Philosophy Friday #3: An Intro to Automotive Romanticism

One of the most popular philosophical takes on the world is romanticism. While too much romanticism can lead to insanity, in healthy doses romanticism can help improve the quality of one’s life. According to Britannica, Romanticism is as an intellectual movement and state of mind with an influence over art, especially literature, popular from the mid-18th century to the mid 19th century, but still with many dedicated followers. To form a well-rounded personality and art, Romanticism remains Paramount in that process. Romanticism rejects rigid society, over-rationalization, upper-class idealism, and opposing outlooks including classicism and rationalism. The romantic view of the world focuses one’s individual experiences, emotions, spontaneous thought, and includes elements of transcendentalism. Basically, romanticism is more focused on feelings than reality, but that is not as bad as it initially appears. Without a bit of romanticism, life is just drab, an endless toil rolling towards death. So how does this apply automobiles and experiences with automobiles? Well, traditionally romantic writers such as William Wordsworth focused on the beauty of nature, but in their day machines were never quite as beautiful in sight, sound, and feel as modern automobiles. If these romantics were here today, I find it hard to think they would object to the romanticizing of automobiles, and one’s driving experience of pure ecstasy.

Automotive Romanticism: An Introduction

I believe every car person romanticizes cars, and often that starts from a young age. That’s another element of romanticism by the way, that kids should be allowed to be free to imagine and be creative as this leads to deeper knowledge and creativity later in life. So how does one come to romanticize cars? For me, the genisis came with my first words, according to stories I’ve been told, was ‘car’. It goes much further though, and my experiences would shape my future taste in cars. Books (and other media), toys, and real life car experiences are what most shaped my future as a fan of automobiles.

Books!

Let’s start with the books. I’m not talking about novels really, but about non-fiction books with lots of pictures and statistics. Most were coffee table style books. Some of my favorites include a large Porsche book called “The Ultimate History of Porsche”, a kids book called Might Machines, “The Ultimate Guide to SUVs”, “50 Years of Classic Cars” by Jonathan Wood, “Hot Cars Cool Rides” by Martin Padgett, “Muscle Car Chronicle”, “The Complete Mustang” by Mike Mueller, and even “Car Science”, a kids book written by Richard Hammond from Top Gear (and now Grand Tour). I spent hours with these books, and more. The pictures were great, and they really helped me get a grasp of automotive history from a young age. For example, the Muscle Car one taught me that all the muscle cars after 1971 turned to absolute cr@p, and that they really only recovered in the 80s with the Ford Fox Body Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro I-ROC Z and Nascar homologation Monte Carlo SS, and most of all the Buick Grand National GNX. It also gave me a well rounded automotive taste. I took particular pride in knowing about the peculiar cars such as the AMC AMX and the Hornet SC/360, and took a particular liking to the Porsche 959, and also the 968 and 911 (993) Turbo. There’s just a nice feeling being enlightened on automotive history. Any normie can say they want to own a Bugatti, generic “Ferrari” or “Lamborghini” they only know by brand name, but wanting a Porsche 959 is not quite as common, but makes sense if you know anything about that car. If someone as smart as Bill Gates will get laws passed to get a car like that, you know it’s good.

Toys

Besides from books, car toys also affected my interest in cars. As a child, I was really into Hot Wheels and other toy car models. I still hold on to these toys, even if I don’t use them like I used to. In the future, I think I would like to have a few car models of cars I happen to like. As I learned from a car guy with one of the world’s largest Hot Wheel collections, you own lots of small cars, because you could never own as many full-size ones and you can still appreciate the car aesthetically this way. I even came close to buying a model of the BMW M1, a personal favorite, at BMW world in Munich, but an Indian man wanted to buy one for his son, and when he asked for the price they told him it was 99 Euros! Anyway, car models help you have a visual representation of many cars you could never own, and that’s definitely a positive.

Personal Experience

When I was born my parents had two cars, a green 90’s “3 door hatchback”, which was in the shape of a coupe with a lift up back, and my mom’s red Subaru Legacy Brighton Wagon which is now mine. My parents also told me about their car history, my dad telling me about his Isuzu Pup, which my parents took all the way out to San Francisco on their honeymoon. That car would eventually go to a junk yard after a head gasket failure which killed the engine. My mom also had a rather interesting car history, mainly because she owned a white Pontiac Fiero, which she describes as being “almost a sports car”. She also apparently owned an Opel, something rare in the US, and a Subaru before the Legacy. I think it was only logical that I fell in love with the Legacy rather than the Hyundai. The Hyundai was cheap, dinky, and ugly compared to the well engineered, beautifully styled, and most of all AWD Japanese Subaru straight out of Indiana. The Legacy was the car we took on trips because it had ample space and could carry a boat on top, which we utilized at least twice. Sitting in the Subaru got cramped with all the camping supplies, but we had everything we needed. The seats were comfortable for the affordable trim level, I’ll always prefer cloth seats to leather any day. Leg room was solid and still, holds up vs. modern sedan and wagons. On the trips, the Legacy’s great visibility allowed me to take in the vibrant Pennsylvania scenery. The mountains and trees of rural Pennsylvania are beautiful and welcoming. Some cars belong in certain places. For a Porsche 911 it may be the Autobahn, for Texas it might be an F150 on a 10-foot lift and for Miami, it may be a nice Ferrari convertible, but for Pennsylvania, it is a Subaru, especially a Legacy or Outback. It fits with Oregon for a similar reason. While those trips were not as good as I remember them, what matters more is that I can enjoy remembering them, and this car does that for me. Sometimes I would sit behind the wheel and imagine jumping the grand canyon in this modest family wagon, but when I discovered the GT models from Japan, discovered my feelings that this was a cool car were not entirely off base. As I got older I formed plans to modify the Subaru, and I still might, and this involved doing an engine swap and performance upgrades. Overall, the Subaru was the first good car I was exposed to and grew to love, and even though its overplayed, one does always have a special place for their first love. Whether I was putting this car in the place of a friend during a difficult time in my life is probably something to be considered, but either way I would have romanticized this fine automobile.

In an automotive world of statistics and specs, it’s easy to lose sight of the immeasurables that make us fall for certain cars. Don’t get me wrong, comparing stats is its own sort of fun I have enjoyed since I got car books, but as an owner, it is more about whether you like the car and have a connection with it. Do you want to be seen in this car and with this car? Does the sound please you? Is it reliable? Is it fun to drive? Do you like looking at it in the driveway? All of these sorts of questions are ultimately more important than just how fast the car is from zero to 60, top speed, track times, or anything else. When you just want a car to enjoy driving every day, I say go with your heart and also your head, but not as much by the specs. You gotta live with it, might as well love it. That’s why we romanticize cars, because of the experience, the beauty in all forms, whether said beauty is in the dependability, speed, sound, aesthetic, or driving feel. It’s not about how your car compares as much about whether you find joy in driving it even with little knowledge of how it feels to drive other cars. It’s a shame some art folks don’t give the automotive experience much credit, they don’t know what they are missing. #blogpost #CarPhilosophyFriday