Way too nice to be crushed! Save this Duster (Washington state)

Gotta say I agree with Blu on this one. Seems like 90% of the time someone asks about modern tires or posts a picture of an A-Body with a set of wheels bigger than 15", they get blasted by people for ruining their car. Yet I rarely see anyone from the "big wheel crowd" (as I recall us being labeled) doing the same. Maybe it's just my perception, but it feels pretty unbalanced and has been that way for a number of years.

And if you want people to continue to join the old car hobby, might be best to start accepting that there will be some (a bunch?) of modernization going on. Last time I made it to the big show in Seattle (in Lynnwood, drawing a blank on the name), half the show was made up of modern muscle. There were something like 50 late model Challengers (I counted them) and only something like 10 A-Bodies in total and only one of them in the modified class. The fact that most of the older cars were restorations tells me that the owners were enjoying reliving their youth, which is great. But the lack of younger folk in older cars (all most all the newer cars were younger people) tells me that that people are figuring out modern cars are more fun to drive due to a more planted feel, better acceleration, increased economy and some modern amenities. And without the memories of growing up with these cars, a stock A-Body kind of has some drawbacks that can be hard to overlook. So if anyone expects a younger someone (excluding those exceptional folk like Valiant Princess) to want to drive an A-Body, best expect they will be asking how to make it feel like the Mustang their buddy has or the Challenger they sold.

Truth is, I have one of both (an old and new car) and really struggle with which one I like better. The dream has been to drive Route 66 in my Duster but can't say I would choose it over the Challenger. I have my Duster riding and handling like my 2015 Challenger R/T and am really please with how well it does. Loved driving it into town yesterday afternoon and passing the yahoo who went 7+ over the speed limit to pass me on the straight and then slowed down heading into the curve where I went around him doing the same speed I went into the curve. Love how the car drives right now. At the same time, I really missed the AC of my Challenger as the sweat trickled down my rib cage. And I have memories from this car, too. It was my daily driver from about '93 to '98, so I have fond memories of some of the adventures I had in it, but that doesn't make up for hard seats and no cruise control at 65 mph.

To sum it up, if you like your car original, more power to you. But either accept that there are people that are going to want to modernize their car or admit the hobby is going to die. Cars have gotten way better and without some modernization, older cars will be left to people that want to sit in the grass and talk to other people about their memories. Excluding the select few individuals like Valiant Princess who are a rare breed.