"Nobody wants Model Ts anymore. That generation is gone," I overheardthe man next to me say to his two friends seated on the other side ofthe table. Hmm, I had a pretty good idea what he was going to say next.I've heard this argument for years. I call it the "Youth OrConsequences" myth, meaning youth will be served, and they'll beconsequences for all of us holding certain cars.
The place was the All-Ford Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, lastsummer. Anything and everything Ford can be seen there.
The man continued, "You can buy one of those old Model Ts for next tonothing. Same thing with a Model A." Are you getting the gist of thisconversation? The older generation that loved Model Ts and Model As areslowly passing away. They were the ones holding up that market.
In the same way, when the members of the baby boom generation get oldand quit restoring and buying cars, the market for classic Mustangs willflounder. The next generation (Gen X?) will not want Boss 429s orShelbys, Cobras, Ford GTs, and the like. They'll be lusting after thecars of their youth.
"You think anybody will ever want a Pinto?" one of the men on the otherside of the table asked.
I almost laughed out loud. Imagine this scenario. Generation X getsnostalgic. The car guys go out and buy the popular models they rememberfrom their youth. They can't remember a 427 Cobra. A '67 GT500 with a428 quad big-block is a complete newcomer to them. A Boss 429 soundslike a term at work, not a car. So, they pass over these hot cars and gobuy a smog ride from the '70s or '80s.
I don't think this argument holds water. I mean, look at the '30s Fords.You take a '34 roadster, they're higher than a kite. The street rodmarket eats up these cars. In fact, they're so hot companies reproducethem.
The same thing goes for the cars of the '60s. Yeah, baby boomers lovethem, but I maintain so will the collectors of the generation to follow.It's already happening, and prices sure are not dropping. They're goingup.
What was the old slogan about the Duesenberg classics? It went somethinglike, "As long as men worship beauty and speed . . ." Beauty and speeddon't exactly define an upright Model T. They're antiques. Anything 1928and older is defined as an antique by the Antique Car Club of America.Some people say 50 years makes your car an antique; others say 25. Thisisn't so.
Now some states may define antiques, for license plate purposes, as carsthat are 25 years old. But, they don't fall into this old stodgycategory by car people's standards. Classics are 1929 to 1948 models, asdefined by the Classic Car Club of America. Modern cars begin with the'49 model year, also the year that differentiates rods from customs.Street rods come out of the '48-and-older model years. Customs aremodified cars of 1949 and later.
Recently, rod and custom people have started building ponycars of the'60s. Building an Eleanor out of a '67 fastback is an example. This partof the hobby is so hot right now that a few columns ago we reported on acompany that is going to reproduce the '67 fastback Mustang.
See, the same thing happened with rods when they got to be about 40years old. The cars of the '30s became so popular for builders that thehobby just flat ran out of enough cars to supply demand in the early tomid-'70s. So they made fiberglass bodies for rods.
Today, just about 40 years has passed since the '60s, and we're runningout of Mustangs (e.g., '67 fastbacks) to build. I looked at a '65fastback recently and found a rust bucket that we would have tossed away20 years ago. Times do change.
Meanwhile, the more things change the more they remain the same. There'sreally no historical precedent that dictates the cars we love will passout of favor once the generation that was raised with these modelsdisappears. The ponycars of the '60s are not about to become antiques.They have a youth image. Does the '65 Mustang look like an antique? Idon't think it ever will. Look at a hopped up '34 Ford. Does it looklike an antique? Actually, it looks pretty hot and with modern partsgoes fast, too.
Of course, youth will be served. New generations of collectors are goingto collect later and later model cars. Frankly, I don't see any bigdemand springing up for four-cylinder Pintos. The man at the picnictable mentioned Hondas. Front wheel drive junk? I don't really know howthey will play out in the collector car field. To me, there's a vastwasteland of cars of the '70s and '80-and-up, which are throwaway carsthat just don't look collectable at all. Maybe these cars will be ascollectible as Model Ts when they get old enough.
People remain stunned by the rise in prices of '60s Mustangs and Fords,especially the Shelbys of 1965 to 1970 and the musclecars, such as theBoss 429s and Cobra Jets. So they start guessing the future based on thepast. That's fine. But I can shoot holes in their reasoning.