The Club Turns 10.

A little more than ten years ago I was working as a auto technician, with a small family, one real income and a car. My 1966 Barracuda. There was no money to do anything to the car at the time, so with time on my hands and my newly acquired used piece of modern technology I logged onto the newest fad, the internet, and created a website.

In 1998, this was the cool thing to do. I logged on to AOL with my 14.4 baud modem and created my personal site of family pictures and my Barracuda. Slowly it morphed to a site of just early Barracuda related info, the 1964 to 1966 Barracuda Homepage. I quickly outgrew AOL, switched to a local internet provider and recreated the site as The Early Barracuda Homepage. I added features like a mailing list, a chat room and used a guest book as a simple "want ads" listing. Tech articles were written and archived for future reference for all.

Step into the Wayback Machine for view of The Early Barracuda Homepage in 1999.

As one of the first Mopar related websites and a early member of the Mopar Webring, as well as swapping links with many other sites, the traffic through my site increased. I featured a new "Readers Ride" each month and more and more links to new sites and parts suppliers.

I talked to the guy I asked to be my chat room moderator about an idea I had about taking things to the next level. Well, I paid him a chicken for his time (old joke) and in 2000 we decided to rename the site The Early Valiant and Barracuda Club.

Step into the Wayback Machine for view of The Early Valiant and Barracuda Club in 2000.

This was way before MySpace and Facebook or web 2.0 apps. Before forums, Flickr and blog sites like this one. In the early days of the internet, there was no social networking sites. We had our mailing list, weekly chat nights, a place for people to send pictures of their cars to be displayed for all to see. We helped each other fix their cars by offering advise, technical support and help finding parts.

Step into the Wayback Machine for view of The Early Valiant and Barracuda Club in 2002.

We created our own social network of Mopar automotive hobbyists. An online community that has made it 10 years. Many people offered to help with club operations over the years. Don Hill with our printed newsletter "The Early Connection", Erik Ievins with webmaster and programming duties, Stacey Wisniewski as treasurer and Jeff Kopp with the new mailing list. Many others helped with advise or stories and technical assistance for all our members.

Things are a little different than when we first started, but all-in-all the same sense of community remains and that has been our main goal all along.

This blog post may be a little self serving, but with all the people who have contributed in ways small and large, and all the effort put forth to provide a gathering place for our small section of the collector car hobby, I think it's ok to honk our horn once in a while.

The end of an era?

Its a few days before I will be leaving for the Carlisle, PA event known as The All-Chrysler Nationals and I'm reading an article in Wired about the new Bugatti Veyron convertible. A small car, 1001 HP, 235 mph top speed, 0 to 60 mph in 2.4 seconds and only costs 2.1 million dollars.

Nice car, I'll take two. http://www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_veyron_convertible

It was a line at the end of the article that caught my eye. "We're at the end of the petroleum era, the end of a golden age of supercars where speed can be sought regardless of consequence."

It's the first part of that line, We're at the end of the petroleum era, that got me thinking that it really is the beginning of the end of gasoline fueled cars as we move more toward the alternatives. I guess its the natural progression of improving something as science and technology make new breakthroughs year after year.

The automobile is the same. look at the different improvements since the autos inception. There were no paved roads early on unless you consider cobblestones. The tires and suspensions were designed for dirt roads that turned to mud and changed to accommodate hard paved or concrete roads. Advancements in safety with safety glass and seat belts where there were none. The use of plastics instead of wood products.

Engine and transmission design improved, syncro mesh manual transmissions and automatic versions were developed. Engines got bigger with more horsepower and were adapted for different uses.

Now, cars have gotten safer and get pretty good fuel mileage through the use of computer controls. There is more wire in a modern car than in five Model T's. But with all the improvements, does this mean the end of gasoline cars in the near future? I think Yes.

The current politically correct lifestyle is to "Be Green". So you have people adding solar panels to their homes and wind farms popping up in the mid west and people trading in their Hummer for a Prius.

I think its a good idea to save energy any way we can, and if the "Be Green" lifestyle helps further this its good for all of us. Many improvements over the years have dropped tail pipe emissions bringing us cleaner air. We can debate if electric cars will cause more pollution due to the batteries being made later, everything has waste. Global warming? Not going to get into that either. The goal? Better quality of life for as many of us as possible with the least amount of harmful waste.

Consider the technology we have currently available. Hybrid fuel/electric, all electric and fuel cell. In the next few years there will be more of these cars on the road than gasoline alone powered vehicles as the technologies improve each year. Reliability improves as does the public's acceptance of these automobiles.

It comes down to this. Gasoline cars will eventually become as extinct as dinosaurs, as will the fossil fuels that run them.

In a few days, I'll be looking over a sea of brightly painted warriors of the gasoline era, driving my own battered bruiser to the event, enjoying the smells and sounds of what a car is to me.

