Thoughts on Gearheads
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 
Have you noticed how many folks are automotive enthusiasts, automotive connaisseurs, automotive experts....yes we are only scratching the surface?
These days it seems that everybody is an automotive "something" or other.
Have you ever wondered how many folks are genuine "gearheads" that get involved and interactive with vehicles (Work on their vehicles, take them apart, put them back together, scraped their knuckles a few times)?
Real "gearheads" don't have to say a word, you just know that they are real!
Have you ever wondered how many folks actually earn a living with vehicles, in one form or another (design, engineer, assemble, repair, sell, service, interface with customers)?
All these folks each one in their own way is a link in the chain to produce a product, and create a customer
Have you ever wondered how many folks are armchair spectators of the automotive industry?
Its very easy today to be an armchair spectator of the automotive industry.
Your thoughts?
Reader Comments (4)
You're right, Tino. There are numerous angles through which people of all stripes participate in the automotive community. "1000 points of light" if you will. All are necessary, but I think some might care more deeply than others.
Consider the mainstream automotive journalist. I suspect there is passion there, but when you read that these guys are often constantly traveling and driving countless vehicles each year, it's not uncommon to see that their standards are ridiculously high. What might be a superb vehicle for the everyman is universally panned because it doesn't live up to their finely honed comparative analyses. Their passion seems to come out in the competitions between models. They strive for apples-to-apples comparisons, but there are a lot of instances where those apples are different varieties. Even so, they create much of the press or buzz, and can make or break a new model. We need quality auto journos. Fortunately, there's a rising tide of avant-garde automotive journalists who let their passion burn through their reviews.
With so many different ways to be an automotive enthusiast, I couldn't possibly share my thoughts on each type you mentioned, but I'd venture to say that we need all the people who are interested in cars and trucks as possible. We need people who believe in the freedom presented by the car; the ability to fuel up and get down the road without restriction.
I like to think of a gearhead as someone who gets his (or her) hands soundly filthy actually working on his machine. Knuckles are busted, clothes are permanently ruined, and swear words abound. The rumble of the exhaust is music to our ears and the wanton liquification of perfectly good tires lifts our spirits.
We are gearheads because, on a certain level, we have a gearbox for a brain. It's probably cast aluminum, tightly packed (or loosely, depending on the gearhead) with rotating gears made of hardened steel, surrounded by a 75W-90 cranial fluid keeping things from burning up. As a rule, transmissions - at least the manual transmissions - aren't the most intelligent piece of kit on the cart, but they are absolutely critical for putting the power to the road. Without gears the engine cannot move the vehicle. In this way, the true gearhead recognizes that he plays a part in a larger whole. It is his responsibility to transmit the power of the global automotive community to the street, to be focused on forward momentum (while retaining the ability to back up once in a while and try again) - to help others develop their own passion for the automobile and to purse their automotive dreams.
Good post, Tino. I love the smell of GL-4 in the morning!
When you are a gearhead for some reason you cannot leave it alone, it has to get reworked, tuned, modified, taken apart, tweaked. I did a review of the Camaro SS, and was speculating what the GM hot cam and modified exhaust would do. This morning I'm reading a test that Hot Rod is doing with a Camaro SS, with the GM hot cam, headers, modified exhaust.
The 85th or even 90th percentile of people are not enthusiasts, are not gearheads, they might read all the reviews as a form of automotive entertainment. When the time comes to acquire a vehicle, all they want is a reliable machine that will commute them from A to B, much like a refrigerator keeps food cold.
Did I mention that it costs money to be a passionate gearhead? If the money is scarce, it requires an incredible amount of ingenuity, resourcefulness, innovation, time.
Often gearheads have a "refrigerator" to go from A to B, and the gearhead machine that consumes all sorts of resources, be it time, imagination, money, socialising with friends. The fascinating thing, today you need the individual that can take a vehicle apart mechanically, and you need the individual that can take "black boxes" apart.
The individual that was good at jetting carburetors, modifying distributor advance curves, had morphed into the individual that connects into the OBD II plug, and fines tunes the "algorithms" of the vehicle.
Now you need a gearhead and a nerd!
Having the 'fridge that gets you where you NEED TO go during the week to support the beast back at the fort is a good idea and definitely makes life easier for the gearhead. I recall frantic Sunday evenings where the daylight was long gone, yet there were still hours of work left to be done, but the car HAD TO be ready to get me to work the next morning. "And miles to go before I sleep." It's a recipe for mistakes and poverty.
As I see it, the true gearhead has an obligation to be a good steward of his automotive community. This 85th or 90th percentile that is so shallowly concerned with little more than looks and price stand to benefit from being more familiar and in-tune with their vehicles. They are, after all, the second largest investment a person makes in his lifetime, right? How might the gearhead impart these values upon the general masses? These are things I struggle with, personally.
The ironic thing is that the vehicle is seen as a symbol of personal freedom and individuality, yet so many people do so little to realize that potential. I'm not suggesting that everyone should stop buying new cars, buy old Volvos and spend every weekend turning wrenches or playing with K-Jetronic Injection systems, but I think that the true gearhead can see those qualities that attracted another person to a specific vehicle and then assist them with those little ideas and projects that will make their ownership of the vehicle that much more rewarding.
The world needs more gearheads. Thankfully, the internet is turning more and more tech-savy types (your term: nerds lol) into gearheads. Hopefully we can teach these new gearheads how to be salesmen for the idea of the gearhead.
One time we started at 8 AM with a V8 short block on an engine stand, and a 6 cyl in the car, by 2 AM the V8 is running in the car. We were 4 or 5 guys on that project, and cars were a little easier to work on "back in the day".
With the immense facility to disseminate knowledge, you would expect more gearheads, since its easier, although the vehicles are more complex. One is either inclined to "fool around with cars" and hone his gearhead skills, or there is no interest, or limited interest.