| The Era of the Muscle-Car & The Social Phenomena of Cruising |
| No story of the History of the Automobile in America would be complete without an in-depth analysis of the Era of the Muscle-Car, and the peculiarly "american" cultural phenomenon that emerged among the "coming-of-age" teen-adult population of the 'so-called' Post-War Baby-Boom Generation. This expression of Adult Human Behavior began to take form all across america in the mid to late 1950's and reached it's full-'flowering' in the mid to late 1970's... ...several years AFTER the first Political Crisis affecting World Oil supplies. If you are under the age of 30, and you have seen the movie "American Grafitti", then you have a slight grasp of what it meant to be an "American" 'coming-of-age' at this time. There was a total "hollowing-out" of life in American Cities during this Era... ...and "looking-good" on the 'journey' to ones' destination, and how FAST one could get there... ...became infinitely moore important than the destination itself... ...or even what one's purpose in travelling might be anyway! Most young people, really had NO- WHERE, in fact to go, and it really seemed not to be the issue anyway. Driving Around... ...in one's Private Automobile was the Pre-Eminent expression of "Conspicuous Consumption"... ...and the most Public Form of Social Behavior among young adults. You can still see the evidence of this "cultural-phenomena" in many towns and cities across america in the form of the drive-thru restaurants. Most "cities" and "towns" by this time had "planned-strips" designed for the expressed intent of "cruising"... ...ussually, they were several miles in length, and they had a drive-in restaurant at each end of the strip which functioned as a "turning-around" point for all of the participants in the Sheet Metal Parade. (It would not have been unnusual, on a typical night of cruising, to accumulate a full hours' worth of just 'waiting-in-line' at the 'turn-around' points!) Naturally, these "restaurants" also served as 'refreshment' islands, and social gathering places, but the participants seldom felt the need to get out of thier cars during the chase, and most social-intercourse took place thru the open windows of vehicles. Drive-In's customarily 'delivered' the food directly to the car window, where a metal tray was hung onto the partially open driver's window. This was really just a temporary diversion from the cruise itself, and was not really the purpose of leaving one's house, for these were not "destination" restaurants... ...they were 'bare-bones' high-volume parking lots with tiny cramped kitchens for the workers, who often had no more square footage to perform thier duties than was required by a single parked automobile. it was not exactly a "fun" place to work! Sonic is one of the few surviving restaurants of this type. Obviously, Detroit was well aware of this popular form of 'entertainment' among the youth, and began to design a whole 'Market-Segment' of cars aimed exclusively at this sector of the population. Most of them were some variation of a typical two-door sedan, but what they all possessed which really set them apart from the crowd was a significant increase in engine size. Fuel efficiency was the last thing on the Engineers mind, when it came to the Muscle Cars. There was a great NEED FOR SPEED in the country, and Detroit was only too happy to provide. Why not? People had been doing it for themselves for years! |
| This page is maintained by Bryan Denbecke and was last modified on 2002.09.28.16:30 I am solely responsible for it's content. If you have any questions, or comments about the subject matter, feel free to contact me at: [email protected] |
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