The CAM Journal: Emotion
I’ve written, and re-written this post numerous times, there’s just so much to convey, and I don’t know if I’ve done it any justice, but here it is anyway.
There isn’t a single car that I’ve owned that I haven’t had some form of emotional attachment to, some more than others. I don’t think of cars as ‘things’. It’s the reason my wife never wants to drive my cars, she knows if she damages it, she’s not hurting an item, she’s hurting a member of the family. Yes, I know, at the end of the day, it’s just a car, and human lives are more important, but there is such strong emotion that runs through car-guy(or girl) blood.
How else do you explain someone lovingly babying and modifying a car that most others would consider junk? Why are muscle car’s so popular now? Why spend $30K on a $5K car? It’s all about emotion.
Most often, it is best to think rationally, however with cars, it is near impossible. New brakes, but doesn’t your car already stop? Your car already has wheels, why on earth does it need a different set of wheels? Believe me, I’ve heard that one before. You can’t justify emotions sometimes, you have a burning desire, a need for a car you’ve lost that left you stranded many times. Just yesterday, I was out driving and my car left me stopped in a busy intersection. Yes, it sucked, but for some reason, I loved it more when I got it fired up again and it got me home.
Explanations aren’t necessary to car guys and girls, but to the average person, they deem you crazy for pouring sweat and blood into your vehicle, new or old. Some people throw wheels on their car and then want to join the group, but it is about more than that. If you sold that car tomorrow, would you regret it? Would you do anything to get it back? More times than I can remember, I see posts on forums of people trying to track down a car they sold long ago. They want it back, they want that emotional connection again.
This is the reason car meets work so well, we all have a common theme, an emotional attachment to the hunk of metal we drive, push, or look at on jack stands. This is also the reason I’m proud to call myself a “car guy”.
-Trent Bray
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