Street Outlaws

[BH107]

Now they've gone and lost it... Chief unveiled his new "Crowmod" tube chassis car at PRI this morning.

[jayb]

I saw a picture of it, and its ugly.  The show just lost a certain appeal, to me anyway...

[thatdarncat]

There have been rumours for a couple weeks, but with the unveiling today "social media" exploded. I read a few comments and mostly it seemed people didn't like the new pro-mod crow. Bottom line though is wether interest in the show goes up or down. People might hate it but still watch. Kind of like professional wrestling lol.

[Drew Pojedinec]

The show just lost a certain appeal, to me anyway...

Why because these guys that don't have jobs and their wives and kids live in a crappy mobile home while they crash a $50,000 car and three weeks later have another $50,000 car built?  Sounds like reality TV to me

We as a culture like to poo poo the whole "get rich, live beyond your means" kinda lifestyle.  We all talk smack about people living like this, and yet we set up icons for our children that model the exact behavior we claim to despise (all the while, silently wishing we could live such an existence).  Sorry, but folks that run a muffler shop and work 30 minutes a day don't own 1,200hp race cars, so why model the behavior?

I dislike this sort of thing.  I have much more respect for someone as yourself Mr Brown, your cars might be outrageous, but YOU bought and paid for them.  My car may be considerably more tame than your own, but they are mine, the discovery channel didn't pay for them, I paid for and built them.  Anyway, whatever.

[jayb]

Thanks Drew, but my cars aren't nearly as outrageous (or expensive!) as the cars on that show.  A point of pride for me is that despite the money I spend, I do all the work on my cars myself.  I built the roll cages in all my cars, painted them all, built the engines and rear ends, set up the brakes and suspensions, etc. etc.  Checkbook hot rodders don't impress me...

[AlanCasida]

I agree with you 100%, Jay. Mine may not be the prettiest or the fastest but as much work as I can myself and on my Mustang project I am doing all of it. For me building the car is the most fun part, driving it afterwards is just the icing on the cake. 

[ScotiaFE]

I don't know about that Jay, they look pretty pricey from were I'm sitting
looking at my crappy old junk that is as low buck as I can do it. 
Hat's off to you though Jay, you do walk the talk.

[Drew Pojedinec]

Well, in truth Jay your cars are something I could build given the time (aside from the GT500 obviously), but they DO house SOHC engines which are beyond me for the moment.  For me, simply building and installing a 445 in my Galaxie is a 2 year deal, but that wasn't the focus on my post, it was about "keeping it real." 

I would rather watch guys like Cody Ladowski and Dave Early race their very basic cars/trucks with awesome 390's that got built in a dusty shop somewhere, it is much more interesting to me.

I'm with Alan, I enjoy working on/building/testing the cars.
I recently hooked up with a local racer that hates wrenching but loves driving.... it's a win win for us really.

Anyway, I'm wishing they'd bring back the tv show "pass time" as I really enjoyed that.

[cjshaker]

We as a culture like to poo poo the whole "get rich, live beyond your means" kinda lifestyle.  We all talk smack about people living like this, and yet we set up icons for our children that model the exact behavior we claim to despise (all the while, silently wishing we could live such an existence).  Sorry, but folks that run a muffler shop and work 30 minutes a day don't own 1,200hp race cars, so why model the behavior?

Then I hope you don't watch any professional sport like football, baseball or basketball, because they are typically the worst role models, and yet they're millionaire heroes to most.

Is Chief going to be using this car for the show, or is he stepping into IHRA? If the former, it'll be the beginning of the end for the show.

I don't care for checkbook hotrodders either, but everybody has their limitations. There are some pretty competent racers/wrenchers who have engines built for them to be competitive. Guys like Blair can make more power than most builders, and you have to have power to be competitive. I've only had one engine built for me, and that was due to time constraints, which didn't work out anyway. I love building my own engines even though I know there are lots of guys who can build a better engine than me. But if I was trying to be competitive in something like SS racing, I'd have to concede if I wanted to be competitive. Still, it gets frustrating when you can't compete simply because some guys have endless bank accounts. My next project is a drag car that will be 95% built by me. Blair will be doing his magic to the heads and intake, and while I can do the bodywork, I don't have the equipment to paint. But I already know that it's basically just a way to spend my kids inheritance. And I'm ok with that

[JERICOGTX]

The SO guys hardly get paid for the show. They make all their money on appearances and T shirt sales. Guys like Doc and Monza make $5000 for a one night appearance, and sell about 500 T shirts at $25 a crack. They will generally do an appearance 2 nights in a row at close by tracks. Doesn't take long to make some decent money to buy a new car. With the filming schedule getting a new car was a must. No car, no show...  Now they also do get deals and sometimes free stuff from companies. Why do you think everyone on the show wears a sweatshirt with a company name on it? The price of the parts they give the guys is CHEAP advertising.

Set your racing up as a business, and you then have to spend some of that money , or give it away to the government.

Time will tell if ProMods kill the show. Makes no difference to me. I do not have cable/satellite. As long as Drag Week continues, I'll be happy.

Jeff

[57 lima bean]

Where do I order my Jay Brown T-shirts?

[Lenz]

In keeping with the theme, my stuff is modest at best but assembling my own engines and tweaking my cars the way I want them to be is a big part of why I've always done it.  Truth is I flat out enjoy it, it's almost like therapy.  No matter the level you take it to or the dollars spent doing your own work provides a level of satisfaction that matters in my view.

[jayb]

Where do I order my Jay Brown T-shirts?

At the same place where $100 bills grow on trees 

[JERICOGTX]

Need FEPOWER.NET T shirts with a picture of a CAMMER on the back!

[shady]

If I ever get some time freed up, I'ld be happy to do some artwork for you Jay. Gratis, of coarse.