Which photo do you like better?
Recently there was an editorial posted on The Truth About Cars asking “are new cars ruining old car shows?” It went on to complain in typical “your music is too loud, and get off my lawn” language that the inclusion of new cars (code for “young men”) in car shows was a sign of the apocalypse, the decline of western civilization, or at least really really annoying to old farts.
I decided to write a “rebuttal” of sorts and blasted through it only to find that what I was really arguing against was car museums more than cars shows. The analogy I used was that of dead bugs on pins, and pasty animals suspended in formaldehyde, compared to seeing the real animal, in the flesh, in its natural habitat. Shows are an unnatural habitat for sure, but at least closer to reality than museums. I never finished the editorial, as I had a starter to fix and a rally to run… you know keep MY old car running in ITS natural habitat! Perhaps I’ll revisit it and Mr. Farago will publish once I get the logic sorted out within the 800 word limit. We’ll see. Meanwhile I was perusing my server-stashed stack of old car photos for a CPotD and noted these two photos in close proximity. Two nearly identical cars in two completely different modes of presentation… in a way making my point for me.
The top one is in a museum. The car is buffed to a high sheen, and kept under subdued lighting as if to enhance the shiny condition and leave the viewer in awe. The bottom photo is in a parking lot after a day’s hard running. Bugs, rain, and road grime. I honestly prefer the latter. Even more so when earlier that same day I took these photos of, and from within, the very same car:
Perhaps it was my recent experience at the Blackhawk Collection that has left me feeling this way. Mind you some of those machines are one-offs or things which make no sense to on the road, but seeing them roped off and preserved like dead animals posed by a taxidermist left me cold.
In a way car shows do the same for me. Too much emphasis is placed on cleanliness and untouchability, and not enough on utility, history, and use.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, as perhaps they’ll help me organize mine more coherently.
As you and both your other readers are well aware, I too, feel *quite* strongly about this very issue. To me, a car in a museum is, at BEST, a pinned butterfly. Beautiful, yes but ALIVE? Not really. I like going to car musea as much as the next terminally-ill gearhead but it also leaves me a bit sad, to see those ‘pinned wings.’ Note I pointedly did not say ‘fenders’…..
Animals in cages, or cars in museums, are one and the same, to my way of thinking. It’s why I’m actually *using* my as-yet-to-be-completed E type, and why there are more than a few ‘Jag-Lovers’ who loathe me for it, and partly why I’ve scaled back my participation in the forum. There are quite a few, Chuck, who do not share our value system.
I’d be thrilled to see you complete your essay, for I’d be willing to bet a 3/16ths inch Whitworth wrench that it’d be the ‘ne plus ultra’ of the thesis, that being a semi-scruffy car on the road is worth TWO 100-point trailer queens, in captivity. Of all the car folk I’ve had the good fortune to call friends, you are the one I know who has the background, and brains, to express in words this idea.
“Which photo do you like better?”
In case I wasn’t clear enough in my response, almost *always* a picture of a car with road under its ‘feet,’ will get my vote as best CPoD!
😉
I’m in the “cars are meant to be driven” camp. Since it’s Corvairs and not Delahayes that my family and I daily-drive and race, it’s a little easier to be in that camp. Regardless, automobiles are inherently works of engineering, designed to function, while paintings and sculptures are works of art, thus created to be viewed.
“…automobiles are inherently works of engineering, designed to function, while paintings and sculptures are works of art, thus created to be viewed.”
I agree but would open that up to, cars are *both*. Otherwise, why style them at all? An unstyled JD tractor would suffice, then!
Gordon Buerhig had the best phrase, for cars: “Rolling Sculpture.”
http://tinyurl.com/ls36v4
but sometimes the only time you ever see a giraffe is in the zoo….
of course cars are about sight, sound and motion…
a tricky one…
Jerome
I have lusted after cars in museums.
When I see a car in a museum that I like, I want to take it out for a nice drive. I don’t find myself wanting to write some artsy free-lance article about its design features and iconic status and trends in design vernacular for some architecture rag. I just stare and examine and drool.
So, museums are OK. They would be better if I were King and could just point and say “keys.”