more I think you should have a resto mod theme for all brands. Not the standard old 196x fill in the blank restored. Its too over played and too over done. I am 51 and never owned a 60's car and I am your market target. I was in high school in the early 80's. We wanted the 83 Camaro and Mustang. Not something from the 60's. Catch the wave now because I know my generation will be increasing the demand for 80's cars that have been redone. We also appreciate the 60's cars but not in stock form. Bash me if you want but we are the buyers of today and the future. Our dad's are not.

 

A "modified" section of each sub-forum would be great in a muscle car forum. From simple "resto-rods" (otherwise restored cars with updated engines, brakes, etc) to full on "Pro-Touring" cars, modified and "updated" muscle cars are a big thing.

I had an idea for a similarly themed magazine once, I thought the name "Combustion" would work well.

 

Look at Asian/Japanese cars. Lots of tuner boards, not so many places that appreciate them for what they were stock. I think that there's going to be a lot more interest in the stock Supras, MR2, Honda CRX, early Tiburons, similar stuff from the 90s. Also, as mentioned above, Fox body Mustangs and Gen 3 Camaros are underappreciated.

Other collector niches are an issue because the folks are dying. 50s cars are fading a bit, and you never see the Model A clubs rolling around like we did back in the 80s. The muscle car thing is big because those collectors are my Dad's age, or maybe mine as a trailing enthusiast.

Where I see the young folks are the rat rod territory.

 

Are you looking to recreate FerrariChat.com in a variety of formats/makes? FC is pretty unique in the chat room/forum world, at least in my experience. It has a different feel than most of the other sites I visit.

Different clientele, different in that even the most manufactured models are extremely limited in volume vs. almost any other brand, and different in the broad appeal the cars have, even to the least initiated into the brand. Ferrari is like a flame for car moths.

"muscle cars" is a broad category, not a brand at all. Sure, tons more folks to talk to, but do FORD muscle car guys talk a lot to PLYMOUTH muscle car guys, etc? When you go to a "muscle car" swap meet, sure, there are all brands represented, but do individual vendors specialize or generalize?

I'm just thinking "muscle cars" is a wide pool to swim in without finding some way to draw folks in to talk and stay/interact.

Much as I hate saying it, P&R keeps a lot of traffic here. What's the muscle car equivalent?

I'm not gonna spend any time in a muscle car forum, even though I have owned some, and I love them, it's not a topic I'd like to chat about much with a bunch of other car guys. Same applies for Mercedes. I own one, but the only time I head to the Merc forum is to look for specific answers to technical issues I'm having, or to find a reference for a part I might need. FC is really the only car forum where I talk cars, and other stuff. Some of that is familiarity, I've been here forever, but some is the flavor of the site. Hard to recreate that, so you need a different recipe each time you try to pop another one of these out.

D