Sure Horizon

Posts Tagged ‘hot rods’

One of the more interesting parts of travel is the way that things change when they shift from one country to another.  The things that are every day in one’s own home town become entirely strange when they are in another setting.  That’s one of the sources of that feeling of being not quite at home, and it’s most distinctive when traveling.  It’s the kind of thing that can make seals look like sea monsters, or Trabants into hot rods with weld racing wheels.

That might not be entirely fair.  In some part of Eastern and Central Europe, the hot rod culture is actually pretty well-developed, or at least on the rising side of things, and it makes perfect sense that this would be the place where it would start to show up next.  The idea of the hot rod, taking something that was new and shiny, and making it shinier, is the kind of reuse mentality that is so well fed in cultures with experiences of scarcity.  While every culture has some experience of want, some are more wanting than others.  These are the kinds of places that younger tourists tend to flock to, because scarcity does invoke innovation, and that makes its own kind of hipness.

Hot rod culture, with its ready-made nostalgia for the old, along with a love of the new, is often a collection of quotations of things across time and space.  It might not be common to see a Trabant, then, with new cragar wheels, but it doesn’t come as a surprise.  That particular car is the one that seems to have defined the Soviet era, in terms of being entirely useful and not entirely reliable.  The small engine and low horsepower also make it a perfect mark for mechanics and auto enthusiasts to take up the challenge of turning it into a beast on the streets.

To see these new creations from old forms, there are forums where Hot Rod culture in Europe are doing well at representing.  Most of the action is in Germany, but there’s always a fair amount of activities in English speaking countries.  Going deeper in, however, will reveal more innovations and unsuspected creations from the next generation to decide that some of the things of the past are worth quoting, and some are worth throwing off like old skin.  Though the vehicles may look different, and some of the methods for restoration will vary the spirit here is the one that comes from a very elemental heartbeat of the young and the restless.