I wholeheartedly agree: Monster truck stadium shows are once-in-a-lifetime events—as in, see one, and you’re good for life. That said, they’re hugely entertaining, and I’m glad I went.

Other things I would recommend in the “see at least once and you’re good” category:

1/ A major sporting event where the fans believe something is at stake, like the run-up to the playoffs. In the U.S., baseball tickets can be had for reasonable prices in small markets late in the season, and the seats don’t matter. You want to experience the emotion and energy firsthand. Unlikely to turn you into a fan, but the experience will be one you think on for years to come.

2/ A live sporting event where the outcome makes no difference, like your local minor league team. Again, seats don’t matter—you want to feel the buzz and sense of community.

3/ Amateur musical theatre. The on-stage talent is often top-tier, while the rest of the production is endearingly amateurish. But the enthusiasm, honesty, and agenda-free earnestness of the production will make you love people a little more.

4/ Opera…

You get the point. Any endeavor where a group of people dedicate huge energy—often their lives—into making a show, along with their incredibly enthusiastic fans, is worth your time. Also, sometimes you can get corn dogs or drink wine out of a plastic cup.

Hard disagree. The aftermarket is stronger than ever.

V8s have been replaced by turbo engines which respond much more dramatically to modifications than any N/A V8.

There are numerous enthusiasts cars to pick from across manufacturers.

Tuning companies operate globally. People get their tunes from obscure companies in Europe.

ECU protections are being cracked regularly. Even “unhackable” ECUs are getting tunes year after year.

Stick shift options are available on a lot of enthusiasts cars. They’re slower, but people can get them if they want.

I’ve been hearing talk about the death of the car aftermarket for a decade, but every time it’s really just someone lamenting that it’s changing. I think people just get upset when the car scene of their younger years is no longer the popular scene (Mustangs and Camaros with V8s and stick shifts)

Lastly, the younger generations aren't into cars as a hobby/culture like the previous ones were. They don't drive as much and view cars as more of an appliance

I think this was true of the last younger generation, and prob me and maybe you, but from what I’m seeing, TikTok is making anything and everything cool to the youths, particularly trade type jobs. They are realizing how much money there is to be made because our generation didn’t want the work and are embracing the opportunities because the videos they are watching are making it look cool.

There is a reason the younger generations aren't into cars. There are less places to go to, shopping is online now, car parks and shopping malls are dying.

Public transport is getting better or less worse than it used to be, owning a car is getting a lot worse with taxes and higher cost, insurance through the roof, particularly for the models you've pointed out.

Finally, their buying power is a lot lesser than it was 1 generation ago when it came to "projects".

Demand is lower for ludicrous vehicle, mostly because of the rest, leading to ever less silly cars being produced or designed.

Overal, sadness.

the last point, isn't applied to all youth as a homogenous group, but I think its largely economic and interest car culture will return when the economics make sense.

> She's at the level that you might expect to find a long interview with her in the New Yorker.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/30/rachel-kushner...

Increased it? If you want more power you tune for E85.

Hell ethanol is rocket fuel.

Power hasn't been a problem in racing for decades now. All the major racing circuits, from F1 to NASCAR, have power limits in some form. It's maintaining ground contact that's hard.

There was an electric dragster, the Lead Wedge, in 1969.[1] It was really crude but performed OK. There was enough unhappiness about an electric doing so well that the sponsoring battery company didn't do it again. Their main customer was auto companies.

The fastest motorcycle is currently an electric.[2] Somebody took it up to Alice's Restaurant above Woodside and drove Skyline on it. Which is a scary thought, if you know the area.

[1] https://www.hotrod.com/features/batteries-and-a-salt-februar...

[2] https://newatlas.com/lightning-ls218-review-ls-218/36470

You are absolutely right about electric cars and how fun it is to drive them. I just want to make the obligatory statement that street racing is very dangerous for innocent people and nobody should do it or encourage it.

> The article is mostly focused on race tracks, and especially drag racing. But to me "hot rodding" explicitly means street racing.

Hot rodding about fast cars. Racing doesn't need to come into the picture at all to have a hot rod.

In my experience, they’re lots of fun... in a straight line, to a point. I haven’t driven one that turns or stops as well or as “connectedly” as pretty much any enthusiast ICE car. And yes they have instant torque off the line with very good traction control, which makes them much faster at drag strips than most ICE cars, until you get to purpose-built dragsters that are putting down just as fast 60 foots making the same (or more) power but while weighing a few thousand pounds less. Until batteries get waaaaay lighter (like, 2-3 orders of magnitude), I really don’t see them as the future of fun cars.

Yup--electric performance vehicles are unreal when you first give one a try. I test drove a Ford Lightning this week and it is ridiculous what a 7,000-lb vehicle can do with that powertrain (to the point where honestly maybe it should require a CDL to drive). Just for kicks I also tried a Mach-E, which was the same kind of zip but without the novelty of being in a three-ton monster. Both felt glued to the road and they were real pleasures to drive.

I really wanted to pull the trigger on the Lightning, but it really was Too Big (won't even really fit in my driveway). Instead I picked a PHEV Escape SUV that'll become my wife's in 4-5 years (so we retain gas ranges on at least one vehicle) and I'll reevaluate what I can get in electric then. The Escape PHEV, however, has all the other advantages except the instant torque; I've never had a vehicle so able to finely control power and the eCVT smooths out the kind of lagging a conventional transmission has on hills and the like. Using zero gas for an hour-long drive is a nice plus, too.

The future of cars, including and maybe especially fast cars, is exciting.

Amecdotally, I was behind a Tesla 3 performance at a recent track day; it was lowered on eibach springs, but had more mass than my stock height 2004 bmw 3 series.

It couldn't handle the Gs on a slightly negative camber straight, as opposed to I could floor it there. I definitely expected it to clear me on the straights faster.

>>And in street racing, and driving fast responsive cars in general, electric is the future.

Street racing is entirely too dangerous and of course illegal. You don't have to race to take part in the street scene, which in that scenario the actual power to weight ratio is somewhat irrelevant in itself. What is relevant to me, personally, is the ambience that surrounds a supercharged radically cammed V8 rumbling down the street. That will give me goosebumps every time. The power is in it's growl, not necessarily it's bite. I don't know how you replicate that in an electric vehicle and I think that feeling transfers to the racetrack as well. I would rather watch a 3-4 second top fuel race rather than a 2-3 second electric car race.

Oh yeah if you ever do happen to catch one of those top fuel events don't miss watching them rebuild the engines and the 'let's make sure it runs' startups. The fumes will cause tears in your eyes and your lungs will hurt but it's as good or better than the actual race.