Classic Cars: Driving the American Dream – The American Spectator

The Classic Car Show in downtown Hastings, Minnesota, is a summer tradition. Every third Sunday from May through September, cars and trucks manufactured before 1985 (a few years after I was born, so I can refer to myself not as old, but “vintage”) converge on the town’s partitioned-off main drag. The cars and trucks gleam with the same pride in their craftsmanship as the owners. Universally glorying in the glory reflecting from their machines, they come from a variety of backgrounds: the retiree who rebuilt his teenage ride — and high school glory, a businessman who has a passion for mechanics and 1960s Chevrolet Corvettes, college sweethearts who still have the 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 in screaming Grabber Blue. Even parked on the street, the Boss looked like it was going 137 miles per hour.

Amidst these automobiles and their owners, one is reminded of a muscular America in motion. When these cars ruled the road, people shared a common culture, optimism, and fearlessness. America’s unique car culture emphasizes the open road and the freedom it brings. America’s mid-century cowboys didn’t ride horses; they drove Ford Mustangs. 

American Century, American Dream

The automobiles of the 1940s through the ’70s were testaments to the American Century when the American Dream was being realized by families in a post-WWII era. The oversized fins, glossy vinyl interiors, chrome finishes, and V-8 motors were born of American ingenuity, and the Detroit factories and designers that constructed these behemoths worked from a place of optimism and an unblinkered vision for the future. Families set out to see the four corners of their country, with motels, highway diners, and tourist traps like Wall Drug eager to host them.

I fear that as these cars become increasingly rare, existing largely as nostalgia-tinged memories, so too will the America that created them, or at least any belief in it. These classics represent a moment in history that cannot be replicated by today’s dull, timid vehicles. Due to federal regulations and environmental standards, most cars and trucks are indistinguishable from each other, lacking the ostentation or unique characteristics that make classic cars so fun to look at and drive. And with the increasing number of electric vehicles on the road, the distinct roar of powerful internal-combustion engines is also fading. (READ MORE: EV ‘Emissions’ and AM Radio)

While the look and sound of America’s mid-century legacy automobiles may belong to the past, so too does their more distinguishing tactile characteristics. Like full-service gas stations of the era, manual transmissions are more likely to be found in a museum than on the open road. Stick shifts are facetiously referred to as anti-theft devices. Foreign to many people driving today, manual window cranks and headlights ensured an electric failure wouldn’t prohibit a rolled-down window, a mirror adjustment, or being able to move a seat. What couldn’t a wrench do? Now we need a multimeter to open a car door. Cigarette lighters were standard. Everything under the hood was accessible and beautiful — synchronized steel.

Our Oxidized Age

In the upper Midwest, where vintage cars, trucks, and motorcycles spend at least half of the year in storage due to the harsh winters — the natural enemy of these steadfastly preserved treasures — seeing one on the road is usually confined to the warm summer months when the threat of salted roads and slush-covered potholes is reduced (but never nonexistent). There exists no end to the threats to these machines — road debris, accidents, and deer do their worst — but beauty resists destruction and oxidation so long as there are those willing to share the dream and tend to the project’s maintenance. (READ MORE: Cybertruck vs. DeLorean)

Hope lies in everyone who admires and appreciates these testaments of the past. When people catch a glimpse of chrome and feel the horsepower of the cars passing by, they see a reflection of the pride and adventurousness that still cruises the streets. So with the smell of hot dogs and brats roasting on backyard grills permeating the atmosphere and the afternoon baseball game alternating between mellifluousness and elation on garage radios, it’s prime drive time for classic automobiles.

Like the scents and sounds of summer, the vision of seven-decades-old American steel smoothing out the roads on white wall tires belongs to these golden days. I was recently fortunate enough to park beside a 1964 Navajo Beige Ford Ranchero on an outing to the grocery store with my son. As the Ranchero cruised away, its lucky driver and I shared a knowing smile. He was proud of his mint-condition ride, and I was thankful that people are still passionate about preserving this vital slice of American history.

Jenna Stocker is editor and publisher of Thinking Minnesota, the quarterly magazine from the Center of the American Experiment. She is a former Marine Corps officer, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, and an enthusiastic Midwesterner.

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