I know that this will not be the norm in the future as these cars will be seen as a detriment by some, vile and "un-green" by others and coveted by the rest of us. Will we become shunned for driving our gasoline powered monsters? Will I have protesters at my house because they know I harbor a known polluter?

With gasoline being un-available in the future, how will our kids enjoy these cars? Will they all become trailer queens or will there still be a single producer of gasoline for the collector car hobby. I would hate to see what 86 octane would cost per gallon then.

Yes, I think it is the beginning of the end of the petroleum era, the day the last gasoline only powered car is produced is still a ways off, but that day is coming.

But, as long as there's a gas station and a highway, I'm going to drive my gasoline powered Road Warrior, and you will know it was me when I pass you. You will hear the rumble of wide open secondaries from my engine and the sweet smell of my exhaust!

And don't even try to take my car with your "clunker laws".
"You can have my keys when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers!"

Post Bankruptcy Chrysler

Chrysler has been moving through bankruptcy court at a quick pace and it begs the question, "What will the Post Bankruptcy Chrysler look like?"

Well, all the talking heads have been using buzz words like "Leaner & Meaner" to describe how the company will be, and as usual, they speak without saying anything because no details have been released.

As it stands, there are 11 Dodge models (cars, trucks, SUV's) , 7 Jeep Models, and 6 Chrysler models that were being produced prior to filing for bankruptcy. Post bankruptcy may see a few of those models dropped or consolidated as they move away from larger vehicles toward the smaller more fuel efficient models.

Chrysler needs some small fuel efficient cars to stay in the game and compete with Toyota, Honda and Nissan as well as the other imports getting 30 MPG or better on most of their product line. A quick look at Hyundai models reveals better fuel economy than most of the Chrysler line up. This is where more work needs to be done, making more fuel efficient cars. Chrysler and Dodge combined has only 3 models getting 30 mpg or better with no hybrids and Jeep has 2 models getting 28 mpg with the rest getting 22 mpg or worse . They do have the ENVI cars, 5 models with 3 being readied for production, but none ready for the market as of this post.

Click the link below to learn more about Chrysler's electric vehicles.
www.chryslerllc.com/en/innovation/envi/overview/index.php

Chrysler has produced some really nice looking vehicles and performance has made a come back in recent years, but its a trade off for fuel mileage. People are looking to tighten their budget by saving money with better fuel economy. My 2004 Saturn Ion with 135k miles gets 30 mpg and that's what I drive daily because gas is expensive. The price is already going up! It's not even summer yet and with so many people out of work there is no reason for it other than the oil companies are greedy.

But, I digress. Its for that reason that more fuel efficient vehicles are needed to make Chrysler a viable company in the future. That's where Fiat comes in. Their 500 model is their retro version of a previous model and offers a 1.2L 4 cyl with 46 mpg or a 1.4L 4 cyl with 37 mpg. Not too shabby from a car powered only by an internal combustion engine. By comparison, the 3rd generation Toyota Prius Hybrid is boasting 48 mpg. Right now, hybrid models are pricey. The new 2010 Prius starts at $22k up to $27k. The Fiat 500 is expected to start at around $16k.

Click the link below for more info on the Fiat 500.
http://consumerguideauto.howstuffworks.com/2011-fiat-500.htm

With that info and the initial cost of the vehicle, a first time car owner or someone looking to get out of their older 18 to 20 mpg mini van may lean toward the Fiat model or at least give it a thought. Now we may not see the Fiat 500 in Chrysler or Dodge dealerships until the 2011 model year as they need time to get the parts and other infrastructure in place, but we will see them and other Fiat Specific models to follow.

During that time, new models will be designed buy American engineers and designers for our market based on other Fiat models. The Fiat Linea is a mid sized sedan that could have a Chrysler model based on that platform. It even has features like Ford's Sync bluetooth voice activated software. All of this will only work if they create new Chrysler/Dodge models from the Fiat technology, not just sell re-badged Fiat cars like they did with Mitsubishi in the 80's. Remember the Dodge Colt?

I doubt we will see the Dodge trucks or the Challenger go away soon or any real changes in the Mopar Performance area as this is a smaller segment of the car market. If Fiat sees the value in creating a retro version of their 500, then they appreciate the value of the Dodge Challenger and going back in a company's history to recreate the past. I get the sense that Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne's interest is building up the company as he did with Fiat making that company viable again. Very unlike how Daimler treated and raided Chrysler to the shell it has become. At least Cerebus tried to build it back, but I don't think they counted on the economy tanking like it did.

For all those employed in this industry, I hope for their sake that this deal goes through so the company can stand tall again and keep from losing so many more jobs. To me, this deal feel like the right fit for the companies involved, un-like the earlier proposed GM-Chrysler merger. Had that deal been done, who knows how much worse it would have been.

I guess the upside of a Fiat-Chrysler merger is, since Fiat also owns Ferrari, that the Viper and the F430 will be cousins.
www.ferrari.com/English/GT_Sport%20Cars/CurrentRange/430Scuderia/Pages/Scuderia430.aspx